A signed OSīesides disabling the Windows 8 secure boot process, another option for Linux lovers is installing a signed version of Linux. This is reminiscent of Google’s Cr-48 Chromebook, which allowed users to turn off the Verified Boot process and install another operating system, though this involved flipping a physical switch instead of changing a software setting. The Windows 8 developer tablet Microsoft handed out at this month’s BUILD conference did include the ability to turn off the secure boot process. Technically, vendors can ship Windows 8 PCs without meeting Microsoft's "designed for Windows 8" logo requirements, but major OEMs typically would not do that. But it is worth being concerned.” Advertisement
Equally, it's almost certainly the case that some systems won't.
“It's almost certainly the case that some systems will ship with the option of disabling this. “Experience indicates that many firmware vendors and OEMs are interested in providing only the minimum of firmware functionality required for their market,” Garrett writes. But this will depend on the hardware vendor. Importantly, though, Garrett writes that “there’s no indication that Microsoft will prevent vendors from providing firmware support for disabling this feature and running unsigned code.”įor many (and hopefully most) Windows 8 machines, this means that users have a good chance of successfully entering the UEFI settings interface to turn off secure boot. “UEFI and secure boot harden the boot process reduce the likelihood of bootkits, rootkits and ransomware.” A “growing class of malware targets the boot path often the only fix is to reinstall the operating system,” van der Hoeven said. The Microsoft exec notes that UEFI and secure boot are “required for Windows 8 client” with the result that “all firmware and software in the boot process must be signed by a trusted Certificate Authority.” “Microsoft requires that machines conforming to the Windows 8 logo program and running a client version of Windows 8 ship with secure boot enabled,” Red Hat developer Matthew Garrett writes on his blog in reference to a recent presentation by Microsoft program manager Arie van der Hoeven. But users will have to depend on hardware vendors to make this option possible in the first place. This could pose a problem for Linux users, though in practice most can just change UEFI settings to disable secure boot before installing the open-source OS. That's because systems with a "Designed for Windows 8" logo must ship with UEFI secure booting enabled-a move that prevents booting operating systems that aren’t signed by a trusted Certificate Authority.
PC users who run Windows and Linux on the same machine will want to do some research before purchasing a Windows 8 computer.
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