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Loading Unsigned Drivers in Windows 7 and Vista 64-bit (x64)

Posted By Raymond In Category: Computer

Aug
24
2009
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Thanks for all the comments, now I know that there are hacks that can make Windows 32-bit “address/recognize” more than 4GB of memory but you still wouldn’t be able to use it. To be able to fully utilize more than 4GB, you will still need a 64-bit of Windows. Most common problem that people face when using a 64-bit Windows is loading unsigned drivers. It seems that Microsoft has forgotten end users when it introduced a very restricted module of driver signature enforcement in Windows Vista and Windows 7. All drivers and system files must be digitally verified or they cannot run when using both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows Vista and Windows 7. This is an example of unable to load PeerGuardian with the error message “Windows cannot verify the digital signature for this file” because of an unsigned driver.
Windows cannot verify the digital signature for this file
From what I heard, the certificate to perform this signing costs from $300-$500 USD per year. Not every software developer can afford that especially when their software is free. Fortunately there are ways to force the unsigned drivers to load in x64 versions of Windows 7 and Vista.


There are some tutorial suggesting that typing this command "bcdedit /set loadoptions DDISABLE_INTEGRITY_CHECKS" in command prompt will do the job but it didn’t work on my Windows 7 x64 Ultimate. Probably Microsoft has rolled out some updates which disables DDISABLE_INTEGRITY_CHECKS option.

There are still a few working ways to load unsigned drivers though. The first method is to continuously press F8 when Windows is booted up until you get the Advanced Boot Options, then select “Disable Driver Signature Enforcement“.
Disable Driver Signature Enforcement
The problem about this method is you have to do that EACH Time when you boot up Windows and if you forgot to select this option, you won’t get to load the unsigned drivers and the software won’t work.

Second method is to use ReadyDriver Plus by Mr. Orange Sunshine, an enhanced version of the original ReadyDriver by Uhlik. It does the same thing as the first method by automatically selecting disable driver signature enforcement. It modifies the Vista Bootloader to load ReadyDriver, and then makes the appropriate selection to disable Driver Enforcement, based on what you choose to install. This tool worked perfectly on my Windows 7 x64.

If you don’t like your boot loader to be modified, then you should use Driver Signature Enforcement Overrider. This is how you can use DSEO to sign and load the unverified drivers. Run DSEO, click Next, click Yes, select “Enable Test Mode” and click Next.
DSEO Enable Test Mode
You should get a confirmation window telling you that Test Mode has been ENABLED. Click the OK button to go back to the DSEO window. Now select “Sign a System File” and click Next. You will now have to type in the specific filename including full path and click OK. For PeerGuardian, it is “C:\Program Files\PeerGuardian2\pgfilter.sys”. Restart your computer and the driver is now loaded.

You will notice that there is a watermark at the bottom right of the screen saying Test Mode.
remove test mode windows 7
That is normal after you’ve used Driver Signature Enforcement Overrider to enable the Test Mode. If you disable Test Mode using DSEO, you won’t be able to load the unsigned drivers. In short, you will need to be in Test Mode in order to load the unsigned drivers. If you can’t stand seeing the Test Mode watermark, you can use Remove Watermark to take away the watermark. Just download, run RemoveWatermarkX64.exe and then type the letter Y. Restart your computer to take effect. If the watermark is still there after patching, run the tool again and this time hit the R key to rebuilt MUI cache. Restart and the watermark should be gone by now.


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    • mojo

      thanks for the tutorial. btw, for peerguardian, i run it on vista 64bit and I just use the windows9x version and it works without any modification

    • http://pceasies.com pceasies

      I’ve been using DSEO without many problems. Also, you should stop using PeerGuardian2 and use PeerBlock. It looks and works exactly the same, except it works. They fixed a bunch of previous bugs and it works reliably on 7 x64. They also raised $500 and are working on getting a signed driver.

    • J. Buchanan

      This all seems like a good reason NOT to downgrade to Vista and then further downgrade to Windows 7 from XP. The only question is how long can one use XP in this world commanded by Microsoft? They do want to control everything, it seems.

      On the other hand, we have ‘you’ – the saving grace for many a computer person who doesn’t know how to get around all the built-in crap from our favourite computer company. What would some of do without your advise and help?

      On a side note, how many have noticed the ad from Microsoft (I think it’s Microsoft) that says something to the effect – Let us upgrade your computer to Windows 7 in order to make it simplier for you. Does this sound right? “Let’s upgrade it to make it able to do less so you can handle the simple version” – quote from me not MS. hmm… some upgrade. I can make my XP simple by only doing the easy things. Does this mean I have upgraded my ability? :))

    • Me:D

      Why the hell do you use PG2!!! :banghead:

      I know that your might use it the “right” way (To block ip’s) but all noob now think its a good program!!

      Please make a post about how stupid PG2 and its “anti-p2p-list” is!

    • Jonathan Chan

      I find this on the webpage:

      Note: User Account Control (UAC) must be disabled in-order to use this tool.

      Do we need to disable UAC Raymond?

      Thanks for the find though!

    • George W. Bush

      That is correct, however if you run the win9x version of peerguardian in vista64, it will only block the tcp connections.

