Thanks for all the comments, now I know that there are hacks that can make Windows 32-bit “address/recognize” more than 4GB of memory but you still wouldn’t be able to use it. To be able to fully utilize more than 4GB, you will still need a 64-bit of Windows. Most common problem that people face when using a 64-bit Windows is loading unsigned drivers. It seems that Microsoft has forgotten end users when it introduced a very restricted module of driver signature enforcement in Windows Vista and Windows 7. All drivers and system files must be digitally verified or they cannot run when using both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows Vista and Windows 7. This is an example of unable to load PeerGuardian with the error message “Windows cannot verify the digital signature for this file” because of an unsigned driver.

From what I heard, the certificate to perform this signing costs from $300-$500 USD per year. Not every software developer can afford that especially when their software is free. Fortunately there are ways to force the unsigned drivers to load in x64 versions of Windows 7 and Vista.


There are some tutorial suggesting that typing this command "bcdedit /set loadoptions DDISABLE_INTEGRITY_CHECKS" in command prompt will do the job but it didn’t work on my Windows 7 x64 Ultimate. Probably Microsoft has rolled out some updates which disables DDISABLE_INTEGRITY_CHECKS option.

There are still a few working ways to load unsigned drivers though. The first method is to continuously press F8 when Windows is booted up until you get the Advanced Boot Options, then select “Disable Driver Signature Enforcement“.

The problem about this method is you have to do that EACH Time when you boot up Windows and if you forgot to select this option, you won’t get to load the unsigned drivers and the software won’t work.

Second method is to use ReadyDriver Plus by Mr. Orange Sunshine, an enhanced version of the original ReadyDriver by Uhlik. It does the same thing as the first method by automatically selecting disable driver signature enforcement. It modifies the Vista Bootloader to load ReadyDriver, and then makes the appropriate selection to disable Driver Enforcement, based on what you choose to install. This tool worked perfectly on my Windows 7 x64.

If you don’t like your boot loader to be modified, then you should use Driver Signature Enforcement Overrider. This is how you can use DSEO to sign and load the unverified drivers. Run DSEO, click Next, click Yes, select “Enable Test Mode” and click Next.

You should get a confirmation window telling you that Test Mode has been ENABLED. Click the OK button to go back to the DSEO window. Now select “Sign a System File” and click Next. You will now have to type in the specific filename including full path and click OK. For PeerGuardian, it is “C:\Program Files\PeerGuardian2\pgfilter.sys”. Restart your computer and the driver is now loaded.

You will notice that there is a watermark at the bottom right of the screen saying Test Mode.

That is normal after you’ve used Driver Signature Enforcement Overrider to enable the Test Mode. If you disable Test Mode using DSEO, you won’t be able to load the unsigned drivers. In short, you will need to be in Test Mode in order to load the unsigned drivers. If you can’t stand seeing the Test Mode watermark, you can use Remove Watermark to take away the watermark. Just download, run RemoveWatermarkX64.exe and then type the letter Y. Restart your computer to take effect. If the watermark is still there after patching, run the tool again and this time hit the R key to rebuilt MUI cache. Restart and the watermark should be gone by now.