Mixing C and C++ files in a driver project.

NTDEV
101

> > So is the BIOS on your pre-built machine also a “tax”?

Actually, this is pretty spacious argument - although it may sound
convincing, in
actuality, it is not.
There is a difference between the embedded and installable software. The
former

Here I would agree with Anton.

It is possible to use the computer without Windows using some other OS, and
Windows is not made by the computer company (unlike Apple where MacOS is made
by the same company as hardware).

Due to this difference, computer maker has no natural intent of supporting MS’s
business, so are its customers.

That’s why the American court ruled that the computer maker must be free to
sell the computers without any OS installed, and to not pay MS for these
computers.

–
Maxim Shatskih, Windows DDK MVP
StorageCraft Corporation
xxxxx@storagecraft.com
http://www.storagecraft.com

102

> Actually, I don’t really know about the clauses covering the demise of the
Soviet

Union ( I was lucky enough to leave it before it even collapsed), so that I
really
have no clue what computers they use in the ex-USSR.

The usual computer in Russia is assembled just at the shop for additional ~USD
50 to the bill, if you’re literate enough to pick the exact parts. If you’re
not - they they will assemble it from the parts they want and sell it to you.

Some shops are trying to go Dell’s way and to create the recognizeable brand of
the already assembled PC-compatible desktop. These attempts are here for 15
years, and were never a major success.

The strongest point of these businesses is still retail facilities (so, they
are just shops or shop networks), and not the computer brands.

As about the parts to assemble a computer - Asus motherboards are the most
popular, followed by Gigabyte and MSI. All major disk brands and video chip
brands are here in Russia, the video cards are often Asus based on nVidia chip.

Pre-assembled computer by some large brand like Intel (I mean blade servers)
costs much more and is usually afforded by more or less large institutions
only.

Laptops are yes, pre-assembled by the brand owner, with Acer and Asus being 2
most popular brands.

–
Maxim Shatskih, Windows DDK MVP
StorageCraft Corporation
xxxxx@storagecraft.com
http://www.storagecraft.com

103

> That’s why the American court ruled that the computer maker must be free to sell the computers without >any OS installed, and to not pay MS for these computers.

And, in my opinion, the above fully explains why the large US-based software maker decided to obtain exactly the opposite legislation in other jurisdictions where significant number of computers sold in the Western world are produced. Doing something like that anywhere in the West is plainly infeasible task, because all the laws have to be adopted by the parliament , Congress or other elected legislative body, so that they went to those jurisdictions where the local governments are not bound by such constraints when passing their laws. The argument that it was targeting the computers sold inside China is really pathetic, because in such case it would be much more reasonable (and efficient) approach to target shops that sell computers, rather than OEMs that produce them - after all, the fact that the computer is sold in China does not necessarily imply that it was produced there (Dell is the very first example that comes to my mind)…

Anton Bassov

104

Maxim,

The usual computer in Russia is assembled just at the shop for additional ~USD 50 to the bill, if you’re >literate enough to pick the exact parts. If you’re not - they they will assemble it from the parts they want >and sell it to you.

As long as we speaking about the specialized computer shops that sell disks, CPUs, etc, the situation in Europe seems to be pretty much the same - I haven’t (yet) seen any OEM PCs (only laptops) in any of these shops, but they all offer computer assembly. However, please note that, in addition to that, computers are often sold in the shops that sell consumer electronics like TVs and microwaves, and this is where Chinese-produced stuff comes into the play. If you go into some office, Internet cafe, etc, you will notice that the latter type of machines seems to be prevalent…

Anton Bassov

105

>computer assembly. However, please note that, in addition to that, computers
are

often sold in the shops that sell consumer electronics like TVs and
microwaves,
and this is where Chinese-produced stuff comes into the play.

In Russia, such computers are assembled in the nearby computer shop usually.

The thing is that Russia has high customs tariff on assembled computers and
much lower on parts.

