Why does the Intel® FPGA Download Cables drivers installation fail on Windows* operating system?

Due to the expiration of the digital signature certificate of the Intel® FPGA Download Cable I (formerly referred to as USB Blaster I download cable) and the Intel® FPGA Download Cable II (formerly referred to as USB Blaster II download cable) drivers for Windows* operating system, the installation process of the drivers may fail.

Follow the next steps to verify if the digital signature certificate of your driver has expired:

1. Go to '<Quartus Installation Path>\qprogrammer\quartus\drivers\usb-blaster-ii' folder
2. Right-click on 'usbblasterii.cat' and select 'Properties, then select the 'Digital Signatures' tab
3. Select the 'IFDLII Production Key1' signature from the 'Signature List' and click 'Details'
4. Click on 'View Certificate'
5. If the driver has expired, you will see the 'This certificate has expired or is not yet valid' message

A patch is available to fix this problem for the Intel® Quartus® Prime Software.  Download and install Patch 0.02i for the Intel® Quartus® Prime Pro Edition Software version 20.4 and the Intel® Quartus® Prime Standard Edition Software version 21.1.  Download and install Patch 0.02i for the Intel® Quartus®  Prime Pro Edition Programmer and Tools or Patch 0.02stdp for the Intel® Quartus®  Prime Standard Edition Programmer and Tools from the appropriate link below. 

• Download Intel® Quartus® Prime Pro Edition Software version 20.4 patch 0.02i for Windows (.exe)
• Download the Readme for Intel® Quartus® Prime Pro Edition Software version 20.4 patch 0.02i (.txt)
• Download Intel® Quartus® Prime Standard Edition Software version 21.1patch 0.02stdp for Windows (.exe)
• Download the Readme for Intel® Quartus® Prime Standard Edition Software version 21.1 patch 0.02stdp (.txt)

After installing patch 0.02i or patch 0.02stdp for Windows, follow the next steps to update the driver on the operating system:

1. Connect your Intel FPGA download cable or Intel FPGA download cable II
2. Open Device Manager window of Windows* OS
   Choose Windows Settings from Start menu > Type “Device Manager” into the search area > Choose Device Manager
3. Find Altera USB-Blaster II under JTAG cables or Altera USB-Blaster under Universal Serial Bus controllers
4. Find USB-Blaster or USB-Blaster II under Other devices
5. Choose Altera USB-Blaster or Altera USB-Blaster II
6. Right-click and choose Update driver from the context menu
7. Choose Browse my computer for driver software on the Update Drivers window
8. Enter the following path for the driver and enable; include subfolders
   - <Intel Quartus Prime software install directory>\quartus\drivers or
   - <Intel Quartus Prime Programmer install directory>\qprogrammer\drivers or
   - <Intel Quartus Prime Programmer install directory>\qprogrammer\quartus\drivers
9. Click Next

This problem is fixed starting with the Intel® Quartus® Prime Pro Edition Software version 21.1.