This browser is no longer supported.
Upgrade to Microsoft Edge to take advantage of the latest features, security updates, and technical support.
![](data:image/svg+xml, %3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' height='64' class='font-weight-bold' style='font: 600 30.11764705882353px "SegoeUI", Arial' width='64'%3E%3Ccircle fill='hsl(128, 8%, 22%)' cx='32' cy='32' r='32' /%3E%3Ctext x='50%25' y='55%25' dominant-baseline='middle' text-anchor='middle' fill='%23FFF' %3EA%3C/text%3E%3C/svg%3E)
I am trying for the first time to boot my Windows 8.1 laptop from the internal CD-DVD drive. I have a bootable CD in there, and yes, I do have the bios set with CDROM drive as first in the list to boot from. But when I try to boot from the CD, it won't boot, instead the computer gives me this message:
"ATAPI CDROM has been blocked by the current security policy."
(Its actually a DVD drive.) All it lets me do at that message is hit the Enter key to OK the message, and then it boots from the hard drive.
I have no idea where "security policy" settings are or what they are set for. What do I have to do to get this to boot?
This is a Gateway laptop, 2.2 MHz Intel Pentium processor, 4 GB RAM, 64 bit OS, with Windows 8.1 fully updated, and Windows Defender running and fully updated.
I have already looked everywhere I can find, but nothing seems to address this message or issue, as follows:
*I went to Help menu to look up "Security Policy." While the computer is giving me the message about "security policy," the Help menu has no idea what "security policy" is, it just comes up blank!
*I went to Control Panels/System and Security/Action Center/Change Windows Settings/Smart Screen/... All I found in there that might be involved is a setting to block anything downloaded from the Internet until I give administrator access. Well, the booting issue didn't allow me to give administrator access (yes, I am the administrator) when I tried to boot, I only could hit the enter key to OK. Nonetheless, I changed to: notify me but proceed (not a quote).
With that, I tried again, but it still would not boot from the CD, got the same message, so that setting is not it. I changed the setting back.
I see no other setting there that could be related by even a stretch. And the control panels should be dealing with the OS anyway, and this is happening while trying to boot from the OS on the CD, not the hard drive. That is, this is something in the root.
*I then went into bios area (UEFI Firmware) by sweeping in from the right and into Settings/Change PC settings ..., and found a tab in bios for Security. Looking there, there is a list of things, but it lets me access only "Supervisor Password." It was currently set as "clear," meaning no password. I left it as that -- surely I can't need a password just to boot from a CD, and the message I got in trying to boot from the CD did not allow me to enter a password.
Other settings in the Security tab were not accessible. The only ones they included that might be remotely related were:
*Password on Boot, which was set as no password. But again, the message I get with this issue does not ask for nor allow me to enter a password.
*Secure Boot Mode: Standard (It does not let me access to change that.)
Some others also were in the list that are not worth listing, not even vaguely related.
I then went into some other things elsewhere in the main settings called Startup Settings. The only thing in there that sounded the least bit vaguely related was "Enable boot logging." I punched F2 to go into that, but the machine instead restarted, and did not start from the CDROM, same message again. I went back to it, and it is still listed as Enable boot logging, does not instead say Disable - so I don't know if anything even got changed. I did not touch it again, left it as-is.
So, that's it. I've checked all the settings I know about. Nothing about this bit about "ATAPI CDROM has been blocked by current security policy."
I tested with two DVDs that I have booted from in the past on other Windows machines -- they also would not boot, but they did not give me that message.
I note, all three CDs/DVDs are being read fine by the DVD drive once the machine is booted in Windows 8.1 from the hard drive - so the issue is not that the DVD drive can't read the disks.
Where is this "security policy" set?! What do I need to do to get this to boot from the CD?
Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.
Hi,
So everything is back to normal... or at least working to your satisfaction ?
You seem to know more about manipulating your email than I do, but though I may be able to help by describing what my screen looks like !
I know how that kind of conversation goes... Not so much with Microsoft, but with my internet provider sometimes..
Hi,
That's s good idea to remove the Synaptics from the Excluded List... and good luck with the installation...
A SSD is a Solid State Drive... It is considerably faster than a Hard Drive... A SATA III Hard Drive has a maximum speed of around 200mbps under the best of conditions...
Usually quite a bit less..
A SATA III Solid State Drive is more like 550mbps...
Well, I'm back. The upgrade from the ISO, including the downloads (which only took some minutes this time, no more than 10 minutes maybe) took 1 hour and 35 minutes.
First thing that happened upon restart is that that pop up window about that Synaptics file came up. :) I unchecked that box, will see if it comes up at next restart, if so, will go to Windows Defender and exclude it again.
What you're waiting to hear: WINVER identifies the OS as:
Version 1607, OS Build 12393.10.
So, this is the right one.
This added an icon in my task bar for Windows store, that is the first thing I got rid of.:)
Will look around and see what's what. In fact, first thing I will do is a restart to check about that file, and if that pop up comes up again, I will just exclude it. I don't need half a dozen tests of that.
I would hate to play with deleting and reinstalling - because the trackpad works great, better than ever - and if it ain't broke, don't fix it. If the file is damaged, it is the last install that did that yesterday. That didn't happen before that.
I'm going to go to the other post now, update the build number, and otherwise give some kind of response. I don't really want to go hunt for the download at Gateway again, download it, delete the current, install anew, and then find it still happens. But maybe I will going forward.
Well, I guess that it is carrying over suggests it is something about the file, since the OS itself would have been upgraded so hopefully something broken would have been replaced.
And will run updates now.
So, is SATA now going to be left behind in favor of SDD, like IDE was left behind?
Reporting on results of reinstalling Synaptics: Seems to have fixed issue.
I looked last night before going to bed, and saw that I kept the Synaptics installer I got last February, so I would not have to hunt it down again. So, first thing upon restart this morning, I uninstalled the existing installation, and then I ran the installer to do it all over again.
Then I restarted, and dang, that damn pop up came up again. So, I unchecked that box about asking every time, and then I did another restart.
With that, the pop up did not come up.
I tested again with another restart, and again, it did no come up.
And the trackpad seems to work just fine.
I note, I do not see that icon in the task bar now. I don't know if that will return at some point, but I see that file is where it was before, so in theory I can access it there -- but in reality I never will because I won't know it is there or what those functions that it offers, functions I have never used before.
But the pop up issue seems to be fixed.
Hi,
Glad to hear things went fairly smoothly... A good number of the last Preview builds were specifically trying to make sure that happened.... I'm sure some people have had issues though..
The only thing I can think as to why you are getting that popup is that there have been some recent changes about "Certificates"... It may be that you drivers don't meet the newer criteria...
That may also be the reason the Icon is missing... Does it not even appear if you click on the up arrow to the left of the icons ? If not, it would indicate to me that the specific process isn't loading at start... But if it is available elsewhere, that isn't a problem anyway...
As far as the SSD goes... It's not so much a difference as comparing IDE to SATA, which is basically just a different connection, but a change from a mechanical\magnetic drive to a digital type of drive...
A SSD uses a special type of memory chips...there are no moving parts, which is especially good as far as Laptops are concerned....
But the read\write speeds are way faster than a mechanical Hard Drive...
