Windows7: Disable the need for digitally signing drivers. Description, instruction and reviews

All operating systems of the Windows family are equipped with a special service that checks the licensing and quality of software and drivers installed on a personal computer. Of course, it does not monitor the license of hacked games and does not prevent you from installing them. But this service is well suited to check how safe software you are going to install. However, sometimes this utility needs to be disabled, so today we will tell you about disabling the verification of digital signatures of drivers.

Digital signature

What is it about? An electronic digital signature is a kind of label on the driver or application, which is a guarantee that no changes have been made to it. It can be compared to a wax seal on a letter. If at least someone tried to hack and change the program (letter), this label disappears (gets corrupted) and upon subsequent installation you will be notified that the signature is missing. Drivers without a digital signature on Windows are installed (or not) depending on the selected mode of operation of one particular service. Today we’ll talk about how to disable it.

Security

So, we figured out what digital signatures are in Windows 7. How to disable the service that checks them, you will learn a little later. First, make sure that you really understand the need to disable validation. The main problem is that with this action you greatly reduce the security of your system. Experienced users are talking about this.

For example, you install drivers on a video card. Most well-known manufacturers use digital signatures to confirm the authenticity of the supplied software. If your computer starts to “swear” about the lack of a signature, this means that some programmer has made changes to this driver package. In this case, it may be a virus or a spy embedded in the shell of the program. and you better abort the installation. Some users, after disabling the scan, found unpleasant surprises.

On the other hand, if you install any program from a little-known or new publisher, then with a high degree of probability there will be no digital signature on it simply because they did not install it initially. That is why many useful applications gain the fame of “virus-infected” users, which is what they report on in reviews. These programs are easily subject to change by attackers. In such cases, the source from which you download them is much more important.

Difference

Most people who are interested in the question of how to disable Windows 8 driver signature verification do not understand that this process is the same for any version of the operating system. The difference can only be in those ways that we will use to activate the option we need, but even in this case it will be difficult to notice the differences.

Easy way

The easiest way is to quickly disable the digital signature verification of drivers using a computer restart. However, there are several nuances that you should know about in advance.

1. On Windows 7, just restarting the computer is enough. Then press F8 to select specific options.
2. In the G8 and G8, everything is different. You will have to go through a series of several reboots. First you need the item "Update ...", which can be found in the right drop-down menu if you go to the "Options". You will need to select "Special Download Options". After that, the system will restart. In the window that appears, find "Diagnostics" and then "Parameters". In the "Reboot" you can find a line indicating the boot option you need.

It is worth noting that this method is very unreliable. You turn off the digital signature check only for the duration of your session. The next time you boot your computer, you will have to select "Special Option" again. So this item is an exclusively temporary way to solve this problem with Windows7. You can also disable the need for digitally signing drivers in more reliable ways.

"Politics"

If you have administrator rights on the computer, then you can use one of several methods, which we will describe below. The first of these involves using the Group Policy Editor. It only sounds scary, in fact, anyone who knows just a little bit of Windows7 can use this method. You can disable the need for digitally signing drivers and verifying them by running a special built-in utility.

First, run it. To do this, either open the Start menu, or click on the combination of Win + R buttons. A search bar should appear in front of you. Enter the name of the service gpedit.msc into it - and the program start window will open in front of you.

Now we need to find among the many folders we need. First of all, go to the "User Configuration", and from there to the "Administrative Templates". Then we select "System" and "Driver Installation". As a result, we pay attention to the right half of the screen. Select "Digital Signatures ...".

1. In the control menu that opens, you can choose which option suits you best. On the one hand, you can simply disable this service, and then at the next boot of the computer it will not work.
2. On the other hand, you can leave this utility enabled, but tell it to skip all unsigned drivers. You decide.

In general, both methods work well for Windows7. You can also disable the need for digitally signing drivers in a slightly different way. Especially considering that the gpedit.msc service may not be available on all builds of operating systems.

Command

Another way out of this situation will give us the command line. Having registered the necessary information in it, you can make changes. The main advantage of this method is that it is always available to the user on any machine. So just follow the instructions.

1. Open the command line.
2. We register the main command bcdedit.exe. "Enter" do not click.
3. Now you need to register the parameters. The following expression is best suited - nointegritychecks ON. It means that you turn off. Yes, it sounds strange, but that was the logic of the creators of the operating system. To enable signature verification, enter the same command, only with the OFF parameter.

As you can see, everything happens quite simply due to the versatility of Windows7. In this case, the user-friendly interface allows disabling the need for digitally signing drivers, despite some logical inconsistencies such as command syntax.

In the end

Now you know how to disable the digital signature check in the operating system. If you are an independent developer, perhaps this option will not suit you. Therefore, there are two more ways to solve the problem of swearing at the lack of an OS signature.

1. Purchase of an officially registered EDS. In many cities there are offices that provide services for the registration of digital signatures.
2. Fake a signature yourself at home. However, this is a very complex and lengthy process, and therefore it will be easier to disable verification for home purposes. In other cases, an attempt to fake will mean that you are trying to hide signs of interference with the program. Therefore, we will not analyze this issue in detail.