Vista mistaking user mode driver for kernel mode

NTDEV
1

This one’s got me utterly stumped…

We have a kernel mode print driver originally developed for NT4 which we converted to user mode for Vista. Inexplicably, one Vista machine installs it without complaint but another refuses to install it saying it’s a kernel mode driver. It is NOT kernel mode. It’s marked as user mode, it’s linked with the user-mode libraries, and it has all the required user mode entry points. The fact that one Vista machine installs it without complaint would seem to confirm that.

Any ideas whatsoever on how one Vista machine could think it’s kernel mode when another doesn’t?

2

Well, not really. This is weird. Out of curiosity, you haven’t done
something like use GPEdit to disable things on one machine but not the
other? I would start by looking at the \Windows\setupapi.log file
(actually, whatever file this refers you too on Vista; I don’t remember)
and see if it has anything to further say of use. Are you installing
via DeviceManager, et. c.? The major reason I ask this and mention
setupapi.log is that I personally have found the error messages from
Device Manager to be under the best of circumstances useless, and not
uncommonly misleading.

Good luck,

mm

-----Original Message-----
From: xxxxx@lists.osr.com
[mailto:xxxxx@lists.osr.com] On Behalf Of
gregoryc@gw-tech.com
Sent: Friday, August 31, 2007 19:10
To: Windows System Software Devs Interest List
Subject: [ntdev] Vista mistaking user mode driver for kernel mode

This one’s got me utterly stumped…

We have a kernel mode print driver originally developed for NT4 which we
converted to user mode for Vista. Inexplicably, one Vista machine
installs it without complaint but another refuses to install it saying
it’s a kernel mode driver. It is NOT kernel mode. It’s marked as
user mode, it’s linked with the user-mode libraries, and it has all the
required user mode entry points. The fact that one Vista machine
installs it without complaint would seem to confirm that.

Any ideas whatsoever on how one Vista machine could think it’s kernel
mode when another doesn’t?

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3

Nope, no GPEdits or anything of that sort. Both machines are clean, unmodified Vista Enterprise right out of the box. And it happens the same way on both machines whether UAC is enabled or not, so I don’t think it’s a permissions issue.

The installation is done via a setup.exe program, not an INF file, but the setup program has proven reliable on NT4, Win2K, XP, and Win2003 for years. And the fact that one Vista machines installs it correctly leads me to assume there’s nothing overtly wrong with it.

I found nothing at all in the setupapi.log file regarding this driver.