In 90ies, such shops were cheating the customers that these computers are “from
some Taiwanese company”, just to avoid the customers to be scared by the fact
that the computer is assembled exactly at shop.

–
Maxim Shatskih, Windows DDK MVP
StorageCraft Corporation
xxxxx@storagecraft.com
http://www.storagecraft.com

106

Maxim,

In Russia, such computers are assembled in the nearby computer shop usually.

…

In 90ies, such shops were cheating the customers that these computers are
“from some Taiwanese company”, just to avoid the customers to be scared by the fact that
the computer is assembled exactly at shop

I tried the following experiment. I went to the CE store and asked the info about the computer I chose - I got presented with the user guide explaining how to run Vista when I asked for motherboard documentation.You are very unlikely to find any info about motherboard, chipset, etc right in a shop when buying OEM PC (although the facts that the CPU is Intel CoreDuo 2 or CoreQuad and the machine has 2-4 G or RAM will be displayed in huge letters) - this info is of very little practical value to a “regular” user, so that it is just deemed unnecessary. At the same time, explanations how to connect to the Internet, how to protect yourself from computer viruses, etc are deemed very important, so that OEM user guide is going to be all about running Vista…

Therefore, I recorded the model of the PC of interest, went to the OEM site, and got all the info. Then I went to a specialized shop , presented all details that I had obtained about the machine, and asked how much it would cost to assemble the computer with the above configuration… What I got was…125% of the price that I would pay in CE store for OEM PC (please note that, unlike OEM machine, it did not include a display - I would have to buy it separately if I needed the one )!!!

Anton Bassov

107

xxxxx@hotmail.com wrote:

I tried the following experiment. I went to the CE store and asked the info about the computer I chose - I got presented with the user guide explaining how to run Vista when I asked for motherboard documentation.

By “CE store”, do you mean a standard mass-market consumer electronics
shop, like Best Buy or Circuit City? That’s exactly what I would
expect. Their employees are not technical computer experts. They are
salesmen. Have you seen the old Dilbert cartoon about that?

Salesman: This computer is so easy to operate, it only has one button.
Dilbert: What does the button do?
Salesman: WHOA! I’m in way over my head, let me give you their
technical support number.

Now, when you go to your neighborhood computer store, with boxes stacked
up to the ceiling, manned by pimply-faced college kids with a bad
attitude, THERE I would expect to get detailed technical specs on the
motherboard and each of the components, along with real-world advice on
which graphics cards are worth their salt. That’s the kind of place I
treasure.

On the other hand, we have learned by experience that it is often quite
difficult to beat Dell’s pricing, even with a machine built from parts.
We have a side business of basically doing outsource IT support for
small businesses in the area, so we buy a LOT of computers. We used to
build them ourselves, until we realized that Dell could drop-ship the
same machines for essentially the same price, tested, burned in, and
with a warranty.

–
Tim Roberts, xxxxx@probo.com
Providenza & Boekelheide, Inc.

108

Tim,

By “CE store”, do you mean a standard mass-market consumer electronics shop, like Best Buy or >Circuit City?

Exactly…

That’s exactly what I would expect. Their employees are not technical computer experts.

They just give you everything that they can get from the box. Somehow it happens that the precise motherboard documentation is not there, but the user guide explaining how to run Vista is…

Now, when you go to your neighborhood computer store, with boxes stacked up to the ceiling, manned by >pimply-faced college kids with a bad attitude, THERE I would expect to get detailed technical specs on the >motherboard and each of the components, along with real-world advice on which graphics cards are worth >their salt. That’s the kind of place I treasure.

This is what I meant by “specialized computer store”, but, in my experience, they don’t sell OEM PCs - instead, they assemble their own ones upon your request…

On the other hand, we have learned by experience that it is often quite difficult to beat Dell’s pricing, >even with a machine built from parts.

