Installing unsigned device drivers on Windows 10

Hardware drivers are necessary for all the hardware devices that are attached to your Windows computer so that they could work properly. Because of the access to the underlying system kernel, the drivers need to be signed officially by Microsoft or the hardware vendor to avoid malware attacks. By signing drivers you can always verify that the driver is from a trusted vendor. If the drivers you have got are not signed by Microsoft or any other vendor, they are not allowed to install on your computer. This protection has been introduced in Windows 8.

Usually, when installing unsigned drivers on Windows 10, Windows pops up a warning saying Windows can’t verify the publisher of this driver software, or Windows reports that no driver has been found at all. If you still need to install unofficial drivers (for instance a Windows 7 driver or when the vendor hasn't signed the drivers (yet), old drivers with no digital signature or unsigned drivers, you need to spend some time. This document shows how to force installation of unsigned device drivers on Windows 10.

By default, unsigned drivers cannot be used in Windows 10.

Start Windows with Advanced Startup Options

First you must restart your computer in the "Advanced Startup Options" menu. To do so, please make sure you saved all your work, and locate the "Restart" option under the power options in the "Start Menu". When selecting the "Restart" option, click and hold the "Shift" key until your computer restarts. After restarting the following screen should appear:

Main screen of the 'Advanced Boot Menu'.

When this method fails, this boot menu might be disabled. In this case you can also try pressing "F8" while starting the computer. From the main screen in the Advanced Boot Menu, select the "Troubleshoot" option:

Troubleshooting screen of the 'Advanced Boot Menu'.

From the troubleshooting menu, select the "Advanced Options" option to access more options:

Advanced options screen of the 'Advanced Boot Menu'.

Depending on your systems configuration, the advanced screen can look a little different (less or more options). From this screen select the "Startup Settings" option which will reboot the PC with a list of options. A screen containing the possible startup options will now be displayed. To boot into this screen, click the "Restart" button. Your computer will now reboot and show the following options:

Press the F7 key to disable driver signature enforcement.

Now press the F7 key to disable the Windows 10 driver signature enforcement. Please note that this will only disable this function temporarily, once you reboot your PC it will be protected and non-signed drivers will continue to work, but you are unable to update or install new unsigned drivers. When you want to update a driver, repeat the above steps first!

You can now install an unsigned driver. When installing the driver, Windows 10 will still prompt that the driver is not signed, but you will be able to install it anyway by choosing the "Install this driver software anyway" option:

Choose the "Install this driver software anyway" option to install the driver.