Getting secure boot and efi working in Windows 8

[pmill]

I have a z77 Extreme4-m and after the latest bios update it now supports secure boot etc, but without proper documentation it took me a long time to figure out how to actually get it to work. For this reason I'll share my finding for the next person to make it easy.

To use Secure boot you have to install Windows 8 in efi mode and your boot drive has to be formated for GPT. All of this is automatic once you properly setup your install media. In my case I used the Microsoft Windows 7 USB/DVD tool to create an install thumbdrive. This does not work for installing in efi mode because the tool formats the thumbdrive for NTFS and it has to be FAT32. Once you are settled on that, reboot with the thumbdrive in and push F11 for boot menu at bios boot screen. There will be a new option of UEFI USB, boot using that option and you will know it's working properly because the ASROCK logo replaces the Windows 8 startup logo as you install and even when you boot into windows after words.

To check that Secure boot is working properly, open Windows Power Shell in Admin mode and type:

confirm-securebootuefi

It should say True in response.

[parsec]

Thanks for the info, but it seems like you skipped a step. As in this part:

In my case I used the Microsoft Windows 7 USB/DVD tool to create an install thumbdrive. This does not work for installing in efi mode because the tool formats the thumbdrive for NTFS and it has to be FAT32. Once you are settled on that, reboot with the thumbdrive in and push F11 for boot menu at bios boot screen.

Between "FAT32" and "Once...", how did you get the thumbdrive formatted in FAT32, and the Windows iso written to the drive?

[pmill]

I wrote this up with one foot out the door earlier. You can just format the thumbdrive on any computer using fat32, then copy over the full contents of the Win8 ISO or DVD. As long as you use the bios boot menu (F11) and choose EFI USB it will boot off the thumbdrive. I also forgot to mention, you will need to enable Secure Boot and create default keys in the bios before windows will use Secure Boot. You can do this before or after installing windows.

I initially wanted to use Secure boot for added rootkit protection, but after seeing Windows boot in EFI mode, I'm more impressed with that function. It's fast to boot and looks like it's loading directly from the bios.

[parsec]

That's better, thank you. The devil is in the details and without them, we end up in hell...

[baconbrain]

Setup my ASR Z77 Extreme4 with UEFI version 2.4 for secure boot last night and it went really easy. Just inserted my Win 8 Dvd in the drive, started up the system, and pressed F11 to call up the boot menu. There my optical drive was listed as UEFI:BR10xx, I selected it, and then went thru the normal win install routine. When you are finished and everything has been installed correctly, you should have three partitions on your boot drive. 2 small system partitions and the third containing the os.