Please read my “report” about the experiment carefully, and don’t forget that the assembled machine is Vista-free. Assuming you need both Vista and display, it turns out that buying OEM PC in Western Europe is at least twice cheaper, compared to assembling it in a shop…

Anton Bassov

109

Times do change, Anton.

About 14 years or so ago I used to have all my PCs custom built by a nice Pakistani-owned PC shop. Never had a problem. Just told then what I wanted and how much I wanted to pay, and somehow a price was agreed-upon that made sense to both of us. I always installed my own OS. Seemed like the guy knew in his head what pieces would fit together and what they cost.

Not so anymore (at least in my experience…). Off-the-shelf machines are far cheaper if you can find one that fits your needs.

At the moment I face a similar problem. I don’t care as much as some folks about the cost (with or without OS) - but I can hardly find an off-the-shelf machine without Vista.

Contrary to some, I eat my own dog food and use Vista for most non-development work. BUT customers want me to test on particular laptop, with specific (troublesome) 802.11 adapter on XP. So, buy the Vista machine and then have to install XP on it…

Is a mystery to me!!!

Thomas F. Divine
http://www.pcausa.com

-----Original Message-----
From: xxxxx@lists.osr.com [mailto:bounce-322991-
xxxxx@lists.osr.com] On Behalf Of xxxxx@hotmail.com
Sent: Thursday, May 01, 2008 12:17 PM
To: Windows System Software Devs Interest List
Subject: RE:[ntdev] Mixing C and C++ files in a driver project.

Maxim,

> In Russia, such computers are assembled in the nearby computer shop
usually.

…

> In 90ies, such shops were cheating the customers that these computers
are
> “from some Taiwanese company”, just to avoid the customers to be
scared by the fact that
> the computer is assembled exactly at shop

I tried the following experiment. I went to the CE store and asked the
info about the computer I chose - I got presented with the user guide
explaining how to run Vista when I asked for motherboard
documentation.You are very unlikely to find any info about motherboard,
chipset, etc right in a shop when buying OEM PC (although the facts
that the CPU is Intel CoreDuo 2 or CoreQuad and the machine has 2-4 G
or RAM will be displayed in huge letters) - this info is of very little
practical value to a “regular” user, so that it is just deemed
unnecessary. At the same time, explanations how to connect to the
Internet, how to protect yourself from computer viruses, etc are deemed
very important, so that OEM user guide is going to be all about running
Vista…

Therefore, I recorded the model of the PC of interest, went to the OEM
site, and got all the info. Then I went to a specialized shop ,
presented all details that I had obtained about the machine, and asked
how much it would cost to assemble the computer with the above
configuration… What I got was…125% of the price that I would
pay in CE store for OEM PC (please note that, unlike OEM machine, it
did not include a display - I would have to buy it separately if I
needed the one )!!!

Anton Bassov

NTDEV is sponsored by OSR

For our schedule of WDF, WDM, debugging and other seminars visit:
http://www.osr.com/seminars

To unsubscribe, visit the List Server section of OSR Online at
http://www.osronline.com/page.cfm?name=ListServer

110

Dell sells some of their machines with XP instead of Vista. They will also
sell it without an OS to businesses such as yours.

I have found that I can build my own machines without software cheaper than
getting the same thing from a major vendor. Of course, I have specific
preferences as to case, motherboard and cpu (all but my notebook are AMD).
I have MSDN license keys for the OS on my test machines and even have XP I
got for free for attending a MS sales presentation some time back. I don’t
buy software that requires dongles so it transfers easily since I don’t want
everything duplicated on my systems. A few software packages such as Norton
NIS/NAV get locked in to a machine, but Fry’s has frequent sales where I can
get them for free after rebates.

Luckily, I can order from Dell and not have to pay sales tax or California
LCD tax or S&H on some models such as this XPS M1710 I got a year ago. It
has proven to be a dependable notebook that gets hauled to and from work
daily. I did upgrade the memory to 4GB and the HD to 200GB since I bought
it. It came with Vista, but I switched back to XP Pro since it is a better
OS when I was starting with a new company.

