Windows 10: How to solve "digitally signed driver is required"

Hello everyone.

Recently I kept getting this popup saying *A digitally signed driver is required*

How do I find out what program is using this unsigned driver to remove this popup?

:)

 

Getting "a digitally signed driver is required"

Hi Thomas,

This error can occur if there is a driver attempting to be installed on the system that was not signed by Microsoft digitally. Driver digital signatures help verify the integrity of the driver packages. To avoid this error, you need to disable the driver
signature enforcement. Follow the steps below:

• Press and hold the Shift key then click Restart button.
• Choose Troubleshoot, then select Advanced options.
  
• Select Startup Settings and click Restart.
  
• Once the computer restarts, you'll see a list of options. Press F7 to select
  Disable driver signature.
• Computer will now restart. Once done, check if the same error will occur.

Let us know the outcome so we can provide further assistance.

 

Getting "a digitally signed driver is required"

Get it whenever i boot or reboot my desktop

• What is the make and model of your device? ZTDesktop
  
  
• Were there any recent changes made prior to this issue? Upgraded fromW7 to W10
• What is the exact error message that you're getting? It would be best if you could provide us a screenshot of the error message.
• Are you using any 3rd-party antivirus software? NO

[Moved from: Windows / Windows 10 / Windows update, recovery, & backup]

 

Any warnings in Device Manager ?

 

Thank you for the reply.

I don't see any errors on there, nor any yellow triangles with exclamation mark inside

 

Standard W10 settings do not allow unsigned drivers so that must be some program misrepresenting. If it doesn't happen with particular program, try turning off programs from Startup and see if and which one stops it from appearing.

 

Thank you, will try this.

 

On Windows 10 (64-bit), Microsoft has included a feature, driver signature enforcement feature that is designed to ensure that users of 64-bit versions of Windows require that you install digitally signed drivers.

Digitally signed drivers come with an electronic fingerprint that guaranties that the driver was created by the hardware manufacturer and that it hasn’t been modified since it was created.

If your drivers aren’t digitally signed you won’t be able to install them at all which means that you won’t be able to use the hardware that is associated with them.

To install less-than-official drivers or old unsigned drivers, you’ll need to disable driver signature enforcement.

 

Not sure if @Brink has a tutorial for disabling driver signature enforcement, so this may help instead:
Disable Driver Signature Enforcement on Windows 10 Easily! - Driver Easy

Before doing that, try this to check your drivers - it may highlight the problematical one:
Verify if System Files and Drivers are Digitally Signed in Windows Hardware Drivers Tutorials

 

Hello @Golden, *Smile

Here you go:

*Arrow Enable and Disable Driver Verifier in Windows 10 Performance Maintenance Tutorials

 

Definitely identify the offending program before disabling driver signature enforcement.

Doesn't the pop-up tell you what driver it's complaining about? That could give us some clue on what program it is.

From some random screenshot I found online:

 

This is what I am getting.

 

The process known as npf.sys (NT5/6 AMD64) Kernel Driver or npf.sys (NT5/6 (version x86) Kernel Driver) or WinPcap Packet Driver (NPF) belongs to software NetGroup Packet Filter Driver or WinPcap Netgroup Packet Filter Driver or WinPcap Packet Driver (NPF) by CACE Technologies (Riverbed Product Catalog) or Riverbed Technology.

 

There is definitely a signed version of that driver available - either the program is using an old version or it's a fake.

Please run the script in BSOD - Posting Instructions - Windows 10 Forums while the error message is on the screen, if possible, to collect information about the current running processes and post the zip file to this thread.

 

But how do I find out what program is using it?