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Windows 10 won't let me install the driver. Installing drivers without a digital signature

Sometimes problems can arise when installing absolutely any driver. One of them is the problem with checking the digital signature of the driver. The fact is that by default you can install only software that has a signature. Moreover, this signature must be verified by Microsoft and have an appropriate certificate. If such a signature is missing, the system simply will not allow such software to be installed. In this article we will tell you how to bypass this limitation.

In some cases, even the most trusted driver may not be properly signed. But this does not mean that the software is malicious or bad. Most often, owners of Windows 7 suffer from problems with digital signatures. In subsequent versions of the OS, this issue arises much less frequently. You can identify a problem with a signature by the following symptoms:


All the problems and errors described above can be corrected only by disabling the mandatory check for a digital signature on the driver. We offer you several ways to help you cope with this task.

Method 1: Temporarily disable scanning

For your convenience, we will divide this method into two parts. In the first case, we will talk about how to apply this method if you have Windows 7 or lower installed. The second option is suitable only for owners of Windows 8, 8.1 and 10.

If you have Windows 7 or lower


If you have Windows 8, 8.1 or 10

No matter what operating system you have, this method has disadvantages. After the next system reboot, signature verification will start again. In some cases, this can lead to blocking the operation of drivers that were installed without the appropriate signatures. If this happens, you should disable the scan permanently. The following methods will help you with this.

Method 2: Group Policy Editor

This method will allow you to disable signature verification forever (or until you activate it yourself). After this, you can safely install and use software that does not have the appropriate certificate. In any case, this process can be reversed and signature verification can be turned back on. So you have nothing to fear. In addition, this method is suitable for owners of any OS.


Method 3: Command Line

This method is very easy to use, but has its drawbacks, which we will discuss at the end.


Please note that this method sometimes has to be done in safe mode. You can learn how to start the system in safe mode using our special lesson.

By using one of the proposed methods, you will get rid of the problem of installing third-party drivers. If you have difficulties performing any actions, write about it in the comments to the article. We will jointly solve the difficulties that arise.

PC users know that it is highly undesirable to install programs that are unsigned or do not have a security certificate on their system. The same goes for drivers. Unsigned drivers are even more dangerous than programs; for this reason, for security reasons, Microsoft developers have completely blocked the ability to install them in Windows 8. But what should the user do in this situation, if he needs to connect, for example, an outdated printer or scanner to a PC, and not just connect it, but also work with the device? The developers left the option to install unsigned drivers in Windows 8 and Windows 8.1, but hid it in the very depths of the system.

To allow installation of unsigned drivers, you must log into Windows with driver signature verification disabled. To do this, reboot your PC with advanced boot options. This is done as follows.

Close all open programs and only then move the mouse cursor to the lower right corner so that the Charms Bar sidebar appears (this “Miracle Bar” can also be called up by pressing the “Win ​​+ C” key combination on your keyboard). Go to the “Options” section.

In the window that opens, click on the “Update and Recovery” menu section (on the left). Next, click “Recovery”. After the last click, a list with partitions and recovery options will appear on the right; click on the “Restart now” button in the “Special boot options” section.

The computer will begin to reboot the system, wait until a special advanced boot menu appears on the screen. Click on the “Diagnostics” item in it, then on “Advanced options” and then select the “Boot options” tile.

In the newly opened window you will see a list listing the reasons for restarting the PC in non-standard mode, in it you will find the item you need “Disable mandatory driver signature verification”. Click on the only “Reboot” button in this window.

After the computer restarts, a dialog box will appear on your monitor screen offering various options for continuing. You need to select the seventh option “Disable mandatory driver signature verification”. Press the number seven on your keyboard to have the PC continue booting with the selected options.

That's it, now blocking unsigned drivers in Windows 8 is disabled, and you can safely start installing them on the system. However, the blocking is not disabled forever; after you restart the computer again, it will log into the system in normal mode, but all the drivers you installed will not be blocked, but will continue to work, and you will be able to use an outdated or non-standard one connected to the PC device.

Installing a device driver on Windows 7 differs very little from installing it on previous versions of systems. If the user has a disk with a set of drivers for existing equipment, no difficulties arise - it is enough to allow the operating system to determine and install the required driver. Problems may arise when there is no such disk or the system cannot recognize the device. In this case, the user will have to tinker - find the appropriate driver on his own and install it manually, sometimes with the help of the Hardware Installation Wizard.

Where can I get drivers?

It is important not to make a mistake here, since installing drivers from dubious sources often leads to virus infection, incomprehensible “glitches” of devices, inexplicable blue screens of death, and sometimes to physical damage. It is safe to take drivers:

  • from official web resources of device manufacturers;
  • from a disk that was sold as a set with your equipment - with your equipment, and not with any of the same brand;
  • for laptop owners - from the hidden Recovery partition on the hard drive: this partition can be accessed when booting from another drive, for example, from a Live CD.

Various driver packs “for everything” and any other sources are not trustworthy.

Installing a known hardware driver

Auto installation when connecting device

Let's talk briefly about automatic driver installation: after connecting the device to the PC, Windows 7 tries to determine its type and, if there is Internet access, downloads the driver from Microsoft Update. But the device is not always identified correctly.

If there is no Internet or the update center cannot offer anything, the system will request a driver disk. Usually it’s enough just to insert it, Windows 7 will do the rest.

Installing the downloaded driver

Drivers on the websites of equipment manufacturers are already equipped with installation tools - they come in .exe or .msi format; you just need to run such a file with administrator rights. Along with the driver, configuration utilities and other firmware (software from the manufacturer) can be installed. The whole process exactly repeats the installation of any program.

