Preventing Windows Update from overwriting my drivers

NTDEV
1

I have a set of customized drivers for a hardware device that also now has
the standard driver on Windows Update. I also have a ton of other software
that will malfunction if the driver is “updated” with the one on Windows
Update. We noticed today that Windows Update was offering to update the
driver with a “better” one, and am looking at the alternatives to prevent
customers from breaking their system.

Is there some directive I can put in my driver’s INF or in the registry for
this device that will tell the OS that even though the PnP id may match, the
driver from Windows Update should NOT be installed? Or even better, a
directive that says even if the PnP id matches, also require a match on some
other key (like a guid), so eventually our drivers could also be on Windows
Update without any conflict. An easy example would be: the user buys a
computer in France that uses the French variant of the driver, and it would
be inappropriate if Windows Update then used the English drivers because
they were newer, even though the hardware is identical for the French and
English version.

If it were just a chip, and we were making a card, setting the PCI subsystem
id would be appropriate, but we don’t make the board, so the subsystem id is
what the card manufacturer sets it to. Or would Windows require me to have
French hardware and English hardware, with different PCI (subsystem) id’s,
just so Windows Update will not do something inappropriate.

Is the exact algorithm used by Windows Update to find a matching driver
documented someplace?

Jan

2

Jan,

You are in luck, there is a new paper this month
http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/maintain/WU_logic.mspx

–
Don Burn (MVP, Windows DDK)
Windows 2k/XP/2k3 Filesystem and Driver Consulting
Website: http://www.windrvr.com
Blog: http://msmvps.com/blogs/WinDrvr
Remove StopSpam to reply

“Jan Bottorff” wrote in message news:xxxxx@ntdev…
>I have a set of customized drivers for a hardware device that also now has
> the standard driver on Windows Update. I also have a ton of other
> software
> that will malfunction if the driver is “updated” with the one on Windows
> Update. We noticed today that Windows Update was offering to update the
> driver with a “better” one, and am looking at the alternatives to prevent
> customers from breaking their system.
>
>
>
> Is there some directive I can put in my driver’s INF or in the registry
> for
> this device that will tell the OS that even though the PnP id may match,
> the
> driver from Windows Update should NOT be installed? Or even better, a
> directive that says even if the PnP id matches, also require a match on
> some
> other key (like a guid), so eventually our drivers could also be on
> Windows
> Update without any conflict. An easy example would be: the user buys a
> computer in France that uses the French variant of the driver, and it
> would
> be inappropriate if Windows Update then used the English drivers because
> they were newer, even though the hardware is identical for the French and
> English version.
>
>
>
> If it were just a chip, and we were making a card, setting the PCI
> subsystem
> id would be appropriate, but we don’t make the board, so the subsystem id
> is
> what the card manufacturer sets it to. Or would Windows require me to
> have
> French hardware and English hardware, with different PCI (subsystem)
> id’s,
> just so Windows Update will not do something inappropriate.
>
>
>
> Is the exact algorithm used by Windows Update to find a matching driver
> documented someplace?
>
>
>
> Jan
>
>

3

Don answered your question. But you bring up another point.

If the subsystem IDs are set at the factory, you have a hardware bug. The
whole point of subsystem IDs is that they can be customized after the chip
has shipped, to address exactly this sort of problem.

Usually, the SSIDs are write-once registers. Perhaps the ROM for the device
is writing them? Could you get that changed?

