USB Windows Media installation with Secure Boot enabled.

[HHH003]

Anytime I’ve attempted a Secure Boot Windows install, the USB never shows up as a boot option. Either I have to enable legacy boot and disable Secure Boot or disable the NVMe drive (where Windows is installed) as a boot device and move the USB to the first boot device. Then it often requires several boot attempts to actually get into the Windows installer on the USB drive. This seems like a lot of extra work and I’m wondering if I’m missing something. 

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

I don't have a Z workstation, but on my HP and Dell business class desktop PC's, with secure boot off, I install W10 in EFI Mode...from one of the EFI boot sources...EFI USB or EFI DVD.

After W10 has installed, I then enable secure boot.

[HHH003]

That works really well on my computer as well... this new Windows 11 is going to require Secure Boot enabled to install it.  You can install inside of windows as a upgrade, but a clean boot doesn't seem like it's going to work very well.  I'm still experimenting with different ways to get it to work with Secure Boot active.  Most of my USB's are 3.0 and I have seen it mentioned they often don't work correctly... so I'm going to try a USB 2.0 drive.  

[Paul_Tikkanen]

I too, have been unable to install W10 with secure boot enabled.

There are no useful EFI devices to boot from.

I used DVD's.

With secure boot disabled, no problem.

[HHH003]

I tried out something different... a PNY USB 2.0 drive with secure boot enabled. I created the media using Rufus Tool and FAT32.  Since my .ISO image is less than 4GB, it worked using FAT32 format.  If the image is larger than 4 GB it requires a split of the .ISO file.  I'm not sure about how to do this at this point.  Dell has a tutorial on how to do this...  Windows 10 ISO contains WIM file that is big for FAT32 file system | Dell US.  

It did work, I was able to boot into the PNY USB 2.0 drive with Secure Boot enabled and everything worked as it should.  It's apparent that my computer isn't USB 3.0+ drive compatible using UEFI Secure Boot mode.  My other USB 3.0 drives work if you turn Secure Boot off... even then they don't always show up correctly.  

Sometimes I get lucky and figure thing out on my own, it's always nice to get ideas from other users... you never know what you may discover.  Thanks for input... it inspired me to try something new that I haven't tried before.  

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

That is great news!

Glad you were able to install W10 with secure boot enabled.

[HHH003]

I’ve done more testing and I’ve learned that any USB version drive can be used, their is some rules to follow for a F9 UEFI Secure Boot on a HP computer when installing Windows 10.   
Using a USB 2.0 drive… any USB port will work as long your computer allows it. It’s possible a special USB port is required for a Windows install. 
Using a USB 3.0 drive… only a USB 2.0 port on your computer will allow it to show as a bootable USB drive. If you try with a USB 3.0 port, the drive won’t show using F9 UEFI Secure Boot menu.