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how to see if secure boot is enabled

To see if Secure Boot is enabled, you typically check either inside your operating system (like Windows) or directly in your PC’s UEFI/BIOS settings.

What Secure Boot Does

Secure Boot is a firmware feature that only allows trusted, properly signed software to run during startup, which helps block certain rootkits and boot- level malware. Most modern PCs that shipped with Windows 10 or Windows 11 support Secure Boot and often have it enabled by default.

Check in Windows: System Information

On Windows 10 and Windows 11, the quickest built‑in way is via System Information.

  • Press Windows key, type “System Information”, then open it.
  • In the left pane, click System Summary.
  • On the right, find Secure Boot State ; it shows:
    • “On” = Secure Boot enabled
    • “Off” = Secure Boot disabled
    • “Unsupported” = hardware/firmware does not support Secure Boot

Some vendor guides also describe opening Run (Windows key + R), typing msinfo32, and pressing Enter to open the same System Information panel.

Check in Windows: PowerShell

You can also confirm the status with a PowerShell command on systems that use UEFI.

  • Open PowerShell as administrator.
  • Run: Confirm-SecureBootUEFI.
  • The command returns:
    • True → Secure Boot enabled
    • False → Secure Boot disabled
    • On some systems, you may see a message like “Cmdlet not supported on this platform” if firmware or boot mode does not support it.

Check in UEFI/BIOS Setup

If your operating system is not available or you want to see the firmware setting directly, you can look in UEFI/BIOS.

  • Restart the PC and press the firmware setup key during boot (often Delete, Esc, F1, F2, F10, or F12, depending on the manufacturer).
  • In the firmware menu, go to a Boot , Security , or Authentication section and look for Secure Boot.
  • If the option is set to values like “On”, “Enabled”, “Standard”, or similar, Secure Boot is enabled; “Off” or “Disabled” means it is off.

Vendor troubleshooting and gaming guides sometimes refer users here when Secure Boot interferes with installing another operating system or certain software.

Extra Notes and Gotchas

  • If Secure Boot State shows “Unsupported” in Windows, the device either uses legacy BIOS mode or the hardware/firmware lacks Secure Boot support.
  • Enterprise environments may script Secure Boot checks with PowerShell and management tools like Intune using Confirm-SecureBootUEFI and custom compliance policies.
  • Turning Secure Boot off can make it easier to install some Linux distributions or older Windows versions, but it also lowers boot‑time protection.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.