Most drivers these days are signed by manufacturers for security reasons as well as monetary for MS but that’s another discussion all together. But if you are like me and need to use legacy or obscure hardware than windows 8 poses a particular issue out of the box. I personally use a USB to serial adaptor for configuring switches and other equipment from my laptop. So anyways after a little searching I found the answer. without further delay here is how you can enable installation of unsigned drivers in windows 8.
The steps to install a unsigned driver on windows 8 is as follows.
1. From windows 8 control panel choose General –> Under “Advanced Startup” –> Restart now.
Now the system will restart and might take some minutes to show up the boot menu. Wait for It patiently.
After some time you will be prompted with a menu with following options.
1. Continue
2. Troubleshoot
3. Turn off
Choose Troubleshoot
Then the following menu appears.
Refresh your PC
Reset your PC
Advanced Options
Choose Advanced Options
Then the following menu appears
System Restore
System Image Recovery
Automatic Repair
Command Prompt
Windows Startup settings
Choose Windows Startup Settings, then Click Restart.
Now the computer will restart and the boot menu appears. Choose “Disable Driver signature Enforcement” from the menu. Now windows will start and you can do the installation of the driver that is not signed