“Thomas F. Divine” wrote in message
news:xxxxx@ntdev…
Times do change, Anton.

About 14 years or so ago I used to have all my PCs custom built by a nice
Pakistani-owned PC shop. Never had a problem. Just told then what I wanted
and how much I wanted to pay, and somehow a price was agreed-upon that made
sense to both of us. I always installed my own OS. Seemed like the guy knew
in his head what pieces would fit together and what they cost.

Not so anymore (at least in my experience…). Off-the-shelf machines are
far cheaper if you can find one that fits your needs.

At the moment I face a similar problem. I don’t care as much as some folks
about the cost (with or without OS) - but I can hardly find an off-the-shelf
machine without Vista.

Contrary to some, I eat my own dog food and use Vista for most
non-development work. BUT customers want me to test on particular laptop,
with specific (troublesome) 802.11 adapter on XP. So, buy the Vista machine
and then have to install XP on it…

Is a mystery to me!!!

Thomas F. Divine
http://www.pcausa.com

> -----Original Message-----
> From: xxxxx@lists.osr.com [mailto:bounce-322991-
> xxxxx@lists.osr.com] On Behalf Of xxxxx@hotmail.com
> Sent: Thursday, May 01, 2008 12:17 PM
> To: Windows System Software Devs Interest List
> Subject: RE:[ntdev] Mixing C and C++ files in a driver project.
>
> Maxim,
>
> > In Russia, such computers are assembled in the nearby computer shop
> usually.
>
> …
>
> > In 90ies, such shops were cheating the customers that these computers
> are
> > “from some Taiwanese company”, just to avoid the customers to be
> scared by the fact that
> > the computer is assembled exactly at shop
>
> I tried the following experiment. I went to the CE store and asked the
> info about the computer I chose - I got presented with the user guide
> explaining how to run Vista when I asked for motherboard
> documentation.You are very unlikely to find any info about motherboard,
> chipset, etc right in a shop when buying OEM PC (although the facts
> that the CPU is Intel CoreDuo 2 or CoreQuad and the machine has 2-4 G
> or RAM will be displayed in huge letters) - this info is of very little
> practical value to a “regular” user, so that it is just deemed
> unnecessary. At the same time, explanations how to connect to the
> Internet, how to protect yourself from computer viruses, etc are deemed
> very important, so that OEM user guide is going to be all about running
> Vista…
>
> Therefore, I recorded the model of the PC of interest, went to the OEM
> site, and got all the info. Then I went to a specialized shop ,
> presented all details that I had obtained about the machine, and asked
> how much it would cost to assemble the computer with the above
> configuration… What I got was…125% of the price that I would
> pay in CE store for OEM PC (please note that, unlike OEM machine, it
> did not include a display - I would have to buy it separately if I
> needed the one )!!!
>
> Anton Bassov
>
> —
> NTDEV is sponsored by OSR
>
> For our schedule of WDF, WDM, debugging and other seminars visit:
> http://www.osr.com/seminars
>
> To unsubscribe, visit the List Server section of OSR Online at
> http://www.osronline.com/page.cfm?name=ListServer

111

Matt,

Could you elaborate? What was published in '96?

Anton was referring to this comic:
http://www.ibiblio.org/Dave/Dr-Fun/df9601/df960124.jpg

The copyright date of this particular comic strip is January 24th, 1996.
Pretty amazing of David Farley to have made a comic in 1996 that fits so
well into our times, anticipating archive.org and Google.

112

Hagen Patzke wrote:

> Could you elaborate? What was published in '96?

Anton was referring to this comic:
http://www.ibiblio.org/Dave/Dr-Fun/df9601/df960124.jpg

The copyright date of this particular comic strip is January 24th,
1996. Pretty amazing of David Farley to have made a comic in 1996 that
fits so well into our times, anticipating archive.org and Google.

