How to Enable or Disable Device Driver Signing in Windows

Windows requires all device drivers digitally signed before they can be installed. The problem with device driver signing condition is if you try to install some driver which is not signed, it will fail to install. There is a workaround to install unsigned drivers on Windows. Today, through this how to article, we will show you how to disable device driver signing in Windows so that you can install them.

Digitally signed drivers are signed using code signing certificates and are enforced by Microsoft in Windows as it increases security. When a company releases digitally signed driver, the driver includes an electronic fingerprint that indicates the which company released the driver and if the driver has been modified since released. If a signed driver is modified, it will no longer have the digital signature intact. Thus indicating tampering and Windows displays an error.

Windows usually displays the following kind of errors:

  • Windows blocked the installation of a digitally unsigned driver.
  • Windows encountered a problem installing the driver software for your device.
  • Windows found driver software for your device but encountered an error while attempting to install it.
  • The hash for the file is not present in the specified catalog file. The file is likely corrupt or the victim of tampering.

To solve the problem, you need to disable Device Driver Signing before you can install it in Windows. Here’s how to disable Device Driver Signing in Windows 10. This tutorial is valid of Windows 8, Windows 8.1 too.

How to Disable Driver Signature Verification in Windows 10, Windows 8.1 / 8

There are two ways you can disable device driver signing in Windows. You can either use the command prompt or through the Advanced Startup under Troubleshooting options in Windows boot manager. We will show you both the ways one by one. We recommend the second method as it temporary disables driver signature verification in Windows.

Disable Device Driver Signing Through Command Prompt

Press Windows Key + X and select Command Prompt (Admin) from the context menu.

Windows Key + X menu > Command Prompt (Admin)

Now, type the following command and press Enter.
BCDEDIT /set nointegritychecks ON

Disable Driver Signature Verification using BCDEDIT

Enable Device Driver Signing Through Command Prompt

To enable device driver signing back, type the following command in the command prompt and press Enter.
BCDEDIT /set nointegritychecks OFF

Disable Device Driver Signing Through Troubleshooting Options in Windows Boot Manager

You can also disable driver signature verification using the Troubleshooting options available from the boot manager. To access the Troubleshooting options, the easiest way is to keep the Shift button pressed while you select Restart from the power options menu. The power options are under Charms or on the login screen in Windows 8. In Windows 10, you can access power options from the Start Menu.

Keep Pressed Shift, Select Restart

Once Windows reboots, your computer will boot into the boot manager. Now, choose the Troubleshoot option.

Choose Troubleshoot options

Next, choose Advanced Options.

Choose Advanced options

Now, select Startup Options.

Choose Startup Settings

Finally, click on Restart as we will change boot time configuration settings.

Click on Restart

Once your computer reboots, you will see a list of startup settings. We are interested in the one that says “Disable driver signature enforcement“. To choose the option, press the F7 key or the numeric 7 key on the keyboard.

Press F7 to Disable signature enforcement

This is a one-time procedure unlike the command prompt way described earlier. When you reboot Windows again, driver signature enforcement is re-enabled. Thus a much safer option for most Windows users.

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