[FIX] Error 0xc0000428, The Digital Signature For This File Couldn’t Be Verified

Boot manager errors are the most terrible issues for Windows users because you can’t boot to your operating system to fix them. Most of them require use of recovery media and if the user don’t have any install or recovery media, fixing the machine becomes more complex. Well, in this article, we’re going to talk about of one these boot manager errors, which we faced recently on a Windows 10 Pro system.

The error message and its screenshot is shown below.

The above shown information indicates that something is wrong with boot manager. It may be corrupted or missing, anything could happen. The first thing we did after getting this error was to reboot the machine, but it didn’t helped. Then after trying the suggestions mentioned below, we were able to fix this hiccup.

FIX : Error 0xc0000428, The Digital Signature For This File Couldn’t Be Verified For Windows 10

FIX 1 – Rebuild Boot Manager And Perform Startup Repair

Since boot manager is housed inside Boot Configuration Data (BCD) file, we can try rebuilding this file. Here’s how:

1. Follow steps 1-5 of this fix.

2. Then in the Advanced options screen, choose Command Prompt entry.

3. Last step will result in opening of Command Prompt at boot.

4. Then you’ll be asked to choose an account to continue. Next, in the Command Prompt window, type these one by one and press Enter key after each:

C:

cd boot

attrib bcd -s -h -r

bootrec /rebuildbcd

NOTE: You have to substitute C: with your system root drive.

5. Then you can close Command Prompt and perform Startup or Automatic repair using steps mentioned here.

A final reboot after performing Startup repair should let you to boot normally to Windows.

FIX 2 – Disable Driver Signature Enforcement Temporarily

As per the error message, you can also disable driver signature enforcement and see if that helps you in this case. The dedicated steps are as follows:

1. Follow steps 1-5 of this fix. Choose Startup Settings option at Advanced Recovery Options screen.

2. Moving on, click Restart button on the next screen:

3. Finally, in the Startup Settings screen shown below, press F7 or key 7 to Disable driver signature enforcement. Now your PC will restart, making the setting effective.

4. On next reboot, the system will start bypassing driver signature integrity checks and if you’re lucky you’ll be able to boot normally. If you succeeded, you should run System File Checker and DISM commands to repair any possible corruption. You can also try reinstalling your Windows 10 without affecting your data. In this way, you can fix boot manager completely. On another restart, Windows will again enable driver signature enforcement, so that it will remain safe from unsigned drivers.

Check following video for illustration of this method:

Hope this helps!