DejaNews really pioneered newsgroup archiving, and they were doing so
with great success in 1996. DejaNews represented a true “paradigm
shift”; for many people, it was the first introduction of the concept
that a newsgroup posting might live longer than the 30-day expiration
used by most news servers.

–
Tim Roberts, xxxxx@probo.com
Providenza & Boekelheide, Inc.

113

Thomas,

So, buy the Vista machine and then have to install XP on it… Is a mystery to me!!!

If you are really lucky this is the only mystery that you will have to solve. However, I am afraid you may be forced to solve some other “mysteries” throughout your installation process, no matter if your choose XP or RTM Vista - according to quite a few posts in this NG, some newly-produced OEM machines just refuse to work with anything ( MSFT-produced, of course - more on it below), other than OEM-provided Vista.

Now let’s look at how the “competing community” does things. For example, what you see below is taken from the source of a driver for all boards based on the RTL8129 and RTL8139 chips (by passing an array of pci_device_id structure to the function that registers your module with PCI subsystem you tell it to invoke your probe() function whenever it detects any PCI device that matches the specified criteria, with vendor , device, subvendor and subdevice IDs in respectively the first, second, third and fourth fields of a structure)

static struct pci_device_id rtl8139_pci_tbl = {
{0x10ec, 0x8139, PCI_ANY_ID, PCI_ANY_ID, 0, 0, RTL8139 },
{0x10ec, 0x8138, PCI_ANY_ID, PCI_ANY_ID, 0, 0, RTL8139 },
{0x1113, 0x1211, PCI_ANY_ID, PCI_ANY_ID, 0, 0, RTL8139 },
{0x1500, 0x1360, PCI_ANY_ID, PCI_ANY_ID, 0, 0, RTL8139 },
{0x4033, 0x1360, PCI_ANY_ID, PCI_ANY_ID, 0, 0, RTL8139 },
{0x1186, 0x1300, PCI_ANY_ID, PCI_ANY_ID, 0, 0, RTL8139 },
{0x1186, 0x1340, PCI_ANY_ID, PCI_ANY_ID, 0, 0, RTL8139 },
{0x13d1, 0xab06, PCI_ANY_ID, PCI_ANY_ID, 0, 0, RTL8139 },
{0x1259, 0xa117, PCI_ANY_ID, PCI_ANY_ID, 0, 0, RTL8139 },
{0x1259, 0xa11e, PCI_ANY_ID, PCI_ANY_ID, 0, 0, RTL8139 },
{0x14ea, 0xab06, PCI_ANY_ID, PCI_ANY_ID, 0, 0, RTL8139 },
{0x14ea, 0xab07, PCI_ANY_ID, PCI_ANY_ID, 0, 0, RTL8139 },
{0x11db, 0x1234, PCI_ANY_ID, PCI_ANY_ID, 0, 0, RTL8139 },
{0x1432, 0x9130, PCI_ANY_ID, PCI_ANY_ID, 0, 0, RTL8139 },
{0x02ac, 0x1012, PCI_ANY_ID, PCI_ANY_ID, 0, 0, RTL8139 },
{0x018a, 0x0106, PCI_ANY_ID, PCI_ANY_ID, 0, 0, RTL8139 },
{0x126c, 0x1211, PCI_ANY_ID, PCI_ANY_ID, 0, 0, RTL8139 },
{0x1743, 0x8139, PCI_ANY_ID, PCI_ANY_ID, 0, 0, RTL8139 },
{0x021b, 0x8139, PCI_ANY_ID, PCI_ANY_ID, 0, 0, RTL8139 },

#ifdef CONFIG_SH_SECUREEDGE5410
/* Bogus 8139 silicon reports 8129 without external PROM :frowning: */
{0x10ec, 0x8129, PCI_ANY_ID, PCI_ANY_ID, 0, 0, RTL8139 },
#endif
#ifdef CONFIG_8139TOO_8129
{0x10ec, 0x8129, PCI_ANY_ID, PCI_ANY_ID, 0, 0, RTL8129 },
#endif

