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

Didn't work for me, Windows 10 user

I have a BD drive on my box, I use it to backup files. BD is 25GB and disks are cheap, so it gives me some peace of mind that important files are safe.

Cakes of 20 BD are maybe $20 plus shipping, dual layer 50GB disks are maybe $99 for a cake of 50

I suggest if you use UEFI to boot a big disk you will need an optical drive, UEFI does not support USB sticks for security reasons

I used a dual layer DVD to have a hybrid 32/64 bit installer so it could upgrade any box

THEREFORE, YOU WILL NEVER BE ABLE TO PLAY DRM-PROTECTED OPTICAL MEDIA BASED GAMES IN WINDOWS OPERATING SYSTEMS EVER AGAIN.

I agree with some of your points but have to admit that I've read only parts of your wall of text (rant). I agree that the decision to blacklist secdrv.sys has indeed shady sides and there are some motivations to do so.

I am pretty sure that I will be able to play DRM protected games based on optical media, even though I have to leave the official path and don't even try to bother to solve the secdrv.sys issue but to workaround the protection. That is actually a decision each has to do for his own.

Nevertheless the secdrv.sys and other DRMs aren't troubling for the first time. I can recall that I cannot even run Dune Emperor even though the disc is original and the DRM is pretty much working - but some DRM ever had issues themselves - in junction with newer Windows releases.

Imho the introduction of DRM was the worst decision publishers ever took when trying to protect their property and also it cost a lot of money (licenses and production) - while it was exploitable too easy - any time.

Nowadays optical mediums are fairly OUT. I know just a few people that bothered to buy Blueray writer to store or copy anything like we did in the past, with CDs and DVDs in masses.

I am still convinced that the responsible MS employees aren't reading this thread, so making MS more directly aware about the problem is essential.

Steam and similar platforms will hopefully not close their doors in the future. This would be more of a critical problem than this secdrv.sys issue will become ever.

I agree with Eric and MS that secdrv.sys is a kernel near driver that would not probably work with things like secure boot and UEFI. That's why the digitally signing is so essential at all.

We could blame MS for improving security thus dropping the support for this "ancient" DRM or we just thank them that they protect us from a possible exploitable driver that no regular user is even aware about it does install itself silently on your computer

• in consequence leave you with no control about it and no knowledge if it has been exploited or not.

Have you seen any user dialogue in the past that your disc is installing the driver secdrv.sys at all? At least I haven't.

p.s. Another question: If MS is blocking secdrv.sys why Rovi (Macrovision) does not offer a removal tool for the games officially? Do you really expect that there will happen a colateral financial damage in a form of raised piracy of legacy games? I doubt it.

There are sites like abandonware etc and old games that can be now played for free using VMs etc but they don't see download rates in the thousands or millions like those ridicilous Facebook games have or games within the MS Windows 8/10 store.

Isolate the computer from your phones, iPads and other computers by making sure it's network location is set to Public.

Note that it's quite pointless to only do this while you're playing games, since a security hole might compromise the whole computer permanently. So dual boot to an isolated disk, use different passwords, different, preferably local accounts, etc, then follow these instructions.

As follows:

For Windows 8.1:

http://www.7tutorials.com/change-location-network-private-public-windows-81

For Windows 10:

On a wired network, click Settings, Network & Internet, Ethernet.

There's an icon indicating 'Connected' under it, open it.

Under 'Find devices and content' turn the switch to 'Off'.

On a wifi network, click Settings, Network & Internet, Wifi.

Scroll down to 'Advanced Options' and tap it.

Under 'Find devices and content' turn the switch to 'Off'.

You'll have to do this afterconnecting to a Wifi network (if you have Ethernet and Wifi like on my tablet).

You might have to do this again after you connect to a different Wifi network.

I'm so sorry. I can't be **** to read through this top to bottom.

I refer to the link posted below: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3086255

All shouting, trolling or bashing left aside, it mentions a workaround. Best to dual boot and isolate that OS you use to play games from other computers, accounts, harddrives and networks you use. SECDRV will be compromised sooner rather than later.

This particular link mentions it applies to Windows 8.1 RT, Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2, but not Windows 10. I actually think it might work just the same, at least after test-signing SECDRV.sys and enabling TESTSIGNING boot mode.

Let me summarize here:

• After you install this security update, some programs may not run. (For example, some video games may not run.) To work around this issue, you can temporarily turn on the service for the secdrv.sys driver by running certain commands, or by editing the registry.

Note When you no longer require the service to be running, we recommend that you turn off the service again.

Warning This workaround may make a computer or a network more vulnerable to attack by malicious users or by malicious software such as viruses. We do not recommend this workaround but are providing this information so that you can implement this workaround at your own discretion. Use this workaround at your own risk.

Start a Command Prompt (Administrator)

To allow the service to be started only on demand (safer than automatically upon boot) and then start the service:

sc config secdrv start= demand

sc start secdrv

<start game>

To stop and disable the service:

sc stop secdrv

sc config secdrv start= disabled