System for selectively enabling operating modes of a device. The system includes a method for selectively enabling operating modes of a device during a device initialization, wherein the operating modes comprise a privileged mode and a non-privileged mode. The method includes determining during the device initialization whether the device is to operate in the privileged mode or in both the privileged and non-privileged modes, and enabling the privileged mode if it is determined that the device is to operate only in the privileged mode. The method also includes enabling both the privileged and the non-privileged modes if it is determined that the device is to operate in both the privileged and the non-privileged modes.