Why do unsigned drivers *work* in 64 bit?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Michael Trebilcock
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M

Michael Trebilcock

Hello,

I tried ringing customer support about this issue, but as I was having the
opposite of problems, and everything was working fine, the woman on the
phone got confused and couldn't answer my questions.

I have a Belkin F5D7000au v7000 WiFi card. It doesn't support Vista out of
the box; You have to download updated drivers from the Internet.

I'm using a 64bit edition, and the drivers available are not digitally
signed, yet they work perfectly. On a further note, a different unsigned
driver for a different device (DVB stick) does not work and gives me an
error message about it not being signed, however that driver is for the
remote control feature of the stick which is a USB HID device; The actual
driver that allows me to receive a television signal and display it, works
fine (Sound & Game Controllers), and again it is not signed either.

Also, a person on a message board I frequent installs Windows Vista 64bit
NVIDIA Beta drivers for his graphics card. They are also not signed, and
still works too.

Does Vista have exclusions I don't know about?


Thanks,
Michael
 
Michael Trebilcock said:
Hello,

I tried ringing customer support about this issue, but as I was having the
opposite of problems, and everything was working fine, the woman on the
phone got confused and couldn't answer my questions.

I have a Belkin F5D7000au v7000 WiFi card. It doesn't support Vista out of
the box; You have to download updated drivers from the Internet.

I'm using a 64bit edition, and the drivers available are not digitally
signed, yet they work perfectly. On a further note, a different unsigned
driver for a different device (DVB stick) does not work and gives me an
error message about it not being signed, however that driver is for the
remote control feature of the stick which is a USB HID device; The actual
driver that allows me to receive a television signal and display it, works
fine (Sound & Game Controllers), and again it is not signed either.

Also, a person on a message board I frequent installs Windows Vista 64bit
NVIDIA Beta drivers for his graphics card. They are also not signed, and
still works too.

Does Vista have exclusions I don't know about?
Click to expand...


Only kernel mode drivers and user mode drivers that use DRM protected paths
need to be signed. There are also different levels of signing for different
types of drivers.

http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/winlogo/drvsign/drvsign_perOS.mspx
 
helpdesk - "Hello, support, how may I help you?"

user - "Everything's working perfectly on my copy of Vista"

helpdesk - "It is? Oh dear I'm very sorry! Please hold while I transfer you
to one of our expert engineers who can stop it working for you"

:)

Peter Lawton
 
That's nearly how it went.

We were both laughing (albeit probably for different reasons) because I
didn't have a problem, but a question about why everything was working when
it shouldn't be!

... and then she tried to get me to speak to L2 Technical Support but that
would have cost me money. Rip off. Microsoft must make trillions in profits,
surely they can afford completely free technical support.
 
Thanks for that, I assume a wifi card doesn't run in kernel mode, but a
remote control device does? Hmm.

"The following table summarizes how Windows handles the installation of
kernel-mode Plug and Play drivers for four common signing scenarios. It
applies to the Windows NT family of operating systems, starting with Windows
2000. Some general notes:"

I know what kernel means, so you don't need to educate me :-)
 
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