/* some crazy cards report invalid vendor ids like
* 0x0001 here. The other ids are valid and constant,
* so we simply don’t match on the main vendor id.
*/
{PCI_ANY_ID, 0x8139, 0x10ec, 0x8139, 0, 0, RTL8139 },
{PCI_ANY_ID, 0x8139, 0x1186, 0x1300, 0, 0, RTL8139 },
{PCI_ANY_ID, 0x8139, 0x13d1, 0xab06, 0, 0, RTL8139 },

{0,}
};

As you can see, if you want to find any RTL8129 or RTL8139-based adapter that does not get recognized by their system, you have to try really hard. Please note that the above array is pretty short by the"competing community’s" standards - you can find arrays of pci_device_id structures of significantly larger size in their plain vanilla kernel…

Anton Bassov

114

xxxxx@hotmail.com wrote:

Now let’s look at how the “competing community” does things. For example, what you see below is taken from the source of a driver for all boards based on the RTL8129 and RTL8139 chips (by passing an array of pci_device_id structure to the function that registers your module with PCI subsystem you tell it to invoke your probe() function whenever it detects any PCI device that matches the specified criteria, with vendor , device, subvendor and subdevice IDs in respectively the first, second, third and fourth fields of a structure)
…
As you can see, if you want to find any RTL8129 or RTL8139-based adapter that does not get recognized by their system, you have to try really hard. Please note that the above array is pretty short by the"competing community’s" standards - you can find arrays of pci_device_id structures of significantly larger size in their plain vanilla kernel…

And what is your point? The only difference here is that, in Windows,
this list of PCI identifiers happens to exist in a database of compiled
INF files.

PLEASE let’s not get into another pointless Linux/Windows comparison
filled with half-baked rumors and misinformation. It doesn’t help anyone.

–
Tim Roberts, xxxxx@probo.com
Providenza & Boekelheide, Inc.

115

Tim,

And what is your point? The only difference here is that, in Windows, this list of PCI identifiers
happens to exist in a database of compiled INF files.

Ironically, you have answered your own question - the whole point , indeed, is that under Windows
all driver-related info is in database of INF files, and this database is different even across 32-bit and 64-bit RTM versions of Vista (please check “Davicom DM9601 USB to Ethernet adapter Windows Vista x64 Driver” if you don’t believe me), so I can imagine the differences between OEM and RTM versions.

However, if you ever see vendor/device identifier in pci_device_id structure in a plain vanilla kernel source, you can be absolutely sure that the target device is going to get recognized on any machine where it is present, regardless of architecture, kernel version and distribution (unless, for this or that reason, you decide to exclude it from build - for example, you may decide to write your own driver for the target device as a hobby project)…

Anton Bassov

116

It is not a database except for in-box drivers. It is a bunch of files
located in (usually) Windows\inf. They contain the VID/PID and optionally
the two vendor and subsystem pieces. Look at the properties of your device
and you can see the four part ID (as I call it) and if the two are
duplicated it will be a two part match on the VID/PID. If not it will try
to match the 4 part ID, but will fall back to the 2 part ID if no exact
match is found. There are drivers included in the BOX from Microsoft so you
have to look at the database. One advantage to this scheme is that if the
OS doesn’t find a driver during install of the OS, you need to get one from
the vendor(s).

This permits a chip OEM to sell devices to various MB and computer
manufacturers and the VID/PID can be changed to that vendor’s if they don’t
want to disclose the source of the chip. Therefore a Linux driver written
for some chip will not load if the VID/PID has been changed until the OS
adds that into its embedded database (source code). How many consumers can
modify and recompile Linux? Techies, yes, but they are a very small part of
market.

With this variation permitted for the same chip, a computer/MB maker can set
various options differently if they wish to because of the target market.
Maybe they wish to enable more agressive power management for the device
while another will not care because it doesn’t apply in the market they
chose.

