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

It appears "defense-in-depth" means a newly engineered way to defeat the test signing, which also means no one could try to update SECDRV to fix "vulnerability problems" , a task which ROVI (formerly Macrovision) claims belongs to Microsoft, and which Microsoft had done before for Win 7 and Win 8.  (Ref: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2015/08/17/windows-10-safedisc-securom-drm/).

So it is plainly clear that this is an "in your face" from MS to users: they think they have the power to force you to restock with new games from the MS app store with a tantalizing free or low cost OS upgrade (a very Apple-like strategy).  Further, when one finds and publishes a work-around here or on other Windows tech sites, Microsoft rushes to defeat the workaround instead of fixing the driver, AND MAKE THE FIX RETROACTIVE so you can't even revert to an older Windows version to continue to play your favorite games INCLUDING POPULAR MICROSOFT GAME TITLES.

It now looks like "Microsoft Insecurity":

1. "Apple is killing us in the market place - phone / wearable / tablet / software sales and stock prices"
2. "Popular older games are killing X-box"
3. "We aren't getting our share of the 'pay-per-play' market"

Boo hoo, boo, hoo....

"So lets boost sales, shore-up X-box and force all those legacy game players online so we can get more pay-per-play money by disabling all the legacy games we can with 'security updates' - yeah, that'll do it!"

Big companies, small minds...

Adrianll,

The update you're looking for is KB3086255:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3086255

MS15-097: Description of the security update for the graphics component in Windows: September 8, 2015

In the Summary for the KB article:

In addition to the changes that are listed for the vulnerabilities that are described in Microsoft Security Bulletin MS15-097, this security bulletin addresses a defense-in-depth update for the secdrv.sys driver, a third-party driver. The update turns off the service for the secdrv.sys driver. This may affect the ability to run some older games.

-T

It appears you may be more true than speculative.

As a "fix" for this "problem" with Windows 10, I resurrected an old laptop and re-installed Windows 7 as a platform for Civilization III and, eventually, IV. That worked fine until today. This morning there a slew of updates for Win 7, mostly "security" updates, which (as is my custom) I installed enmass. This afternoon when I clicked on the Civ III icon, basically nothing happened -- not even the opening screen. I painfully uninstalled all the "new" patches and rebooted (of course) and all is well -- Civ III came up and is running just fine. Apparently, Microsoft "fixed" Windows 7 to be more secure and not be able to run Civ II, presumably y disabling SECDRV.

I will re-install the patches one at a time over the next several days to try to isolate which patch disables Civ III and reply to this post if I'm successful.

Aaarrrrrggh!

I suggest trying to move games to Steam or Origin or uPlay depending on who the publisher is

uPlay has removed all the DRM from their games so they will generally run ok on any machine

Steam has not been a problem, Origin has had issues but that was due the browser changes

I tried the signing as well, I'm thinking WMCOLE is correct, they have put in place something to ensure secdrv.sys is disabled everytime windows restarts.

If such is the case, the only work around besides a dual boot setup with an older version of windows, is to purchase the game through an online portal like steam and play it through there where it doesn't require a cd.

(or digging through the waste of malware and viruses to find a no cd hack, which even if you have the cd is not legal)

No doubt at some point a virtual windows 7 will be available somewhere, but I still don't see secdrv ever seeing the light of day.

Not only has Microsoft made an enormous attempt to see its demise, it's my belief that Macrovision changed their name to RIVO in an effort to shed responsibility for older software that is now ravaged by malware and viruses.

(I could be wrong)

This of course, is not necessarily just to leave the full burden on companies that publish a new OS to deal with the pieces, but there are some clever alternatives to just shutting the software out, like I posted above.

We can only hope MS is willing to listen, as the older software may be old, but there is still enough that is valid, enough that they really need to address it.  Users will find a way around it anyway, and they will spend more time plugging those holes, than if they just create a solution.