SECDRV.SYS Not Loading in Windows 10; this will break thousands of older games.

I'm having the same problem but with a twist.

A few months ago I bought a new Dell XPS8700 that came with Windows 8.1.  I loaded a couple of my older games (Doom3, Call of Duty) and initially they worked fine.  Until they didn't.  They suddenly stopped working and I was getting the error message that I needed to log in with Administrator Privileges, even though I was already logged on as Administrator.  I've since upgraded to Windows 10 but, of course, the problem continues.

Looking at Event Viewer in my Windows 10 installation, I can see that the problem is with SecDrv.

Aaargh.

You are right - there is no justifiable "vulnerability level / index" for complete and retroactive removal of this driver from Windows.  It is "hardball- all-out-war" marketing.  It turns out Rovi (latest gen Macrovision, original creator of SECDRV.SYS) is also the media platform for Cox Cable.  (Be interesting to see whose logo appears on the settings page of Time-Warner and Comcast cable boxes).  That means Rovi has a huge chunk of all the automated media delivery, business info and user-info collection and processing business in non-OTA media delivery in the USA and Europe (probably Canada as well). 

I'm 99% sure is just one small skirmish in Microsoft's attempt to bump Rovi out of the marketplace and make Windows and Silverlight the dominant content delivery / media management / business and customer management platform for cable, wi-fi, OTT, cell-phone and Satellite distribution systems and move gamers to X-Box.  To paraphrase a line from the movie, "Sneakers", its not the one who controls money who has the power - its the one who controls information.  What better way to control information than to be the dominant / sole platform for any and all distribution channels, means and methods?

Those of us who enjoy playing disc-based games from our legally purchased software collections are collateral damage who mean less to Microsoft than the dump Steve Balmer flushed away this morning. They have no intention of providing an 'acceptable risk' version of SECDRV.SYS (as they have done on two previous occasions) and every intention of watching for, and defeating every attempt at a work-around.

Once Microsoft discovered users knew which individual KB / fix removed secdrv compatibility from their systems, and uninstalled just that fix, they started burying it in cumulative updates that were mandatory to install in order to receive any further updates.  So your only real choice is to revive an old Windows XP system for those games.

If you have no interest in being dictated to like an Apple customer ("You vill take das updates ven ve vant you to undt you vill like it!") it may be time to go to linux for your computing needs and perhaps Playstation or some non-Microsoft platform for gaming.

The current actions by Microsoft seem to clearly indicated that they are too big for individual private users of general-purpose computing and media consumption devices. Only large corporate users and competitors matter.  So it is time for us "little guys / gals" to head for friendlier pastures.

I cannot believe there was data that pointed to his "vulnerability" as critical security update.

Microsoft's own games now do not work (AoE).  From reading reviews the "new, improved" HD versions are not replacements for the originals.

I only upgraded one pc to Windows 10 - and this is why I am waiting on doing the rest of them - I don't know if I will ever do the other pc's I own.  And this is why we don't trust big software companies..."free" Windows 10 upgrade.  Nothing is ever free.  I don't think they know the meaning of that word - "free."

So now I get to uninstall the update on the pc's that my kids use to play these games and/or edit registry(not sure if that will work - tried the other cmd prompt workarounds to no avail).  And make sure they know - do not click the Windows 10 upgrade - regardless of the freaking nagging.

I hope MS changes this issue, but I highly doubt it.  I just wish there was an OS alternative to windows that has same look, feel, gui experience so that other family members would be comfortable.  But then none of the games would run...so it's Microsoft's monopoly to own us and control what we are able to do or not do on their "free" os.

I am surprised that MSFT has not backpedaled in this problem

A vast number of disk games I own are not working

I applaud your decision to do the right / obvious thing and drop back to an OS that you're satisfied with -- and that, by design, allows SECDRV to run (however risky it may be). I made the same decision by repurposing an old laptop and pretty much dedicating it as a Civilization host). I still much prefer Win 10 as my general OS.

If you had read this entire (admittedly very long) string of comments, you'd have known the relevant "patch" is KB3086255. Just uninstall that one update -- and don't let it be re-installed (or keep removing it) -- and SECDRV will once again do it's thing. It works fine for me.