Installing a system filter driver

Question

Hi all,

So this deep dive I am taking into the world of Windows driver development has got to the stage where I want to automate the installation of my driver.

Ultimately I am trying to quietly install and uninstall a system filter driver (so there is no 'attached device', it gets installed under System devices).

The driver I am trying to install at the moment is the cool example posted by Prikarna on the code project (Simple Serial Port Monitor).

I have been playing around with dpinst.exe, which seems to pick up the .inf file, but shows the status as not needed, because there is 'no device for update'. So if dpinst.exe is capable of installing Prikarna's driver, I suspect the issue is something in the .inf file.

There seems to be a fair amount of documentation on installation online, but the shear quantity of it is confusing me, so a bit of guidance would be a big help!

So my questions are...

#1. Is running dpinst.exe in quiet mode with a VS2008 setup application (maybe as a post-install script) a good approach for what I am trying to achieve?

If dpinst is a good approach..
#2. What are the key tags/sections that need to be added to an .INF file (or some other file?) to have dpinst.exe detect and install a filter driver under System Devices?

Thank you,
Mark.

             

Answer 1

You can do this with a mixture of DIFxAPI and Devcon code.  Use SetupDiCreateDeviceInfo to create the device node then use DIFxAPI to install the device.

I would really recommend you step back on your deep dive, and look at KMDF first.  The sample you choose is WDM and has a bunch of questionable at best programming practices.  Use the samples in the WDK to get started and only wander off into the samples from the web once you have the basics well in hand.

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Don Burn Windows Filesystem and Driver Consulting Website: http://www.windrvr.com Blog: http://msmvps.com/blogs/WinDrvr

Answer 2

Thanks Donald,

I will give what you suggested a go.

I think your right though, I need to hit the books/WDK examples for a while, the more I am reading online the more confused I get!

Visual Studio 2012 and the Window8 RP seem to have some nice support for driver development which might help me separate what is important from what is not.

Appreciate the help.

Cheers,

Mark.