w510 Why is Secure Boot

Microsoft established a new convention called "Secure Boot" that is designed to prevent malware from installing rootkits by only allowing boot from devices that have the proper certificates. That said the specs from Microsoft require that the user be able to turn off the feature otherwise an upgrade or dual boot would be impossible.

 

This seems to be preventing me from booting from a CD-ROM even though it is selected in the BIOS.

 

When I go into the BIOS setup on the W510, I can see that Secure Boot is enabled but there is no way I can see to turn it off. What am I missing please ? Ability to dual-boot is essential for a security container I am working on.

 

From MSDN "For the enthusiast who wants to run older operating systems, the option is there to allow you to make that decision." My question is "How ?"

 

If the w510 is unable to support disabling Secure Boot then we have a serious problem.

 

(for some reason I cannot add a link - the MSDN quote is at http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/archive/2011/09/22/protecting-the-pre-os-environment-with-uefi.aspx

 

 

Best Answer

  • MartinF
    MartinF Member Posts: 51 Enthusiast WiFi Icon
    Answer ✓

    Hi Padgett,

     

    Set a Supervisor Password from BIOS, then you will be able to disable Secure Boot.

     

Answers

  • MartinF
    MartinF Member Posts: 51 Enthusiast WiFi Icon
    Answer ✓

    Hi Padgett,

     

    Set a Supervisor Password from BIOS, then you will be able to disable Secure Boot.

     

  • padgett
    padgett ACE Posts: 4,532 Pathfinder

    Have followed all of the instructions, "Secure Boot" is disabled, still boots only from Windows 8 Media. See http://community.acer.com/t5/Acer-Tablets/Booting-W510/m-p/15775#U15775

  • padgett
    padgett ACE Posts: 4,532 Pathfinder

    Have been looking a the Clover Trail specs and have noticed some things about the W510 that now make me think that ACER has deliberately made it impossible to turn the "Secure Boot" off. Going to give Acer another day to reveal their thoughts before talking about why I suspect this but if so

    1) the W510 will never support a non-UEFI OS

    2) forcing it to run "Something Else" (can think of several ways) may result in premature failure.

     

    Hint: the mini-USB port can easily be overloaded.

  • mcinnocent
    mcinnocent Member Posts: 2 New User
    any solution for this problem yet?
    It is really bad, you cannot boot linux live cds and you cannot make backups of the whole system with b.e. acronis or clonezilla :-(
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