With the global increase in the use of computer systems and the dependency on digital systems, one thing that has increased exponentially is cybercrime and this is why we want you to enable Secure Boot Windows 11 This is where secure boot comes into play. Secure Boot is a security feature which is designed by Microsoft essentially in order to rise their security walls that helps in preventing unauthorized or malicious software on the user’s computer, and the best thing- it does all of this during the boot process.
Once a user knows how to enable secure boot in windows 11, the feature will help the user’s system to verify the digital signatures of each and every component that loads during the windows boot process. This verification also includes the components of the operating system itself and the other boot loaders, and device drivers. Enabling secure boot in windows makes sure that only softwares that have been signed by a trusted authority runs on the user’s computer.
How To Enable Secure Boot Windows 11
Now that you know everything about it, let us come to the most important section of this blog where you will learn how to enable secure boot in windows 11. For windows 11 secure boot, you have to follow the steps mentioned below.
Part 1: Change UEFI Settings
In order to be able to enable secure boot in Windows 11, users will first have to access their computer’s UEFI firmware settings.
UEFI stands for Unified Extensible Firmware Interface, which is basically the next generation to the traditional BIOS system (Basic Input/Output System). While BIOS was a stable method that was used to boot computers of the last generation, the UEFI firmware provides a more advanced and much more secure boot environment comparatively.
Step 1: Open the settings application on your windows device.
Step 2: From the bunch of options, click on “Update & Security” and then from the dialog box, on the left side of the pane, click on “Recovery”.
Step 3: Under the “Advanced Startup” section, look for the “Restart now” option, and then click on it.
Step 4: Once you click on the restart option, your computer will automatically restart and boot into the Windows Recovery Environment.
Step 5: Once your device boots in the Windows Recovery Environment, find the “Troubleshoot” option and click on it and then go to the “Advanced options.”
Step 6: In the advanced options, you will find the “UEFI Firmware Settings.” Once you enable it, click on “Restart”. Clicking on Restart will boot your device into the UEFI firmware settings.
Part 2: Enable Secure Boot Windows 11
Once a user has accessed and changed their computer’s UEFI firmware settings. We can go to the next step, which is enabling Secure Boot in Windows 11. To enable secure boot, follow the steps mentioned below precisely.
Step 1: In the UEFI firmware settings, look for the “Secure Boot” option. Depending on the make of your device, the option might not be visible. In that case, look for an option such as “Boot Options,” “Advanced Boot Options,” or “Security”.
Step 2: Once you have found the Secure Boot option in the UEFI firmware settings. All you have to do is enable it by setting the toggle to “Enabled” or “On.”
Step 3: After changing the setting to your desired option, users will have to save and exit the UEFI firmware settings.
How To Verify Secure Boot Status
Now, if you have followed the steps mentioned in the “How To Enable Secure Boot in Windows 11” section, the secure boot must have been enabled. But if you still are a little sceptical, this section will tell you how to verify the secure boot status in windows 11. To do so, follow the steps mentioned below.
Step 1: Open the “Run” dialogue box. You can either do it from the start menu or press the Windows Key + R to open the Run dialogue box.
Step 2: In the Run dialogue box, type in “msinfo32” and press Enter. Make sure that you enter the exact text mentioned here, otherwise, you might end up hampering some other system.
Step 3: Once the “msinfo32” option runs, you will see that the System Information window has appeared on your screen.
Step 4: In the pile of information, you will have to look for the “Secure Boot State” entry in the System Summary section. If the value against the “Secure Boot State” is “On,” you can be happy and verify that the Secure Boot is enabled on your windows 11 device and is working correctly.
But, if you see that the value is “Off” or “Unsupported,” how to enable Secure Boot will not work. There can also be an issue with the UEFI firmware settings for the Windows 11 secure boot because of which it is not working.
If you are techy, read this blog if you want to learn how to Uninstall WSL.
Benefits of Windows 11 Secure Boot
While enabling secure boot on windows 11 is a fairly easy process, people might still need multiple reasons to enable Secure Boot. There are several benefits of enabling secure boot on your windows device. Some of the most common benefits are mentioned below.
Protection Against Rootkits and Bootkits
A rootkit is a type of malware that is designed to hide its presence and activities on a compromised system. It typically achieves this by modifying the operating system or other critical components of the system in order to intercept and manipulate system calls and other low-level functions
A bootkit is a type of rootkit that is specifically designed to infect the boot process of a computer. It typically replaces or modifies the boot loader or other critical components of the boot process, allowing it to load before the operating system and avoid detection by security software.
This is how learning how to enable secure boot is extremely important to avoid harm from rootkits and boot kits. This malware can harm your device and steal critical information even from the deepest levels if not stopped early on. This makes it more difficult for attackers to install and execute malicious code on your computer.
Improves Firmware Security
You must realise that firmware is the software that runs completely on your device’s hardware, such as the BIOS or the UEFI firmware. This is extremely important for initializing and configuring your hardware even before the operating system boots.
This is why firmware vulnerabilities are used frequently exploited by hackers to gain remote control of your device and even steal sensitive or crucial information without triggering any information to the user.
To avoid all of this, a user should enable Secure Boot as it can help improve their firmware security by ensuring that only digitally signed and authenticated firmware is allowed to run during the boot process.
Preventing Unauthorized Access
One of the most important additions that Secure Boot adds is its ability to prevent any unauthorized access to a user’s computer.
The secure boot feature from Microsoft is able to do so by verifying the digital signatures on all of the boot components. This verification is done not only to the default boot components, but also for the other boot loaders, and device drivers.
By avoiding any unauthorized software from loading during the windows boot process, Secure Boot also helps users by providing protection against physical attacks in which hackers attempt to bypass or modify the boot process.
Apart from learning how to enable Secure Boot Windows 11, here are the best ways to prevent unauthorized computer access.