If you have an Acer desktop or Acer laptop, these are the steps you should follow to properly disable Secure Boot in Acer laptops.
If you are trying to install a Linux operating system on your Acer laptop, first you need to turn off secure boot for some distributions. Otherwise, the Secure Boot feature will block the installation due to not recognizing the boot-time software. This is applicable to any other software that runs at boot-time, like firmware drives and EFI applications. Thankfully, it is really easy to disable secure boot in Acer laptops.
How Do I Disable Secure Boot in Acer Laptop
To fully disable the Secure Boot in Acer laptops, these are the steps you should follow.
Step #1: Boot into UEFI Firmware Settings
Secure Boot settings are only available via the UEFI screen. So, the first thing to do is boot into the UEFI firmware screen.
- Press “Windows Key + I” to open the “Settings” app in Windows 10.
- Go to the “Update & Security → Recovery” page.
- Under the Advanced Startup section, click on the “Restart Now” button.
- After reboot, click on the “Troubleshoot” option.
- Select “Advanced Options“.
- Click on the “UEFI Firmware Settings” option.
- Now, click on the “Restart” button to reboot again.
As soon as you click on the restart button, the system will reboot into the UEFI firmware screen.
Note: If you are unable to boot into the UEFI screen with the above steps, repeatedly press F2 or DEL keys on the keyboard as soon as turn on the laptop.
Step #2: Set UEFI Supervisor Password
Before you can disable the Secure Boot feature, you need to set the supervisor password.
- In the UEFI screen, press the “Left Arrow” key (→) to go to the “Security” tab.
- Here, use the up & down arrow keys to select the “Set Supervisor Password” option and press “Enter“.
- Type a new password in both fields and press “Enter” to confirm it.
Step #3: Disable Secure Boot from Security Tab
Assuming that you have set up the supervisor password, these are the final steps you should follow to fully turn off the secure boot on your Acer laptop.
- In the UEFI firmware screen, go to the “Boot” tab.
- Select the “Secure Boot” option and press “Enter“.
- Now, select “Disabled” and press Enter.
- To save changes, press the “F10” key on your keyboard.
- Select “Yes” and press “Enter“.
Your laptop will reboot immediately.
That is it. You’ve disabled secure boot in Acer laptop. Now, you can install any operating system you want or even unsigned drives. Just be careful of what you are trying to run at the boot time after disabling the security feature.
To enable the secure boot feature, follow the same steps by select “Enabled” in the Secure Boot options.
What is Secure Boot?
Most modern desktops and laptops nowadays come with Secure Boot enabled. The Secure Boot feature is an effective security feature that only allows OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) trusted boot-time software.
When you turn on your laptop, Secure Boot will check every piece of software that runs at boot time. This includes firmware drivers, operating systems, EFI applications, etc. If a software doesn’t pass all the tests, it will be considered not trusted and blocked from running. As you can guess, this is an effective countermeasure for virus and malware that run at boot time.
However, there might be situations where you are trying to run legitimate software but Secure Boot is blocking it. For example, when the Secure Boot is enabled, you cannot install some Linux distributions. In those kinds of cases, you have to disable the secure boot feature by following the steps shown above.
That is all. I hope that helps. If you are stuck or need some help, comment below and I will try to help as much as possible.