Did a clean install on Win 7 but forgot to set BIOS to Secure Boot

raglafart

raglafart

Limp Gawd
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Feb 21, 2013
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I've just done a clean install of Windows 7 Pro SP1 64 bit.
I had previously set up a disc with Linux mint on it and had set the secure boot to "Other Operating System"

I just tried changing the BIOS back to Windows secure boot, but it wouldn't boot back into Windows, I had to get back into the bios and then change back from Windows Secure Boot to other operating system and it now boots back into Windows okay.

Is there any way to fix this without having to wipe the drive and start from scratch again?
Am I missing out any important features by not having the Windows Secure Boot running and using "Other Operating System" ?
Cheers John
 
The secure boot thing is really pretty much useless to be honest, especially with Windows 7 which does support EFI actually but if you're using older hardware it's not a concern. For EFI-based systems using Windows 8/8.1/10 and later whenever they appear (if they do, who the hell knows) then it can be useful in some respects but really the entire secure boot thing was done to slam Linux more than anything else - that's my personal opinion on it and not a statement of fact.

If there's a security issue that becomes a nightmare with Windows 7 through January of 2020 when official long term support ends, I'll blame Microsoft for it.

As for a fix, no, you would have to redo the installation again and if you said you just did the clean install, I mean really, how long can it take? :)

I can do a clean install with Windows 7 Pro x64 right now with the fully updated ISO I just made 2 days ago with the latest updates in 20 minutes and be done, then spend maybe 20-30 minutes installing apps, that's that.

Protip: if you're doing a clean install of an old original Windows 7 Pro SP1 x64 ISO and it has never been updated, you're doing it wrong and will waste hours of time getting all the updates that aren't necessarily required since a lot of them add retroactive telemetry BS from Windows 10-style crap.
 
Windows 7 was never designed to use Secure Boot. Secure Boot as an element used by Windows started with Windows 8.

You're fine.
 
I did the clean install using the current Windows ISO with SP1, I did say no to the updates on the completion of the installation. I'd had some issues after my water cooling pump failed and as part of the diagnosis as to why I was only seeing 3 cores and 6 threads with a Hex core CPU I did a clean install on a spare small 120 gig SSD and was able to eliminate the CPU and MB. So that's why I did the clean install.
How do you manage to do it in just 20 minutes with the updates ? When I did it, but I've got to think did I use the original CD on the 120 drive, I wound up with 180 updates on the first batch of updates! Then kept getting new updates but only in small amounts. Took ages.
Anyway thanks for the advice with the secure boot, I have no idea why I'd need it so won't worry about it anymore, thanks for your help.
Cheers JG
 
Meeho said:
If you don't know why you would need it, you don't need it.
Click to expand...
Many things in computing never evolve because people think they need something while they could just as well do something else.
 
raglafart said:
How do you manage to do it in just 20 minutes with the updates ?
Click to expand...

Because the actual ISO I created to do the installation now has all the pertinent updates integrated into it (through April 2018) so they are installed at the time of installation (funny how that works) and after the installation is finished if I then hit Windows Update it takes like 30 seconds to check and it'll tell me there's nothing to update.

You are using the original untouched (I presume) Windows 7 Professional SP1 x64 ISO which is roughly 3.2GB in size - my installation ISO now sits at 5.9GB in size because of all the additional updates. No, it can't be burned to a single layer DVD anymore but I don't install from optical media anyway - I use a USB 3.0 stick (which is USB 2.0 backwards compatible) to do the install so that makes it faster too. And I still don't have an SSD, just a 1TB Hitachi/HGST 7200 rpm hard drive which is good enough.

Anyway, there's a thread here in this subforum for creating a Windows 7 integrated ISO which means you don't have to waste hours installing those 180+ updates manually from Windows Update if it even works. Microsoft screwed up Windows Update on purpose - my personal opinion - to frustrate people into moving to Windows 10 last year and it nearly worked till people discovered what they were doing. Look for that thread on creating a truly integrated and updated installation ISO, takes like an hour or less to do it but once it's done, and as new updates come out each month, you can then integrate those newer updates into the same installation ISO and it only takes a few minutes to do it - you don't have to do the entire ISO all over again.

Good luck...
 
Thanks for that, I'll do that in future for sure. Many thanks Cheers JG
 
Tiberian said:
The secure boot thing is really pretty much useless to be honest, especially with Windows 7 which does support EFI actually but if you're using older hardware it's not a concern. For EFI-based systems using Windows 8/8.1/10 and later whenever they appear (if they do, who the hell knows) then it can be useful in some respects but really the entire secure boot thing was done to slam Linux more than anything else - that's my personal opinion on it and not a statement of fact.

If there's a security issue that becomes a nightmare with Windows 7 through January of 2020 when official long term support ends, I'll blame Microsoft for it.

As for a fix, no, you would have to redo the installation again and if you said you just did the clean install, I mean really, how long can it take? :)

I can do a clean install with Windows 7 Pro x64 right now with the fully updated ISO I just made 2 days ago with the latest updates in 20 minutes and be done, then spend maybe 20-30 minutes installing apps, that's that.

Protip: if you're doing a clean install of an old original Windows 7 Pro SP1 x64 ISO and it has never been updated, you're doing it wrong and will waste hours of time getting all the updates that aren't necessarily required since a lot of them add retroactive telemetry BS from Windows 10-style crap.
Click to expand...

Do you have an updated Win 7 ISO without telemetry updates / do you have a comprehensive list of which updates to avoid when creating a recently-updated Win 7 ISO?
 
I just use the simplix Update Pack, each month when it's released (one was pushed out just a few days ago so I updated again, current install.wim is 5.42 GB (5,829,325,513 bytes) in size (x64). I know a lot of people will balk and have fucking cows over the fact that the Update Pack is created by a (gasp) Russian software developer but I have never had a single issue when using what he creates, not one, and I've used the ISOs I make on hundreds of machines and thousands of installations over the years. I check out the files after they're installed using sfc (System File Checker) to verify all the Microsoft digital signatures are on the files and there's no issues, but it's up to whoever to decide if they want to use his tools.

You can get more info at the Update Pack's website at: https://blog.simplix.info/update7/

Best advice is visit that site using Chrome as it will offer to auto-translate it for you, unless you can read Russian it's pretty handy to do it that with Chrome.
 
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