Installing Unsigned drivers in Vista x64

[Dox]

Some users are experiencing problems install Vista x64 Nvidia drivers mainly due to this reason:

Vista x64 does not allow unsigned drivers to be installed without a digital certificate.

This is true for beta drivers for any device from video drivers to sound and chipset.

However there are two simple ways to bypass this and install unsigned drivers.

I will outline the steps for install nvidia drivers, but the steps are the same for other device drivers.

Method One

Once you have found and downloaded your chosen driver and modded inf.

Uninstall your current driver.

Upon reboot tap F8 to get into advance boot options and choose "Disable Driver Signiture Enforcement"

Now install the vista drivers based on the Have Disk Method

Method Two

If you dont want to keep tapping F8 everytime you want to install a driver then you can use a tool called:

Driver Signature Enforcement Overrider 1.0

Its basically a tool that creates unverified certificates so it allows unsigned drivers to install.

Download link and Guide

Now install the vista drivers based on the Have Disk Method

**I have not been able to test if the tool really works and therefore its up to you whether you use it or not

I have simply included it in this guide as an alternative to "method one"**

more info from mega.br:

ATTENTION!!

For those that use 64bit... you DON'T need to press F8 and disable the driver signiture enforcement to install nvidia modded driver.

This is necessary only for a few drivers from other hardwares, some softwares and if you want to patch some system driver, like usb polling rate, tcp half open connections...

To install the display driver with modded inf, you can install normally.

But don't forget to do a clean install. This is for all OS. First uninstall, reboot in safe mode, use Driver Sweeper or DriverCleaner.NET, than reboot and install the new driver.

Works perfectly!

PS: For those x64 users that installed some unsigned driver, you need to press F8 on EVERY boot, not only once as was mentioned.

But, there are 2 softwares to "fix" this, choose only ONE: (The second one is my choice).

1. Install ReadyDriverPlus. This is a software that makes this part (disable the driver signiture enforcement) automatically on every boot.

2. Install Driver Signature Enforcement Overrider. This is a software that you can "sign" a driver as a system driver... so your "unsigned"driver will be recognized as a signed system driver, and it's done. You can choose a test mode first to test the stability of the "new" driver, and after sign as a system driver. Works like a charm.

[Guest Guest]

I've been installing drivers with modified .infs (from this site and self created ones) for months now on Vista x64 and have never had to disable Driver Signature Enforcement.

I don't believe it (Driver Signature Enforcement) is looking for a WHQL certificate. It's just looking for any certificate from the driver provider.

[®®®]

Same here.

I would not promote this tool as it is not properly documented what it actually does and what changes it applies to the system. Actually i think that disabling the Driver Signature Enforcement was only possible in one of the BETAs of Vista. I cannot recall if it was 32bit or 64bit and i totally forgot the details :)

[Dox]

hmm, then this thread is useless and should be destroyed?

edit: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa906338.aspx

[®®®]

If people desperately run into problems installing drivers on their x64 Windows, they might want to try it out. So no, this thread is usefull.

[Dox]

:)

ive updated the guide and title of the thread to make it more clear.