Even though the majority of the population today uses Windows 10, there are some, that still use the infamous 6 year old OS – Windows 7, also known as the most famous OS that Microsoft created, back in 2009.
In recent findings, Microsoft released an update that prevents PCs with an Asus Motherboard from booting. At first it might not seem as a big deal, since that you can prevent any updates from being installed, but sadly though, Microsoft changed the settings of the update from “optional” to “recommended”. Thus, when it is automatically installed, Windows 7 PC’s with an Asus Motherboard will be break down one by one.
The update is known as KB3133977, and it’s purpose is to fix a problem that stops BitLocker from encrypting drives because of service crashes of the svhost.exe
You might think of this as a good thing if you the problem, unless you have an Asus Motherboard.
As Microsoft stated:
“After you install update 3133977 on a Windows 7 x64-based system that includes an ASUS-based main board, the system does not start, and it generates a Secure Boot error on the ASUS BIOS screen. This problem occurs because ASUS allowed the main board to enable the Secure Boot process even though Windows 7 does not support this feature.”
Asus Motherboards implement the Microsoft Secure Boot in order to protect it from malware attacks. Unfortunately for Windows 7 users, it doesn’t support Secure Boot. When the KB3133977 update is installed, it detects inconsistent loader keys, which leads to boot failure.
Thankfully, Asus has a step by step solution.
- Enter the UEFI and navigate to Advanced Mode Menu->Boot->Secure Boot
- Change “OS type” to “Other OS”
- Press F10 to Save the changes and reboot
- Check the UEFI Advanced Menu->Boot->Secure Boot, and confirm whether the “Platform Key (PK) State” is switched to be “Unloaded”.
- Exit the UEFI, and the system will now boot normally.
Well, if you have an Asus Motherboard and still paired with a Windows 7 OS, how do you avoid this? Well the best answer is by upgrading to windows 10, which is completely free until July 29, and faster than Windows 7.