The digital signature of a driver ensures the uprightness and authenticity of it. Windows don't let any driver to be installed on it's OS which is not digitally signed or if the signature is not done by trusted vendors. If you try to install a driver without a valid signature you will encounter an error message ‘A digitally signed driver is required. Windows blocked the installation of a digitally unsigned driver.' Don't worry there are easy workarounds to install this driver.
Fix 1 – Disable Driver Signing
- When the 'Windows Advanced Options Menu' appears on your screen, use your keyboard arrow keys to highlight the 'Disable Driver Signature Enforcement' option and then press 'ENTER'. Windows 10, 8 & 8.1. To enter in Advanced Options menu in Windows 10, 8.1 & 8 OS: 1. Right click at the Windows Start button and select Shut Down or sign out.
- To start you'll need to create a catalog file for the inf. You will use inf2cat for this. Run this command in the directory with the inf file. If the driver inf is in C: Users ladyada Desktop CircuitPlayDriver, open up a command line and cd C: Users ladyada Desktop CircuitPlayDriver.
- As a counter-measure, Windows attempts to keep your system secure by having hardware manufacturers digitally sign their drivers and have them verified by Microsoft for mass distribution. If you are a developer looking to install an older driver, or a self-made driver, or a custom tweak that is unlikely to be signed you won't be able to.
You can disable the driver signature and install the driver as a way around.
Microsoft provides the following two ways to digitally sign drivers: Certify your driver with Microsoft and Microsoft will provide a signature for it. When your driver package passes the certification tests, it can be signed by Windows Hardware Quality Labs (WHQL).
Warning–
Switching off the driver signature check is not recommended at all. Installing an unsigned driver may do irreversible damage.
1. Write 'Edit group policy' in the search box.
2. Then you need to click on 'Edit Group Policy'.
3. When you see that the Local Group Policy Editor opens up on your pc, go this way-
4. After you have arrived at the location, look on the right-hand side of the window to find ‘Code signing for device drivers‘.
5. You need to double click on it.
6. Set this policy setting to 'Enabled'.
7. In the ‘Options:‘ panel, what you need to do is to click on the drop-down sign and then choose 'Ignore'.
Any error prompt will be ignored.
8. After all these, sequentially click on 'Apply' and then on 'OK'.
How To Digitally Sign A Driver Windows 10 Microsoft
Close the Policy Editor.
Try to install the driver again.
Fix 2 – Toggle Test signing to ‘ON'
The Testsigning mode allows Windows to protect your computer from unsigned blacklisted kernel-level drivers.
1. Press Windows Key+S. Then, type 'command' in the search box.
2. Then, right-click on 'Command Prompt' and then click on 'Run as administrator'.
3. When you see that terminal window has appeared on your screen, type this code and then hit Enter.
Then close the CMD window and reboot your system.
Give the driver installation process another try. This time it will work out.
Windows 10 Disable Device Driver Signing
NOTE–
As we have explained, Testsigning mode is protection. You have to turn it off once you are done with the installation.
To do so, follow the below sets of instructions~
a. Acess the CMD terminal as instructed above.
b. Then, simply execute this code to turn the testsigning mode ‘Off‘.
c. Restart your system to save this change.
Fix 3 – Permanently disable driver signature enforcement
The third and final solution to this issue also involves you passing a one-line code through the CMD terminal.
1. What you need to do at first is to press ‘Windows key+R‘. This will open up the Run terminal.
2. When you have access to the Run terminal, write 'cmd'. Press Ctrl+Shift+Enter together.
3. To disable the driver signature enforcement, write down this command, and hit ‘Enter‘ from your keyboard.
Once it is done, restart your computer and further try to install the driver.
NOTE–
This is the last safeguard that protects your computer from harmful third-party drivers. Do not forget to enable the driver signature enforcement.
1. You need to open the terminal again.
2. When the terminal appears on your screen, run this code to turn off the ‘nointegritychecks' on your device.
Restart your system.
