According to findings from PCGamesHardware.de, all discs secured with SafeDisc or Securom DRM will no longer work in Windows 10, due to Microsoft removing support for SECDRV.SYS which is required to play the media.
Hundreds of games and audio CDs will be affected, from Crimson Skies to Grand Theft Auto 3, Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004 to the original The Sims; including any audio CD protected with Sony's SecuRom. However, Microsoft can't be blamed entirely for the decision to remove support for the DRM protections; SafeDisc is notoriously insecure and Microsoft’s decision to block it from their new operating system will likely protect more users than it hurts; plus it hasn't been updated for years.
The details came from Microsoft’s Boris Schneider-Johne at this year’s Gamescom, who said:
“Everything that ran in Windows 7 should also run in Windows 10. There are just two silly exceptions: antivirus software and stuff that’s deeply embedded into the system needs updating – but the developers are on it already – and then there are old games on CD-Rom that have DRM. This DRM stuff is also deeply embedded in your system, and that’s where Windows 10 says “sorry, we cannot allow that, because that would be a possible loophole for computer viruses.” That’s why there are a couple of games from 2003-2008 with Securom, etc. that simply don’t run without a no-CD patch or some such."
The software was introduced in the early 2000s in an effort to crack down on piracy; later, in 2007, an exploit - which allowed for “elevation of privilege” and for attackers to execute unrestricted kernel-level code, effectively taking complete control of a PC - was discovered and patched; since then the driver has not received any updates.
PCGamesHardware.de reached out to Rovi Corporation, the creators of SafeDisc, for a statement regarding the incompatibility, and although there is no direct quote from Rovi itself, the page (in German) was updated to add the following statement:
“Safedisc DRM hasn’t been supported for a few years now, and the driver has consequently not been updated for some time. Microsoft should have migrated the existing software since Windows 8. We don’t know if that’s still possible with Windows 10 or if they simply didn’t care about it.”
It would seem that, from Schneider-Johne's comments, Microsoft deliberately chose to exclude SafeDisc support from Windows 10. So for those out there that have already upgraded, and who own older games and media protected by SafeDisk or Securom, you'll have to do a bit of digging around in order to make those games work.
Or there's always a NoCD patch you could probably find, somewhere.
Source: PCGamesHardware.de via Rock Paper Scissors (translations)
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