This parameter, which according to the motherboard we find ourselves with more than one available option, is one of the most painful headaches that users have when installing Windows, because it is so connected to both the operating system and its HDD or SSD.
So it's easy to know carefully its functions to save us from headaches.
CSM or Support Support Module: interoperability in older installations
He Compatibility support module or CSM Its reprint in English is a tool that is still in use today because of the need to support MBR episodes for each type of motherboard.
This is available as an old BIOS so it only happens on motherboards via UEFI. Therefore, it is only part of today's original UEFI HDD or SSD containing partitions MBR such as a boot drive, that is to support operating systems before Windows 10.
This module is usually enabled by default, so our current board can run Windows without any problem, regardless of version.
Somehow in this case, it turns out that the last pure BIOS accepted GPT's initialization capabilities over MBR, because once it was converted to UEFI, it was the feature that started the feature but the exact opposite of where CSM was born.
Several configuration options are available
Each motherboard and platform are fed with more or less CSM options. In the meantime, and due to the old hardware requirements still in use today, manufacturers have 4 configuration components:
- Control devices with activation functions.
- Start of network devices.
- Boot from storage devices.
- Boot from PCIe devices.
These options can be displayed or not, in its entirety or in a small configuration, depending on each manufacturer, by offering greater or less options to its users, so it's important to know what kind of motherboard and platform we prefer if we want to use older boot-sized hardware.
There is a case that if we want to format our PC and our EFA rather than CSM, this feature is linked to the system boot. If we disable a secure boot or show that the OS is not Windows with UEFI, we will have to work with CSM dynamically.
The problem is that we can't use it GPT and OS will be customized with MBR. So, we have to look at these details when, for example, we modify the SSD and decide to clean and install Windows from scratch.