  • Jake Oshins

“Don Burn” wrote in message news:xxxxx@ntdev…
> Jan,
>
> You are in luck, there is a new paper this month
> http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/maintain/WU_logic.mspx
>
>
> –
> Don Burn (MVP, Windows DDK)
> Windows 2k/XP/2k3 Filesystem and Driver Consulting
> Website: http://www.windrvr.com
> Blog: http://msmvps.com/blogs/WinDrvr
> Remove StopSpam to reply
>
> “Jan Bottorff” wrote in message
> news:xxxxx@ntdev…
>>I have a set of customized drivers for a hardware device that also now has
>> the standard driver on Windows Update. I also have a ton of other
>> software
>> that will malfunction if the driver is “updated” with the one on Windows
>> Update. We noticed today that Windows Update was offering to update the
>> driver with a “better” one, and am looking at the alternatives to prevent
>> customers from breaking their system.
>>
>>
>>
>> Is there some directive I can put in my driver’s INF or in the registry
>> for
>> this device that will tell the OS that even though the PnP id may match,
>> the
>> driver from Windows Update should NOT be installed? Or even better, a
>> directive that says even if the PnP id matches, also require a match on
>> some
>> other key (like a guid), so eventually our drivers could also be on
>> Windows
>> Update without any conflict. An easy example would be: the user buys a
>> computer in France that uses the French variant of the driver, and it
>> would
>> be inappropriate if Windows Update then used the English drivers because
>> they were newer, even though the hardware is identical for the French and
>> English version.
>>
>>
>>
>> If it were just a chip, and we were making a card, setting the PCI
>> subsystem
>> id would be appropriate, but we don’t make the board, so the subsystem id
>> is
>> what the card manufacturer sets it to. Or would Windows require me to
>> have
>> French hardware and English hardware, with different PCI (subsystem)
>> id’s,
>> just so Windows Update will not do something inappropriate.
>>
>>
>>
>> Is the exact algorithm used by Windows Update to find a matching driver
>> documented someplace?
>>
>>
>>
>> Jan
>>
>>
>
>
>

4

Hi,

Thanks Don, that paper clearly tells me I have a problem. In the example I
gave of French and English variants of a driver for identical hardware,
unless it’s a printer driver, Windows Update is definitely going to offer to
replace a French driver with a newer English one.

Perhaps our driver is uncommon, but it seems like video drivers often have
feature filled (like for gamers) vs. basic stable flavors (like for business
users), for the same hardware. Or a NDIS nic driver has the fancy
vlan/teaming/cable analyzer flavor (for a corporate server) vs the simpler
just send and receive my packets flavor (for a basic home user). I don’t
want my feature filled driver replaced by a more basic but newer one that’s
on WU.

It sure would be nice if I could specify a driver heritage (a guid) in my
INF (I control it) or a selectable policy on a driver uploaded to WU (the
original hardware maker controls it) to use the WU printer update policy (or
other policies), even though my device is not a printer. That document says
Microsoft understands that a printer may have multiple flavors of drivers
that all match the same hardware id, so WU will require a match on a few
more fields, like the INF provider string.

Jan

-----Original Message-----
From: xxxxx@lists.osr.com
[mailto:xxxxx@lists.osr.com] On Behalf Of Don Burn
Sent: Wednesday, August 22, 2007 4:10 AM
To: Windows System Software Devs Interest List
Subject: Re:[ntdev] Preventing Windows Update from overwriting my drivers

Jan,

You are in luck, there is a new paper this month
http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/maintain/WU_logic.mspx

–
Don Burn (MVP, Windows DDK)
Windows 2k/XP/2k3 Filesystem and Driver Consulting
Website: http://www.windrvr.com
Blog: http://msmvps.com/blogs/WinDrvr
Remove StopSpam to reply

“Jan Bottorff” wrote in message news:xxxxx@ntdev…
>I have a set of customized drivers for a hardware device that also now has
> the standard driver on Windows Update. I also have a ton of other
> software
> that will malfunction if the driver is “updated” with the one on Windows
> Update. We noticed today that Windows Update was offering to update the
> driver with a “better” one, and am looking at the alternatives to prevent
> customers from breaking their system.
>
>
>
> Is there some directive I can put in my driver’s INF or in the registry
> for
> this device that will tell the OS that even though the PnP id may match,
> the
> driver from Windows Update should NOT be installed? Or even better, a
> directive that says even if the PnP id matches, also require a match on
> some
> other key (like a guid), so eventually our drivers could also be on
> Windows
> Update without any conflict. An easy example would be: the user buys a
> computer in France that uses the French variant of the driver, and it
> would
> be inappropriate if Windows Update then used the English drivers because
> they were newer, even though the hardware is identical for the French and
> English version.
>
>
>
> If it were just a chip, and we were making a card, setting the PCI
> subsystem
> id would be appropriate, but we don’t make the board, so the subsystem id
> is
> what the card manufacturer sets it to. Or would Windows require me to
> have
> French hardware and English hardware, with different PCI (subsystem)
> id’s,
> just so Windows Update will not do something inappropriate.
>
>
>
> Is the exact algorithm used by Windows Update to find a matching driver
> documented someplace?
>
>
>
> Jan
>
>