Sambit is a Mechanical Engineer By qualification who loves to write about Windows 10 and solutions to weirdest possible problems.
Microsoft provides the following two ways to digitally sign drivers: Certify your driver with Microsoft and Microsoft will provide a signature for it. When your driver package passes the certification tests, it can be signed by Windows Hardware Quality Labs (WHQL).
Warning–
Switching off the driver signature check is not recommended at all. Installing an unsigned driver may do irreversible damage.
1. Write 'Edit group policy' in the search box.
2. Then you need to click on 'Edit Group Policy'.
3. When you see that the Local Group Policy Editor opens up on your pc, go this way-
4. After you have arrived at the location, look on the right-hand side of the window to find ‘Code signing for device drivers‘.
5. You need to double click on it.
6. Set this policy setting to 'Enabled'.
7. In the ‘Options:‘ panel, what you need to do is to click on the drop-down sign and then choose 'Ignore'.
Any error prompt will be ignored.
8. After all these, sequentially click on 'Apply' and then on 'OK'.
How To Digitally Sign A Driver Windows 10 Microsoft
Close the Policy Editor.
Try to install the driver again.
Fix 2 – Toggle Test signing to ‘ON'
The Testsigning mode allows Windows to protect your computer from unsigned blacklisted kernel-level drivers.
1. Press Windows Key+S. Then, type 'command' in the search box.
2. Then, right-click on 'Command Prompt' and then click on 'Run as administrator'.
3. When you see that terminal window has appeared on your screen, type this code and then hit Enter.
Then close the CMD window and reboot your system.
Give the driver installation process another try. This time it will work out.
Windows 10 Disable Device Driver Signing
NOTE–
As we have explained, Testsigning mode is protection. You have to turn it off once you are done with the installation.
To do so, follow the below sets of instructions~
a. Acess the CMD terminal as instructed above.
b. Then, simply execute this code to turn the testsigning mode ‘Off‘.
c. Restart your system to save this change.
Fix 3 – Permanently disable driver signature enforcement
The third and final solution to this issue also involves you passing a one-line code through the CMD terminal.
1. What you need to do at first is to press ‘Windows key+R‘. This will open up the Run terminal.
2. When you have access to the Run terminal, write 'cmd'. Press Ctrl+Shift+Enter together.
3. To disable the driver signature enforcement, write down this command, and hit ‘Enter‘ from your keyboard.
Once it is done, restart your computer and further try to install the driver.
NOTE–
This is the last safeguard that protects your computer from harmful third-party drivers. Do not forget to enable the driver signature enforcement.
1. You need to open the terminal again.
2. When the terminal appears on your screen, run this code to turn off the ‘nointegritychecks' on your device.
Restart your system.
Sambit is a Mechanical Engineer By qualification who loves to write about Windows 10 and solutions to weirdest possible problems.
All drivers running on 64-bit versions of Windows must be signed before Windows will load them. However, driver signing is not required on 32-bit versions of Windows.
In order to sign a driver, a certificate is required. You can create your own certificate to sign your driver with during development and testing. However, for a public release you must sign your driver with a certificate issued by a trusted root authority.
Note A driver package project can package the output of other projects. If you build a driver package project, Microsoft Visual Studio will build the other projects on which it has dependencies. The driver package project has its own driver signing properties that are separate from any other dependent projects, and its driver signing properties apply only to the catalog (if any) produced by the driver package project. That is, the driver package project will not automatically add an embedded signature to driver binaries produced by other projects, as a different certificate may be used to sign the other driver projects, for example, a test certificate, and the result in such a case would be a driver package where the binaries are unintentionally signed with one certificate, while the package catalog is signed with a different certificate. This can result in performance degradation. For example, if a boot start driver binary's embedded signature is invalid, Windows cannot use certificate it was signed with to validate the binary. Instead, Windows must validate the binary against the catalog's signature, which would increase boot time.
This section describes how to use Visual Studio to sign a driver package.