Secure Boot is an important security feature that prevents malicious software from loading on system startup. Most modern computers are capable of Secure Boot and on most of them, it is enabled by default. It is a security standard developed by members of the PC industry. If Secure Boot is enabled, the firmware checks the signature of each piece of boot software at the time PC starts. If it finds the signature of a boot software invalid, it blocks it from loading. In this way, Secure Boot acts as a security gate. Hence, Secure Boot is an essential feature in Windows OS and it should be enabled on all Secure Boot-supported devices. In this article, we will see what you should do if you see the Secure Boot Unsupported error message in Windows 11.
Fix the Secure Boot Unsupported error in Windows 11
Secure Boot is one of the requirements for Windows 11. You cannot install Windows 11 until you enable Secure Boot in your BIOS. However, there are ways by which you can bypass Secure Boot and install Windows 11. But we do not recommend bypassing the Secure Boot feature to install Windows 11 because Secure Boot prevents malicious code from getting executed at the time of system startup. What if Secure Boot is enabled but not supported? Some users have seen Secure Boot Unsupported error in Windows 11 despite Secure Boot being enabled on their systems. If you see Secure Boot State Unsupported, but it is enabled in BIOS, this post has the working fixes to resolve the issue.
You can check the status of Secure Boot by following the steps written below:
- Click on Windows Search.
- Type System Information.
- Select System Information from the search results.
- When the System Information app opens up, locate Secure Boot on the right side to see its status.
Below, we have mentioned some suggestions to follow to fix the Secure Boot State Unsupported issue.
- Check TPM support
- Check your BIOS mode
- Perform an In-place Upgrade
- Clean install Windows 11
Let’s see all these fixes in detail.
1] Check TPM support
TPM is one of the requirements for installing Windows 11. TPM stands for Trusted Platform Module. It is a chip designed to provide hardware-based and security-related functions. If there is no TPM chip installed on your computer and you install Windows 11 after bypassing TPM, you will see the Secure Boot State Unsupported message in the System Information.
2] Check your BIOS mode
Another requirement for Secure Boot support is that your BIOS mode should be UEFI. If your BIOS is Legacy, Windows will show Secure Boot State Unsupported (see the above screenshot). If your BIOS mode is Legacy, you should change it to UEFI. This will fix the problem. You can check the BIOS mode in System Information.
To convert BIOS mode from Legacy to UEFI, the partition style of your hard disk should be GPT. If your hard disk has an MBR partition style, you will not be able to change your BIOS mode from Legacy to UEFI. To check the partition style of your hard disk, go through the following instructions:
- Press the Win + X keys and select Disk Management.
- When Disk Management opens up, right-click on your hard disk and select Properties.
- Go to the Volumes tab to view the partition style of your hard disk.
If your hard disk partition style is MBR, convert it from MBR to GPT. There is a way to convert MBR to GPT without data loss but still, we recommend you backup your data before proceeding.
3] Perform an In-place Upgrade
If the problem still persists, we suggest you perform an In-place Upgrade. But before you begin, make sure that you have enabled TPM on your Windows device and changed the BIOS mode from Legacy to UEFI. An In-place Upgrade is a process to repair Windows. When you perform an In-place Upgrade, the latest version of the Windows operating system is installed over the existing Windows OS without uninstalling the existing Windows OS. In this process, there is no data loss.
4] Clean install Windows 11
If the In-place Upgrade does not fix the problem, a clean install will help. To clean install Windows 11, you have to format your C drive. Hence, all your data will be erased during the process.
Read: The value is protected by Secure Boot policy and cannot be modified or deleted.
How do I fix Secure Boot State Unsupported?
If you see the Secure Boot State Unsupported error in Windows 11, your system does not meet the requirements for Secure Boot. To fix this issue, first, check if the Trusted Platform Module is installed on your computer or not. If your system has a TPM chip, enable TPM. Secondly, check the BIOS mode. Secure Boot is not supported if your BIOS mode is Legacy. In this case, change your BIOS mode from Legacy to UEFI.
This article lists a detailed explanation of this error and the way to fix it.
What if Secure Boot mode is unsupported?
Secure Boot is not supported on Windows devices on which the BIOS mode is Legacy. If your system has Legacy BIOS mode, you will see the Secure Boot State Unsupported in the System Information. Also, your system should have TPM enabled. To fix this issue, change your system BIOS mode from Legacy to UEFI.
I hope this helps.
Read next: Secure Boot is greyed out in BIOS.
