Locate the Secure Boot option in your BIOS/UEFI setup menu and disable it.

You might have to tweak some other prefs in BIOS/UEFI to be able to toggle the Secure Boot option.

  1. stash your changes and reboot your PC.

iPhone 16e with iPhone 16 Plus and iPhone 16 Pro in hand against grey wall.

Secure Bootis a security feature supported on Windows and some Linux distros.

What Is Secure Boot Anyway?

Note that the BIOS/UEFI menu can look and be organized very differently depending on your machine.

Tiny PC Hero

If you have trouble following with your equipment, check out our hints at the end of the instructions.

However, other motherboard and laptop manufacturers have different BIOS setup keys.

Hold Shift until youre presented with the Advanced Startup menu, like in the screenshot below.

Person pushing the power button on the Lenovo Legion Pro 5 (AMD) Gen 8.

Hannah Stryker / How-To Geek

Once there, tap the Troubleshoot button.

Next, smack the Advanced Options button.

Then poke the UEFI Firmware options button.

Click the Troubleshoot button once you open the Advanced Startup menu

Once there, poke the Restart Now button.

Just keep holding the F2 key after your equipment turns on until you enter the BIOS setup.

On MSI motherboards and laptops, smack the configs button and then smack the Advanced tab.

Once you open the troubleshoot menu click the Advanced Options button

Once there, grab the Windows OS Configuration tab.

Next, poke the Secure Boot tab.

If its enabled, and you want to disable it, poke the button and snag the Disable option.

In the advanced options menu click the UEFI Firmware Settings button to open the UEFI setup menu

Secure Boot can be enabled when System in User Mode.

Repeat operation after enrolling Platform Key(PK).

If that happens, change the Secure Boot mode option from Standard to Custom.

After you select to open the UEFI setup menu click the Restart button

Then, switch back to Standard, and click Yes when prompted to Install Factory Defaults.

Next, select No when asked whether to exit without saving.

Now you should be able to enable or disable Secure Boot without issues.

Type advanced startup in Windows Search and then open the advanced startup options menu

On Acer laptops, the toggle is either located in the Security or Boot menus.

On most Dell devices, the option is found in the Boot or Boot Sequence tabs.

For example, if you own aRazer laptop, Google How to disable Secure Boot on Razer laptops.

Click the restart now button in the advanced startup menu to open the advanced startup and the UEFI setup menu

Should You Disable Secure Boot?

If youre a regular user, disabling Secure Boot doesn’t offer much of a benefit.

In other words, theres no harm in keeping Secure Boot enabled in most cases.

Once you open your system’s BIOS/UEFI setup, click the settings button and then open the advanced tab

Note that you could install Windows 11 only on machines with support for Secure Boot.

So if you want to play those games, you have to enable Secure Boot.

In the Advanced tab, click the Windows OS Configuration tab

After you open the Windows OS Configuration menu, click the Secure Boot option

After you change the Secure Boot option, exit the UEFI setup menu and make sure to save your configuration before exiting

If you find that you cannot toggle the Secure Boot option, switch from Standard to Custom secure boot mode and then switch back to Standard mode

Afte you switch back to the Standard secure boot mode, make sure to install factory defaults by pressing the Yes button when prompted

Do not select to reset without saving, which means you need to click the No button when prompted