Deleting the Binary Files of the Installed Driver

NTDEV
1

Hi,

  1. On Windows 7 x64, I am uninstalling my software-only device and want to remove the driver package and the binary files & registry settings.

The device and driver package removal works fine, but the driver binary is still present in the system32\drivers folder and the registry settings are still alive.

According to the documentation Difx tools or DPInst can no longer delete binaries from Windows 7 onwards. (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff546200(v=vs.85).aspx#deleting_the_binary_files_of_the_installed_driver)

Does this mean that it’s a bad idea to delete the binaries, or should I manually add entries in my WiX file to remove the binary & registy settings?

Thanks,
Mridul.

2

Do you mean ‘software-only device,’ as in root enumerated or as in
nt4/legacy?

If the former, you should probably do whatever it is that MSDN says.

If the later, you can certainly safely remove your own stuff.

Alas, the history of setup/installation is a seriously dark, ongoing chapter
in the history of Windows.

Good luck,

mm

-----Original Message-----
From: xxxxx@lists.osr.com
[mailto:xxxxx@lists.osr.com] On Behalf Of
xxxxx@mediafour.com
Sent: Friday, February 11, 2011 3:14 PM
To: Windows System Software Devs Interest List
Subject: [ntdev] Deleting the Binary Files of the Installed Driver

Hi,

  1. On Windows 7 x64, I am uninstalling my software-only device and want to
    remove the driver package and the binary files & registry settings.

The device and driver package removal works fine, but the driver binary is
still present in the system32\drivers folder and the registry settings are
still alive.

According to the documentation Difx tools or DPInst can no longer delete
binaries from Windows 7 onwards.
(http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff546200(v=vs.85).aspx#deleting
_the_binary_files_of_the_installed_driver)

Does this mean that it’s a bad idea to delete the binaries, or should I
manually add entries in my WiX file to remove the binary & registy settings?

Thanks,
Mridul.

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