When a new OS is released, most of the hardware currently shipping will have
in-box drivers but install XP and many of the drivers won’t be found. The
storage drivers are fairly standard and work, but video, network, sound, and
other media drivers will require you to obtain the drivers. One thing
Microsoft does is update the in-box drivers for service packs, but
frequently those drivers don’t enable the full functionality of the
hardware. I remember HP printers that had in-box drivers that didn’t
provide all the utilities that permit options to be changed easily.

wrote in message news:xxxxx@ntdev…
>
> Tim,
>
>> And what is your point? The only difference here is that, in Windows,
>> this list of PCI identifiers
>> happens to exist in a database of compiled INF files.
>
> Ironically, you have answered your own question - the whole point ,
> indeed, is that under Windows
> all driver-related info is in database of INF files, and this database is
> different even across 32-bit and 64-bit RTM versions of Vista (please
> check “Davicom DM9601 USB to Ethernet adapter Windows Vista x64 Driver” if
> you don’t believe me), so I can imagine the differences between OEM and
> RTM versions.
>
> However, if you ever see vendor/device identifier in pci_device_id
> structure in a plain vanilla kernel source, you can be absolutely sure
> that the target device is going to get recognized on any machine where it
> is present, regardless of architecture, kernel version and distribution
> (unless, for this or that reason, you decide to exclude it from build -
> for example, you may decide to write your own driver for the target
> device as a hobby project)…
>
> Anton Bassov
>

117

David Craig wrote:

It is not a database except for in-box drivers. It is a bunch of files
located in (usually) Windows\inf.

I guess that depends on your definition. The INFs (including OEM INFs)
are compiled into PNF files, and an index into the compiled files
(including OEM INFs) is maintained in INFCACHE.1. I call that a database.

–
Tim Roberts, xxxxx@probo.com
Providenza & Boekelheide, Inc.

118

BTW, what I forgot to mention in my previous post is that the newly-assembled machine was Vista-free, while the OEM version always comes with Vista. Therefore, assuming someone who needs Vista and display, the resulting conclusion is that buying OEM PC is more than twice cheaper, compared to assembling the one in a shop…

Anton Bassov

119

Yes - that sounds truly horrible and evil.

-p

-----Original Message-----
From: xxxxx@lists.osr.com [mailto:xxxxx@lists.osr.com] On Behalf Of xxxxx@hotmail.com
Sent: Thursday, May 01, 2008 9:27 AM
To: Windows System Software Devs Interest List
Subject: RE:[ntdev] Mixing C and C++ files in a driver project.

BTW, what I forgot to mention in my previous post is that the newly-assembled machine was Vista-free, while the OEM version always comes with Vista. Therefore, assuming someone who needs Vista and display, the resulting conclusion is that buying OEM PC is more than twice cheaper, compared to assembling the one in a shop…

Anton Bassov

NTDEV is sponsored by OSR

For our schedule of WDF, WDM, debugging and other seminars visit:
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120

I never looked that far into how it works, but you could call it a database.
I just know that if I update my driver with a changed INF, it just works
when I get it correct. I also think Doron would say this is close to the
same thing as the hardware keys in the registry. Only Windows needs to know
how it is done and it may vary with each new OS or service pack.

It may prove to be useful to know it though. Have you ever deleted
INFCACHE.1 to see if it would rebuild it properly?

“Tim Roberts” wrote in message news:xxxxx@ntdev…
> David Craig wrote:
>> It is not a database except for in-box drivers. It is a bunch of files
>> located in (usually) Windows\inf.
>
> I guess that depends on your definition. The INFs (including OEM INFs)
> are compiled into PNF files, and an index into the compiled files
> (including OEM INFs) is maintained in INFCACHE.1. I call that a database.
>
> –
> Tim Roberts, xxxxx@probo.com
> Providenza & Boekelheide, Inc.
>
>