Microsoft Secure Boot Key to Expire Next Month

If you have a recently purchased PC, unlike the one I am writing this on, in theory, this should be fixed automatically. There are several steps that you can take to figure out the status of things.

The first question is whether secure boot is turned on.

Run MSINFO32 and look for the SECURE BOOT setting. Here is a screenshot from a system where secure boot is off.

You probably want to enable it; it will improve the chain of security.

Assuming it is on, the next step is to see if Microsoft has updated your secure boot key.

To do this, run WINDOWS SECURITY (type that in the search box at the bottom of the screen). Select device security. You should get a screen like this:

Look for the secure boot section. In this computer it says that secure boot is on but it is using the key that will expire in June. You can try checking for windows updates and rebooting, but likely by now if it could be updated it would already have been updated.

On this computer (it is a Dell PC), the BIOS is old and needs to be updated. While I have not done that yet, I will do that this weekend (wish me luck!) and I anticipate that will fix it.

Here is what you should see once it is fully updated:

If secure boot is off then one of the tools that Microsoft uses to make sure your computer is safe is gone.

If it is on but the certificate expires next month then you will not be able to install certain windows security updates and possibly some applications that are dependent on that key being valid and while your PC will still boot, it won’t be able to validate that certain updates to make sure they are not malicious.

If you are not a techie this will likely require some help from a friend or a pro. If you see the box in the last screen shot then you are good to go and can enjoy your morning bagel or danish. 🙂

Credit: ZDNet

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