Combat Flight Simulator 3 Does Not Work with SafeDiscSim

[wmc413]

Windows 11 24H2; HP Z8-G5 workstation, dual 12-core CPUs; 32 GB RAM; PCIe Slot 4, NVIDIA RTX A2000 gfx card; PCIe slot 7, HP PCIe Thunderbolt 4 controller; PCIe "Personality slot 0", HP Z TurboDrive dual M.2 NVMe carrier with 2 TB Samsung 990 Pro SSD SYS: drive and HP (by Samsung) 512 MB SSD (data); Internal 4 x 4TB Toshiba 7200 RPM SATA HD RAID 10 (shows as 8 TB volume) (AV Media); Internal 2 TB Seagate 7200 RPM SATA HD (data); Internal HP BU40N SATA Blu-Ray drive; USB (external) rackmount 4 x 4TB Toshiba 7200 RPM SATA HDs hardware RAID 5 (shows as 10 TB volume).

1. Disabled security suite (Avast) software.
2. Installed CFS3 from original Microsoft discs.
3. Installed SafeDiscShim (download from this site).
4. Rebooted.
5. Attempted to run CFS3 from installed desktop icon. Alert to login with "Administrator privileges" and to try again. (I am logged in as admin)
6. Attempted to "Run as Administrator".
7. Nothing happened?!
8. Event Viewer->Windows Logs->System showed 2 events repeated twice for each attempt to run CFS3:

---

Log Name:      System
Source:        Application Popup
Date:          7/21/2025 6:19:10 PM
Event ID:      1060
Task Category: None
Level:         Error
Keywords:      Classic
User:          N/A
Computer:      TIGER
Description:
The description for Event ID 1060 from source Application Popup cannot be found. Either the component that raises this event is not installed on your local computer or the installation is corrupted. You can install or repair the component on the local computer.

If the event originated on another computer, the display information had to be saved with the event.

The following information was included with the event: 

\??\C:\Windows\SysWow64\drivers\SECDRV.SYS

The message resource is present but the message was not found in the message table

Event Xml:
<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
  <System>
    <Provider Name="Application Popup" Guid="{47bfa2b7-bd54-4fac-b70b-29021084ca8f}" EventSourceName="Application Popup" />
    <EventID Qualifiers="49152">1060</EventID>
    <Version>0</Version>
    <Level>2</Level>
    <Task>0</Task>
    <Opcode>0</Opcode>
    <Keywords>0x80000000000000</Keywords>
    <TimeCreated SystemTime="2025-07-22T01:19:10.4021331Z" />
    <EventRecordID>217922</EventRecordID>
    <Correlation />
    <Execution ProcessID="4" ThreadID="940" />
    <Channel>System</Channel>
    <Computer>TIGER</Computer>
    <Security />
  </System>
  <EventData>
    <Data>
    </Data>
    <Data>\??\C:\Windows\SysWow64\drivers\SECDRV.SYS</Data>
    <Binary>000000000200300000000000240400C0000000006B0300C000000000000000000000000000000000</Binary>
  </EventData>
</Event>
----------------------------------------------------------------
Log Name:      System
Source:        Service Control Manager
Date:          7/21/2025 6:19:10 PM
Event ID:      7000
Task Category: None
Level:         Error
Keywords:      Classic
User:          N/A
Computer:      TIGER
Description:
The SecDrv service failed to start due to the following error: 
This driver has been blocked from loading
Event Xml:
<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
  <System>
    <Provider Name="Service Control Manager" Guid="{555908d1-a6d7-4695-8e1e-26931d2012f4}" EventSourceName="Service Control Manager" />
    <EventID Qualifiers="49152">7000</EventID>
    <Version>0</Version>
    <Level>2</Level>
    <Task>0</Task>
    <Opcode>0</Opcode>
    <Keywords>0x8080000000000000</Keywords>
    <TimeCreated SystemTime="2025-07-22T01:19:10.4021331Z" />
    <EventRecordID>217923</EventRecordID>
    <Correlation />
    <Execution ProcessID="2392" ThreadID="5280" />
    <Channel>System</Channel>
    <Computer>TIGER</Computer>
    <Security />
  </System>
  <EventData>
    <Data Name="param1">SecDrv</Data>
    <Data Name="param2">%%1275</Data>
    <Binary>5300650063004400720076000000</Binary>
  </EventData>
</Event>

---

NOTE: I can't tell what version of SECDRV.sys is loaded as its properties show blank field for version info. Also, there is no drvmgt.dll in the same directory as cfs3.exe.

The appearance is that SafeDiscShim either didn't install or does not function on this configuration.

Any ideas?