How to Disable Secure Boot on Surface 4, 3, and More

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posted on 5 years ago — updated on 1 second ago

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Secure boot ensures that only digitally signed operating systems run on your Surface device. Secure boot helps protect against bootkits, or malware that infects the master boot record (MBR) on your computer. While there should be no need to change this setting, if you plan on installing an older operating system such as Windows 7 and earlier or run operating systems that are unsigned such as some distributions of Linux, you may need to disable secure boot to be able to run these needed operating systems. This wikiHow will show you how to disable secure boot so you can boot a legacy operating system or an OS that does not support secure boot.[1]
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Steps

Surface Pro 4 and Later

Boot into the Surface UEFI. With your Surface powered down, hold the volume up key on the tablet (not keyboard) or the F6 key on Surface Laptop. Then press the power button. Keep on holding the buttons down. If neither of these options work, then hold the shift key while restarting your computer, then go to Troubleshoot > Advanced options > UEFI firmware settings, and choose Restart.

Choose the Security tab. This tab is on the left pane of the UEFI screen. If text is upside down, then make sure that the keyboard cover connector is oriented downward.

Choose Change configuration under "Secure boot".

Choose None from the drop-down popup that appears. If you are installing a third party signed operating system, choose Microsoft and 3rd party CA instead. Then choose OK.

Choose Exit and then Restart now. You know if your Surface has secure boot off if you see a red screen or red bar when you power it on.

Surface Pro 3 and Earlier

Boot into the Surface UEFI. With your Surface powered down, hold the volume up key on the tablet (not keyboard). Then press the power button. Keep on holding the buttons down.

Choose Secure boot control.

Choose Disabled or Delete secure boot keys on the popup that appears.

Choose Exit setup.

Choose Yes. You know if your Surface has secure boot off if you see a red screen or red bar when you power it on.