    • http://skylinefiles.blogspot.com rych

      hey raymond i love vista64 ultimate to bits but unfortunately because i use a creative SB X-GAMER LIVE 5.1 sound card the driver signature cannot be verified. I’ve been using this soundcard for almost 8 years and i still love it, unfortunately because the driver wasnt digitally certified for x64 vista i had to downgrade to xp. Now that wif this program i can move on back to vista64 or windows7 64! I hope it works for my sb xgamer live sound card!

      p/s:screw soundblaster, don’t want to make x64 driver for my version of card but still, i love this card coz its REALLY that good(compared to onboard sc)

    • http://www.peerblock.com MarkSide

      For running PeerGuardian on Windows, I’d recommend trying the PeerBlock project a few of us from the PeerGuardian forums have been working on instead. We’ve managed to fix most of the bugs from the base PG2 code, and will even be getting an official signed driver soon thanks to generous donations from our user base!

      Then again, as the lead developer of that project I am admittedly a bit biased… =;)

      Give it a shot over at http://www.peerblock.com if you’re interested. And let us know if you find any bugs, so we can fix them!

    • Ed

      @ J. Buchanan

      Where did you see the ad ” Let us upgrade your computer to Windows 7″.

      Thanks.

    • Jack

      Very nice tutorial, this is why I love your blog.

    • atterno

      Great find Raymond..As a person who deals with all flavours of OS in the market, I know what a pain it is to get drivers installed in 64 bit versions. Hats off to you..

    • martian

      Use Peer Block

    • Morgan

      Anyone know of a way to reverse this if needed please?

    • Gordis

      Hola hice al pie de la letra como pone :
      Click the OK button to go back to the DSEO window. Haga clic en el botón Aceptar para regresar a la ventana de DSEO. Now select “ Sign a System File ” and click Next. Ahora, seleccione “Firmar un archivo del sistema” y haga clic en Siguiente. You will now have to type in the specific filename including full path and click OK. Ahora, tendrá que escribir el nombre de archivo específicos, incluyendo la ruta completa y haga clic en Aceptar. For PeerGuardian, it is “C:\Program Files\PeerGuardian2\pgfilter.sys”. Para PeerGuardian, es “C: \ Archivos de programa \ PeerGuardian2 \ pgfilter.sys”. Restart your computer and the driver is now loaded. Reinicie su computadora y el controlador está cargado.
      y se me quedo la marca de agua pero me es imposible abrir el peerguardian,Peerblock…..
      Podriais ayudarme? gracias

    • Bobbel

      Thanks a lot to run pg2 now on my w7x64 :)

      i use ReadyDriver Plus exe and it worksfine for me !!!

      THXXXX

    • http://www.tim.id.au/blog Tim

      The number of times this blog’s solved something for me…

      I’ve had to get a Netcomm AM5066 (Rave III) USB dialup modem working on a customer’s laptop running Windows 7 64bit. Netcomm have 64bit drivers for XP, 32bit for Vista and list nothing at all for W7. I’ve managed to get the XP64 drivers working in W7 by disabling driver signing.

      I tried the NGOHQ program first, and that seemed to work okay. 2 weeks later my customer brought it back, and it’d stopped working; I couldn’t get it to accept the drivers again. Not sure what happened.

      Then luckily found this post. I strongly recommend ReadyDriver Plus over DSEO; it’s a far simpler solution and a lot easier to set up and leave. It pretends to be a human pressing the buttons to get to the F8 boot menu and then pick the “disable driver signing” option.

      Works for me!

    • Jonno

      Hey Tim,

      I have a new computer with win 7 64bit now and I am trying to get my rave III modem working. I am not that computer literate so if you can guide me through the process I’d be appreciative.

      I have the setup cd that came with the modem.

      Cheers

    • binass

      merci beaucoup pou l’info!

    • Aaron

      Thanks to the commenters for pointing me to PeerBlock. Installed and working!

    • Pam Stewart

      I used Windows XP running IE8 to access my company’s SharePoint site from home using VPN software. No problem.

      Then I bought a new computer with Windows 7 Home Premium Edition 64-bit running IE8. When I tried to access the SharePoint site through the VPN I got the error message “Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage.”

      Resolution: After much googling, I determined that I needed to upgrade from Windows 7 Home Premium to Windows 7 Professional.

      This upgrade did not immediately solve the problem, but it gave me a more detailed error message: “Windows requires a digitally signed driver”.

      I googled and found many suggested workarounds to disable this Windows requirement, but none of these worked. However, Windows 7 Professional comes with the “Windows XP Mode” feature which has to be downloaded from the Microsoft web site (but which is not available for the Windows 7 Home Premium edition). So I installed Windows XP Mode which allows me to run an XP session within Windows 7 by clicking on Start > All Programs > Windows Virtual PC > Windows XP Mode.

      XP Mode worked and I was able to get to the SharePoint site just as I could with my old computer.

      You’ve got to admire Microsoft’s ingenuity in making money. I paid for their latest operating system (Windows 7) and had to pay another $130 (Canadian dollars) to make it run my old operating system!

    • ajent

      F8 trick worked! Thanks bud

    • marjel

      Hi guys, this is something I stumbled upon while searching for peerguardian alternatives:

      http://phoenixlabs.org/
      “PeerGuardian 2 users should check out PeerBlock, which just released version 1.0. It is a continuation from where PeerGuardian 2 development left off, with many bug fixes and support for Windows Vista and Windows 7.”
      http://www.peerblock.com/

      p.s. what’s an URI?

    • John Ferkenius

      Open CMD as a administrator Copy and paste following :

      bcdedit.exe -set loadoptions DDISABLE_INTEGRITY_CHECKS
      bcdedit.exe -set TESTSIGNING OFF

      And enter.

    • KindOne

      FYI, if you are using ” PeerGuardian ” you can update it to ” PeerBlock ” http://www.peerblock.com/ It is a fork of PeerGuardian. It has Signed Drivers.

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