How to disable driver digital signature verification in Windows? How to disable driver digital signature verification in Windows Disabling driver signatures in the Windows 8 registry

Sometimes, with old drivers, this problem occurs; due to blocking, they cannot be installed. If desired, this protection can be disabled and you can safely install an unsigned driver. Now we will look at how to disable driver digital signature verification in Windows 8 and install unsigned drivers

Disable driver digital signature verification

Before you proceed with the steps described below, you should be clearly aware that by installing unknown software, there is a high risk of putting your system (and the integrity of your data) at risk. Therefore, you perform all actions solely at your own peril and risk, subject to clear confidence in the safety of this software.

The need for a digital signature appeared in Vista. But in this system, as in Windows 7, a regular warning is displayed, in which there is an option to allow the installation of unknown software. But starting with Windows 8, the warning firmly prohibits installation and there are no buttons to cancel it. At first glance, it may seem that installing such a driver is generally impossible. In fact, there will always be loopholes.

Disable signature verification through boot options

Signature verification can be disabled in the boot options menu. To open it, simultaneously press the Win+I keys, and in the menu that opens, click on “Change PC Settings”. In the next window, click on the “General” tab and click on the “Restart Now” button. After this, the computer will immediately reboot and when the system starts, a menu with boot options will appear. By the way, you can also get to this menu by rebooting from the command line as an administrator:

shutdown.exe /r /o /f /t 00

In the menu we must open the “Diagnostics” section (Troubleshoot).


And in it click on “Advanced Startup”.

After that, select Startup Settings.
Then click on the “Restart” button.

The computer will now restart again, after which a new menu with boot options will appear. We need to select the seventh item “Disable driver signature enforcement”. It disables driver authentication. To select it, press F7, or the 7 key, on your keyboard.
After activating this option, Windows 8 will boot in a mode that allows you to install drivers from an unknown publisher. When you start installing such a driver, a dialog box will appear on the screen in which there will be a warning that it is impossible to check this software.

Select the second item “ Install anyway this driver» (Install this driver software anyway). The installation of the unsigned driver should then begin. After this, we reboot and boot the system in its normal mode. Checking how the newly installed driver works

If nothing worked with the previous method, then there is another trick that allows you to install drivers without a signature. Systems such as Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 provide a special “test mode” or “Test Mode”. You can install any software in it, even if it is blocked in normal mode. But this mode of operation is also associated with increased danger. In debug mode, the risk of disrupting the normal operation of the system or infecting it with malicious software increases significantly.

For a 64-bit operating system, this is done as follows. Launch the command line as administrator and enter the command:

bcdedit.exe /set nointegritychecks ON

bcdedit.exe /set TESTSIGNING ON

After that, immediately enter this:

bcdedit.exe /set loadoptions DDISABLE_INTEGRITY_CHECKS

Watch the messages in the terminal carefully. After completing each step, a confirmation of the successfully completed command should be displayed.
Now restart your PC and try to install the problematic driver. After the reboot, pay attention to the bottom corner of the screen, near the clock. There should be a message saying that Windows 8 is running in test mode.

Windows 8 has a special security module installed that is responsible for blocking the process of installing drivers on your computer without a digital signature. What's the point? In fact, such a firewall provides reliable protection for your PC from Trojans, spyware and other unwanted programs. It would seem that the advantages are obvious. However, such a precaution is unlikely to fit into the plans of users who need to update the software of outdated devices. In this case, the only thing left for them is to disable the verification of its signature in OS Windows 8 during driver installation.

You can perform a similar procedure in several ways. However, regardless of the method chosen, to disable driver digital signature detection, you must make sure that the software installed on your computer does not contain a virus or any other threat to the system, otherwise the consequences may be very unpredictable.

Method number 1: Disable via boot options

In order to disable digital signature verification for one specific driver in OS Windows 8 once, the easiest way is to reconfigure the system from the “Boot Options” menu. To do this, use the +I key combination to open the “Options” tab in the Charm Bar. After that, press Shift on the keyboard and, holding it down, click the “Shutdown” button and select “Restart” from the menu that appears:

Now open the “Diagnostics” section, find the “Advanced parameters” item in it and click on it with the mouse:

As a result, the “Download Options” window we need will appear. Now the only thing left is to press F7 or just the number 7 on the keyboard to disable checking the installed driver for a digital signature on our computer in Windows 8:

It is worth noting that disabling security mode is only valid for one PC session. This means that the next time the system is rebooted, the process of blocking unsigned drivers in Windows 8 while they are being updated will be automatically activated. In this case, all previously installed, working “firewood” that does not have a digital signature will not be affected.

Method number 2: Disable using the gpedit.msc command

In the event that you need to install several unsigned “firewood” in Windows 8 at different times, it is more logical to completely disable the digital signature detection function through the Local Group Policy Editor. In order to run it, press +R on the keyboard, set the command gpedit.msc for the “Run” utility that opens and click the OK button:

The next step is to open the “User Configuration” folder in the menu on the left in the system window that appears, select “Administrative Templates” in it and go to the “System” section. After that, go to the “Driver Installation” folder, find the “Digital signature...” parameter in it and double-click on it with the mouse:

The ability to disable driver signature verification in Windows 10 can expand your ability to connect additional equipment. But don't forget that this can harm your PC!

What is digital signature of drivers on Windows 10 and why is it needed?

