Turn Secure Boot Off Safe?

[CraigerM]

Hi.  I had to turn secure boot off so I can boot with a USB flash drive and do a clean install of Windows 11.  Is it safe to leave that off?  Also why do you have to turn secure boot off to boot with a USB flash drive?  I have the USB flash drive as the first boot device in the boot manager but it still wouldn't boot until I turned secure boot off.  Thanks, Craig.

[Grzwacz]

HI,

Windows 11 requires, among other things, active Secure Boot and enabled TPM 2.0. Your dilemma does not compute. Correctly created Microsoft boot media should always boot on a Secure Boot enabled PC.

Did you successfully install Windows 11 after turning off Secure Boot? It is possible to install W11 clean without TPM or Secure Boot but you may not get any Microsoft updates to the PC in the future. So this is not a good scenario.

Regard

[CraigerM]

I was able to do a clean install of WIndows 11 with secure boot off.  Plus get Windows updates.  Sorry I should have said they said you can get Windows 11 final build early if you belong to the Dev Channel and get an ISO of it.   I used an ISO program called Rufus for Windows 11. 

Should I turn secure boot back on now that I have a clean install of Windows 11?  It just wouldn't boot with a USB Flash drive with Windows 11 with secure boot on.

[Grzwacz]

Hi, 

Try Secure Boot. But it seems you may have created Legacy (MBR) USB boot media.

So W11 may not boot if you turn Secure Boot on as it requires GPT instead of MBR.

Also, did you verify your PC meets W11 requirements using Microsoft's PC health check ?

Regards

[CraigerM]

I decided to to a clean install of WIndows 10 and turned on Secure Boot and it booted into Windows 10.  I will just wait until you can get the official ISO when it launches on Oct. 5th on the Windows 11 site.  I guess Secure Boot wouldn't let me boot from the USB because is was also from the Windows Insider Preview Program even though they said it would be the same build as the build on release day?