Windows 8.1 – Unsigned Drivers (Asus Tablet Debugging)

This post will show the steps for installing the unsigned drivers on Windows 8.1.

Recently I had the task of installing some custom Android software on newly purchased tablets. As a part of the deployment we like to test the software while connected to the debugger. However, when I connected the device to my development system, it was not recognized by the operating system (Windows 8.1). The tablet in question was an Asus Memo 7. The culprit was the missing USB driver for debugging the device.

After downloading the drivers, I tried to install them to the system. The problem I encountered was the drivers were unsigned and Windows 8.1 will not allow the installation of unsigned drivers.

The exact error: “The hash for the file is not present in the specified catalog file. The file is likely corrupt or the victim of tampering.”

The following series of screen shots shows the original problem:

This is an image of Logcat with no debugging statements. In the file browser, you can see the device attached.

I downloaded the drivers and attempted to install.

Launch the device manager by right clicking on the window icon in the bottom left of the screen and select ‘Device Management’.

In the device manager, you can see the ADB Interface device error.

Right click on the offending device and click ‘Update Driver Software…’.

Click Browse for driver and go to the location where you extracted the downloaded Asus files.

Since the package is unsigned, you will see the error and the driver will not be installed.

You will now have to restart Windows to allow the installation of unsigned drivers:

In the search box on the home screen, type ‘advanced startup’ and you will see the icon to ‘Change advanced startup options’. Click the icon.

The ‘Update and recovery’ window will display. Click ‘Restart Now’

The ‘Choose an option’ window will display. Click Troubleshoot

The ‘Troubleshoot’ window will display. Click ‘Advanced options’

The ‘Advanced options’ window will display. Click ‘Startup Settings’

The ‘Startup Settings’ window will display. It shows the type of options available. Click ‘Restart’

The ‘Startup Settings’ options page will display. It shows the options available. Press the number key for the setting to activate. In this case press ‘7’ for ‘Disable driver signature enforcement’

Windows will restart and you can continue with the driver installation

Launch the device manager by right clicking on the window icon in the bottom left of the screen and select ‘Device Management’.

In the device manager, you can see the ADB Interface device error.

Right click on the offending device and click ‘Update Driver Software…’.

Click Browse for driver and go to the location where you extracted the downloaded Asus files.

Windows will confirm that you want to install unsigned drivers. Click ‘Install this driver software anyway’

This time you should see that it has been successfully installed.

In the device manager you should see that successfully installed ‘ASUS Android Composite ADB Interface’

Now LogCat should display the logging statements after a successful install.

Deploy and debug

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