Installation of Windows drivers for non-standard devices

[NewsArchive]

Hello Friedrich

I found some information suggesting it should be fairly easy to add a
driver to the Windows driver store/staging area using pnputil.exe

Before I go reinventing something - have you maybe done anything like
this in SetupBuilder?

Regards

Daan Marais

[NewsArchive]

Sorry - not thinking straight - here is a reference:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc772036.aspx

Daan Marais

[NewsArchive]

Hello Daan,

> I found some information suggesting it should be fairly easy to add a
> driver to the Windows driver store/staging area using pnputil.exe
>
> Before I go reinventing something - have you maybe done anything like this
> in SetupBuilder?

Easy is relative <g>. But if you already have the code-signed drivers and
the .INF available, then it's easy.

You can call the pnputil.exe from your installer via "Run Program..." and/or
"Run Command Line...".

- To add a driver to the driver store use:

pnputil.exe -a a:\driver\driver.inf

- To add all drivers in a folder use:

pnputil.exe -a c:\drivers\*.inf

- To add and then install a driver use:

pnputil.exe -i -a a:\driver\driver.inf

- To get a list of available third party drivers use:

pnputil.exe -e

- To delete a specific driver use:

pnputil.exe -d driver.inf

- To force the deletion of a specific driver (e.g. from a custom uninstall)
use:

pnputil.exe -f -d driver.inf

The following is an interesting reading: "Steps for Staging a Device Driver
Package in the Driver Store" in the past for some customers

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd919234(WS.10).aspx

But if you have to code-sign the drivers with a special code-signing
certificate and develop the required .inf file, then it's a complex story.

--
Friedrich Linder
Lindersoft
www.lindersoft.com
+1.954.252.3910

SetupBuilder is Windows 7 installation -- "point. click. ship"

-- Official Comodo Code Signing and SSL Certificate Partner

[NewsArchive]

Thanks Friedrich - will do.

One of the drivers we use is unsigned by virtue of the fact that I had
to change a line in the driver.inf file to recognize a piece of hardware
we build ourselves, using a USB/RS232 module from FTDI - the change was
a really dumb decision, and since reversed - but there is still plenty
of hardware out there with this modification in place. I am not about to
try and obtain MS certification for this, so I am also looking for an
easy way to "force" this into the machine - the article you suggested
seems to say that this is possible although the end user may get a
warning message when the hardware is connected. My testing also gets a
positive result here without so much as a confirmation prompt, provided
I run as administrator, so it looks as if I am home free.

Regards

Daan