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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,
There are a number of differences between the Home, Pro, and Ultimate... But the Ultimate no longer exists... Win 10 Pro is now the equivalent of the Ultimate...
One difference is that pro and Higher has Group Policy editor that enables changing a lot more of the machines settings without editing the registry..
There are more differences, but I am at a loss to think of them at the moment.
One of my machines was Win 7 Home Premium, and it didn't seem like I was missing much of anything compared to the Pro machine.
The Create Media link does in fact match up the download to the machine that is downloading it to, to a certain degree... There is a small box to "Download For A Different Machine" should you ever need it again...
Almost forgot.. The Lock Taskbar button doesn't do anything by itself, but if you uncheck it, you can drag the Taskbar up or down to make it thicker, from top to bottom... Like you are resizing a window...
OK on the Task Bar. Your's is simply a different way to find what I found in the Control Panels/Display.
I have all in there unchecked -- so my Task Bar is already as big as it gets. By big, I mean size of the icons, not width of the bar. But it is decidedly smaller than I had it in Win 8.1 -- small enough that it caused eye strain. And I guess nothing I can do about that. Al;so, now that my task bar is the full width of the screen, clicking into the Lock square does nothing to shorten it -- not that I want it shorter anyway.
Re the Win 7 machine, I did not try to go with Ultimate (not Pro, Ultimate) from the booted DVD. I just went with Home Premium. For one thing, the message from the desktop indicated that disk cannot upgrade an Ultimate install -- I'm sure it would only have rejected the Ultimate serial. That's what I was saying when I said it appears to be OS-specific. I guess the download automatically gives you what is on the machine you are downloading to. At any rate, it is not a universal disk, is OS-specific, apparently mine is only for the Home Premium edition.
And I didn't need to start a new chapter to see if I really could upgrade Ultimate with it - because this guy has no idea of the difference nor use for it, wouldn't appreciate it if he had it, and I don't think he even knew he had it. And my head would explode if I had to research that now! Frankly, I don't know what extra Ultimate might have anyway.
Hi,
I'm glad you finally got rid of the search box... If you right click on Taskbar and select Properties, on the first window on the upper is a box for small Icons for the taskbar..
I think that is the only setting for the icons...
You can change the size of the actual Taskbar by unchecking the "Lock Taskbar" when you right click... You can fit more icons on it if you make it larger, but it just gets in my way... I keep it the smallest size.
Microsoft claims that all of the Windows Updates are automatic so that everyone's machine is the same... So for instance if someone has a problem with an update or something, they know none of the updates have been skipped or something...
I liked it much better the old way... It is hard to say... In the future they might change it back.
Did the Win 7 machine end up with Win 10 Home or Pro ?
I would think it should have upgraded the Ultimate without a problem, but maybe there was some type of confusion with the licensing...
That's how I ended up on the forums... I was originally looking for an answer to a problem, and realized I knew answers... or how to find them... for some of the questions...
I build my own machines now... except for my laptop and tablet of course... so I have a good background in hardware related issues... There are still areas that I am as lost as everyone else though...
I don't get what you get when I right click on the Task Bar, no Cortana in it. I think you have not yet fully shut off Cortana. It is not in my list. And that box I refer to is no longer Cortana, it has been converted to a simple search box to search the computer.
However, because I did that, I saw Hidden in the list. Now, that wasn't Hide, it was Hidden. I wasn't sure, it sounded like it was to see or resurrect anything that had been hidden. I didn't want to resurrect Cortana!
I finally just clicked on it -- and it hide the box I was trying to get rid of, which is where I had right clicked! Then it should have said Hide, not HIdden! How stupid -- I've complained about bad communication from MS before.
So, that is done. Now I want to enlarge the icons in the task bar a bit --I saw a Task Bar settings thing yesterday, so I will find that again and make that adjustment. But I have hunted for it three times yesterday, not easy to find it, and with a million things, can't yet remember it all. But its there, I'll find it.
Re Cortana and that you still see it in that list, you might want to do the extra step to further turn it off. I got it in that URL about the privacy setting I had posted here a while back. So, just FYI:
Click on the Cortana box in the Task Bar, then click on the notebook icon at top left of the pop up window. In the list that comes up, select Settings. In there, you turn off "Cortana Can Give You Suggestions, ideas, reminders, alerts, and more."
With that, that box will change to simply a search box to search the computer. And apparently you will no longer get Cortana in the list when you right click on the Task Bar.
Yes on Windows Update. Don't know why they did that. Possibly a nuclear thing to thwart pirated OSs. I know in the past they had an early update with an innocuous name that would check to make sure the OS was legal, not hacked. People had learned about it, and they would catch it before it was installed and not install it.
But geee, that is an awfully nuclear way to address that! Everyone suffers forever more just over that one isolated issue MS wants. For god's sake, they're giving the OS away for free, so how can you be all worried about pirating it?!
"Some roadblocks?!" No, a million. Wow, all that tech stuff we went through over the backup and the IDE drive and GPT and UEIF. And not being able to test it, and,. and, and. TYOu are simply amazing, you are just going to have to get used to that idea. :) I guess I have to bee thankful for winter that you would able to devote all that time. :) And be happy to know that now I can help some other people with it too --as I already did with my Thai watchmaker. updating his laptop.
BTW, the OS download is version-specific. His laptop originally had Win 7 Home, but now had Win 7 Ultimate. It would not let me run the installer from the desktop, saying the OS was mismatched with the Ultimate on there. I thought it would just run but install Home with his Home serial. Nope. That's why I had to boot from the DVD, and in the process I did erase his hard drive, so maybe that it the only reason it did the install, to a blank drive.