For the device to work, the computer must be restarted.

Installation of old equipment

If you are trying to install a device that does not support Plug&Play, and you have a driver for it, run the “Found New Hardware Wizard”. In Windows 7, it “moved” to the device manager and “hid” in the “Action” menu.

  • Open Device Manager – “Action” and select “Install old device”.

  • Connect your device and click “Next”.

  • You can use auto-search in the local Driver Store, but if you know exactly which drive the driver you need is located on, select manual installation.

  • Select device type.

  • Select the desired model from the list and click “Have from disk.”

  • Select media. This can be a removable CD or a folder on a hard drive.

  • Clicking “Next” will start the installation process. Wait for it to complete and click “Finish”.

  • Restart your computer.

Installing an unknown device driver

If Windows 7 cannot determine the type of device, it will appear as unknown hardware in Device Manager.

To determine the brand, model and find the appropriate driver yourself, you need to copy the device code and turn to search engines for help. For this:

  • open the properties of the unknown device;

  • go to the “Details” tab, from the “Property” drop-down list, select “Equipment ID (or ID)” and copy its value;

  • set the type and brand of the device - in our example, from the first two sites in Google results, you can determine that this is a webcam from Samsung.

Using a search engine, it is easy to find out the exact model of the camera. After that, go to the Samsung website and look for the required driver.

Installing an unsigned driver in Windows 7

The ability to install unsigned drivers on Windows 7 is limited by Microsoft security policy. Therefore, you cannot simply install any driver you want unless it has a valid signature and certificate. This is done to ensure system stability and protect data from malware.

However, it happens that a user vitally needs one or another driver that does not have any certificates. In this case, there are several ways to disable protection. We hope it is clear to everyone that this should not be done unnecessarily.

  • The first way is to legally obtain a certificate. Suitable exclusively for software developers.
  • The second method is to disable certificate and signature verification through group policies. Suitable for Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise and Ultimate editions.
  • The third method is to run the system with signature verification disabled. Suitable for everyone.
  • The fourth method is to disable signature verification when loading using the utility bcdedit. Also suitable for everyone.

Let's start our consideration with the second option, since the first cannot be considered acceptable for most users. So.

Create a Group Policy

  • Enter the command in the Start search bar gpedit.msc and click Enter. Click the found file and the Group Policy Editor will launch.

  • In the editor window, go to the “Driver Installation” section. It is located in “User Configuration”, where you then need to open “Administrative Templates” and “System”. Select “Device driver digital signature” from the list of templates, open its context menu and click “Edit”.

  • Check “Enable”. In the “Options” section of the window, select “Skip” as an action when trying to install an unsigned driver. Click OK.

  • After a reboot, the system will not swear at unsigned drivers.

Disabling scanning through the boot menu

Restart your PC. Before the next start of Windows 7, call up the menu for additional boot options (press and hold F8). Select “Disable mandatory driver signature verification” from the list of modes.

This time the system will not check certificates and will allow you to install any driver. Next time it will boot with normal parameters.

Disabling using the bcdedit utility

This option does the same thing as the previous one, with the only difference being that signature verification will be disabled until you enable it again.

  • Run Command Prompt as administrator.
  • Enter the command bcdedit.exe -set loadoptions DDISABLE_INTEGRITY_CHECKS, press Enter.
  • Once done, enter another command: bsdedit -set loadoption TESTSIGNING ON.

  • Restart your computer and install the driver.

To enable signature verification again, run two other commands: bcdedit -set loadoptions ENABLE_INTEGRITY_CHECKS and after it - bcdedit.exe -set TESTSIGNING OF F.

Reboot again.

What to do if the driver does not install

Finally, we will name several reasons why the installation of a correct and supported driver may fail:

  • your account does not have the required permissions;
  • driver installation is blocked by security programs;
  • the system is infected with viruses;
  • the file with the .inf extension, which specifies the conditions for installing the driver, does not contain information about the equipment;
  • during the installation process a conflict arises with already installed drivers;
  • The system files responsible for installing drivers are missing or damaged.

Hello dear readers.

Every computer user, when connecting a new removable device, wants it to fully perform its functions. To do this, it is necessary to place the appropriate software on the system. Later in the article I will tell you how to install unsigned drivers in Windows 10. There are several methods.

general information

Microsoft takes responsibility for the various programs offered by developers around the world. The list also includes drivers for various equipment, be it a printer, p780 mobile phone, cameras or something else. If the software successfully passes all tests, the IT giant puts its own digital marker on it - a certificate.

This element acts as a guarantee indicating the authenticity of the application. In turn, this move allows you to protect the operating system from malicious code. Any technologies that have accompanying signed drivers are simply synchronized with Windows x64 or 32.

But from time to time, users may encounter outdated elements that are still capable of performing the functions prescribed to them. And it often happens that there is simply no software with the appropriate marker for such devices. At the same time, the operating system itself refuses to host such software.

But fortunately, there are several ways to deal with this problem.

Options

So, to bypass the security system for installing only signed solutions, you need to perform a number of actions:

You can now install unsigned drivers. To restore the previous settings, you just need to reboot the OS again.

It is worth noting that a different method is used to enter the parameters here - there is no need to go anywhere through “F8” and then go through a lot of movements.

Command line

It’s worth clarifying right away that this method is suitable for devices that use BIOS. If your computer has a UEFI interface, first you need to disable a function in it such as “ Secure Boot».

So, to solve the problem, we perform several actions:


Global Policy Editor

Important! It’s worth saying right away that this method will not work on the home version.

To achieve the goal, we do the following:


After this, users will be able to install software without the corresponding data, even through the update center. And if you configure it to work automatically, users won’t have to strain at all.