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> What has this got to do with Secure Boot?

It's got nothing to do with Secure Boot. If he had gone into the UEFI and disabled Secure Boot, the problem would still have occurred.

Secure Boot has become this scapegoat for everything that could possibly go wrong.

As its name suggests, Secure Boot prevents the OS from booting. If the installer is complaining about a product key mismatch, then it's got everything to do with the installer and nothing to do with Secure Boot.



I did not say Secure Boot causes this, the UEFI contains product key, and it does not allow to be deleted, modified or extracted. Since it is permanent there, Windows installer fails to accept another key, or even a legitimate higher edition Windows installation.


> I did not say Secure Boot causes this,

Here's what you said:

> Hear my fucked up story of UEFI, Secure Boot and Windows 8:

Why mention Secure Boot at all? It's got absolutely nothing to do with your situation.


It is a story about all of them, I did not say Secure Boot caused this problem, I said I disabled it to be able to install Windows 7.


> It is a story about all of them, I did not say Secure Boot caused this problem, I said I disabled it to be able to install Windows 7.

Suppose that a user buys a Windows 8 machine, goes to a website, and downloads malware that slows down the machine and makes it unusable. Finally, a local teenager wipes the machine, disables Secure Boot, and installs Windows 7.

One would hardly say that this is a "f-cked up story of" malware, Secure Boot, and Windows 8. Secure Boot is merely incidental, and has nothing to do with the issue of malware on Windows 8.


Note that it is version-specific. I just flattened my Surface Pro 2 and used a non-OEM version of Windows, which required its own product key. Also, Windows 8 and 8.1 have different product keys, but if you upgrade OTA to 8.1 it will install the same SKU (OEM) for 8.1. Changing the OS is complicated with UEFI and secure boot, the usability is insanely bad, with a lot of boundaries being blurred. It's the worst experience I have ever had when installing a clean OS.


There are some terrible implementations of UEFI, and Microsoft is copping the blame for a lot of it.


Microsoft deserves the blame. They require UEFI (more accurately called Restricted Boot) for Windows 8.


Bullshit. I can boot Windows 8 from legacy (BIOS) mode on two machines.


Yes, your own installation works, but not OEM installation works with legacy mode


I think what your parent comment meant is that Microsoft requires UEFI to grant OEM licenses, otherwise known as "compatible with Windows 8" stickers.




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