How can I get my driver WHQL signed for Vista 64?

Question

I have a driver that my company has been using for a few years for our customers. The driver can no longer be installed under Vista 64. I believe I need to get the driver signed, but I am not sure how I can get started.

• What is the best place to get started?
• How long does this typically take?
• What will I need to send to Microsoft?
• Are there third parties who are willing to do this all for us?
• What does the process (with or without third parties) usually cost?

Answer 1

Although it's skirting around the issue, you can disable the requirement for driver signing by passing an option to the windows kernel from the bootloader.

You'd typically do this with bcdedit, a windows command line tool to edit the boot data store (as the good old boot.ini file was dumped after Windows XP).

Try the following from an administritive command prompt (if you have UAC enabled, hit start, type cmd, hold CTRL+SHIFT and press Enter to start cmd as an admin):

bcdedit /set loadoptions DDISABLE_INTEGRITY_CHECKS

Edit:

You can also achieve something similar by modifying the local Group Policy settings:

1. Start > gpedit.msc > User settings > System > Driver Installation
2. Set the 'Code Signing for drivers' setting to Enabled + Warn or Ignore

Hope that helps!

Answer 2

You start by reading all the stuff on the WindowsLogo site.

Although actually Vista 64 refuses to load unsigned drivers, not non-WHQL drivers, so imply purchasing a software signing certificate and signing the executables will be enough.

Answer 3

Here is a link to Microsoft's whitepaper about the steps necessary for driver signing: Kernel Mode Code Signing Whitepaper