Disable driver signing in Vista 64bit

Chris Barnes · 11-03-2008

I am trying to get VMware Server running on my Vista Enterprise 64bit
machine. The install goes along fine until the very end where Windows
complains about 5 drivers as being 'unsigned'. In previous versions of
Windows I could simply tell the install to go ahead and all would be fine.

Apparently the 64bit version of Vista isn't so accommodating.

Is there a way I can spoof these drivers so that Vista thinks they are
signed (simply turn this off)?

And yes, VMWare knows about this problem. They don't seem concerned as
they simply say "VMware Server is not supported on Vista. You have to
pay for Workstation instead". Assinine as Server is supported on
virtually everything else (including WinXP, 2003, every flavor of Linux,
etc).

.Joe · 11-03-2008

To the best of my knowledge, all 64 bit versions of Vista require
signed drivers. I'm unaware of a way to bypass this system requirement.

Kerry Brown · 11-03-2008

Press F8 on startup to get to the safe mode boot menu. One of the options is
to allow unsigned drivers. This will get it installed. There is no way to
make this permanent. Every time you want to use a program (VMWare Server)
that needs an unsigned driver you have to reboot, press F8, and enable this
option.

Chris Barnes · 13-03-2008

Just to make sure I understand - doing this is a normal Vista operation
with unsigned drivers (not safe mode), right? Are there any other
things turned off when in this mode?

Since I leave my computer running the vast majority of the time (and
only reboot when required by a software install/upgrade), then this
might indeed be a viable thing for me to do.

Kerry Brown · 13-03-2008

That's correct. This is not safe mode. It is regular mode with driver
signing turned off.

Andrew Davis · 26-03-2008

Is there a way to force it to stay off?

There used to be a command that you could run, but there were updates to
vista 64 that was included in SP1, which means that if I don't boot with
driver signing disabled, my soundcard does not work.

I had not had this problem before, since the command worked pre-SP1