CPU is a special attribute of an electronic document or a label embedded in the program. It allows you to uniquely identify the owner. When it comes to drivers, its main purpose is to determine whether it is licensed and whether any changes have been made to it.
Digital signature is used not only to combat piracy in IT, but also to protect users from hacking, attacks and other troubles associated with the digital environment. The developers of Windows 10 have prudently built into the OS automatic analysis of all downloaded and installed content.

Disable Windows 10 driver digital signature verification

Before you disable digital signing of Windows 10 drivers, evaluate the security of your actions. Are you sure of the source from which you download and install new software? If yes, then we offer different options.

Method 1: Download Windows 10.

This only works once. The next time you reboot, digital signature verification will be enabled again. So what you need to do:

Method 2: Command line.

Here you can disable verification permanently. Follow these steps:

Everything should work. In the lower right corner you will constantly see a reminder that verification is disabled.
You can turn the check back on with the command bcdedit.exe -set TESTSIGNING OFF.

Method 3: Local Group Policy Editor.

This method is only suitable for owners of Windows 10 pro, since you cannot disable digital signature verification using the editor in the home version - it is simply not there. If you have the extended version, do the following:

So, we looked at how to disable mandatory driver signature verification in Windows 10 in different ways. We would like to remind you once again that all of these actions put your computer at risk. So be very careful.

Starting with Windows 7, for security reasons, Microsoft developers introduced mandatory driver certification. Each driver released by a third-party developer must undergo special testing in the Microsoft laboratory. If the verification is successful, the driver receives an appropriate signature, so it can be installed on the system. As for unsigned drivers, you cannot install them directly, and if you try to do so, Windows will display a message indicating that the file may be corrupted or tampered with.

However, such protection is not any serious obstacle to the installation of drivers that do not have the appropriate digital certificate. So, just today we will get acquainted with a simple way to turn off this very driver signature verification. In the eighth version of Windows this is done as follows. First of all, we need to get into the boot options subsection. To do this, open the Windows console with administrator rights, and then enter and run the following command:

In this case, the computer will reboot, and you will be taken to the action selection menu. Click Diagnostics -> ;

Restart the computer again by pressing the button.

After the system restarts, you will see a menu with boot options. That's exactly where the line should be. She is the seventh in a row.

To boot Windows with this option, press the 7 or F7 key. Now if you try to run the installation of the left driver, the OS will also display a message, but this time it will be a simple security warning. Just select and the stubborn driver will return to normal mode, at least it should be so, and all you have to do is reboot again and check its functionality.

However, it cannot be ruled out that it will not be possible to install an uncertified driver this way. In this case, you can try another method. Windows 8 has a special "test operating mode". Working in this mode, you can install almost any software, including drivers that do not have a Microsoft certificate. You can activate it as follows. Open a command prompt as an administrator and run these two commands one after the other (for a 64-bit system):

bcdedit.exe /set nointegritychecks ON
bcdedit.exe /set testsigning ON

Each executed command must be accompanied by a message "Operation completed successfully". Now close the console, and restart your computer. If everything is done correctly, the inscription should appear in the lower right corner of your watch "Test mode". Now you can try installing the unsigned driver again. After installing and testing the driver, do not forget to exit test mode. To do this, you need to run the same commands, but only the flag ON( included) replaced by OFF ( turned off) .

Technically, working in an operating system running in debug mode is no different from working in "normal", however, firstly, such a configuration is generally not supported by Microsoft, and secondly, it reduces the level of security and increases the risk of critical system errors.

Tags: ,

Installation of drivers for new hardware usually occurs as usual, but sometimes the installation brings surprises and you have to get more sophisticated. In certain cases, you may need to disable driver digital signature verification in Windows 7, Vista, XP, 8/8.1. 64-bit Windows operating systems perform this check in mandatory mode.

Attention! Disable developer digital signature verification only if you are sure that the driver you are installing comes from a trusted source.

Disable in Windows 7 and earlier

Using the keys Win+R open the utility Execute and enter gpedit.msc. Click OK and if a window with an error message appears on the screen, then you have one of the initial versions of Windows 7 installed. The problem can be resolved by installing the Group Policy Editor yourself, details. After installing the editor, we repeat the algorithm given above. In the utility Execute enter gpedit.msc- The "Local Group Policy Editor" window will open.

The further algorithm is as follows. Go to the section "User Configuration" → "Administrative Templates" → "System" → "Driver Installation". Open the "Digital signing of device drivers" parameter and set the value to "Disabled". Click "Apply", "OK" and restart the computer.

Disabling without using gpedit.msc

If the above option does not suit you for some reason, it is possible and advisable to use the second method. When you turn on the computer, before Windows starts loading, press the key F8. The operating system boot menu will open - select " Disabling mandatory driver signature verification" and press Enter. If instead of a menu you immediately boot into Windows, turn off the computer and try again.

This OS boot mode will allow you to install any drivers, but after restarting the computer, signature verification will be enabled again, however installed drivers will work. If you need to install new drivers, you will need to boot the OS again in disable scanning mode.

Disabling scanning in Windows 8/8.1

Disabling driver digital signature verification in Windows 8/8.1 is similar to the previous method, but has its own peculiarity due to the lack of a standard F8 menu. So, the keyboard shortcut Win+i bring up the options panel and select holding down the Shift key.

Next, before turning off the PC, you will need to press several menu buttons. In the first dialogue we select Diagnostics, in the second Extra options, in third Boot Options, in the fourth, without selecting anything, press the button Reboot.

After the restart, an analogue of the F8 menu will appear, in it you need to press F7, thereby choosing: 7) Disable mandatory driver signature verification. After this, the operating system will boot into a mode that allows you to install any driver.