Working with drivers
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Working with drivers

Drivers are added manually to the drivers folder in installation point and then the driver information is extracted and imported to the database by a script either manually or automatically by a scheduled task. The extracted information is used in two ways:

  1. during initial installation to automatically determine which drivers to include in the installation and

  2. in the driver reporting to determine which drivers are missing or if there are newer drivers available.

Folder structure

You can use any folder structure and folder names you like although there are certain folder names which affect the way the drivers are chosen for installation. Two kinds of special names exists: name for OS family and name for OS platform.

OS family names:

Name

Description

WINXP

Windows XP

VISTA

Windows Vista

WIN7

Windows 7

WIN8

Windows 8

WIN81

Windows 8.1

WIN10

Windows 10

W2003SRV

Windows Server 2003

W2008SRV

Windows Server 2008

W2008R2

Windows Server 2008 R2

W2012SRV

Windows Server 2012

W2012R2

Windows Server 2012 R2

W2016SRV

Windows Server 2016

 

OS platform names:

Name

Description

x86

32bit platform

x64 or amd64

64bit platform

 

If name for OS and/or platform is found in the driver folder name, then the driver may be chosen only when the device to be installed has that specified OS family and/or platform.

 

Recommended folder structure:

\Setup

\Drivers

\[Manufaturer]

\[Model]

\WINXP

\x86

\Driver1

\Driver2.

\x64

\Driver1

\Driver2

\WIN7

\x86

Adding a driver

Create a folder under the Drivers-folder in the installation point and copy the driver files there. After copying the driver files, import the driver data by running the script GetDrivers.cmd which is located in the Drivers-folder.

To import all the drivers in drivers folder:

X:\Setup\Drivers\GetDrivers.cmd

To import just one folder:

X:\Setup\Drivers\GetDrivers.cmd [foldername]

(where folder name is eg. HP\D530\WIN7)

GetDrivers.cmd creates a log file in the current directory named GetDrivers.log. Check the log file first in case of any problems when adding drivers.

Removing a driver

Remove the driver folder and run X:\Setup\Drivers\GetDrivers.cmd. If you just want to temporarily disable the driver, see next paragraph for details.

Disabling a driver

You can disable a driver by changing the driver status in the Miradore management console's driver sheet (Administration > Installation settings > Drivers > By folder).

Driver testing

By default the status for the newly added drivers is ‘In test’. You should test the drivers in the initial installation by clicking the check box ‘Include test drivers’ and ensuring that the driver was installed and the device is working correctly after the installation has finished. After testing the driver, you can activate it using the driver sheet (Administration > Installation settings > Drivers > By folder).

You can also disable the drive testing feature in the system settings (Main > Installations management > Initial installation settings > PnP Driver testing > Disabled).

Driver Selection Process

Drivers are automatically chosen for the installation based on the hardware IDs of the scanned PnP devices. Every PnP device has a list of hardware IDs which goes from more specific to a more general ID. Every driver has an inf file where is listed all the supported hardware IDs and device names besides the basic driver information (driver class, version, date, provider, etc). These hardware IDs are used to match the correct drivers and then the drivers are ordered based on the certain rules and the top driver is chosen.

Current ordering rules are:

1: Prefer the forced drivers (see Driver Rules for details)

2: Prefer the most selective hardware IDs

3: Prefer the built-in drivers over OEM drivers (if configured on OS form)

4: Prefer drivers from folders which are intended for target OS family and/or platform

5: Order by driver date, driver version and internal driver id

Driver rules

If the automatic driver selection doesn’t choose the right or desired driver, you can fine tune the process by creating your own rules for the drivers. You can assign, deny or force a driver based on asset model, hardware manufacturer, hardware category, OS family and OS platform. Regardless of there rules Microsoft Windows may still not install the driver if it does not match the target hardware.

Rule types:

‘Assign’ means that the driver is assigned exclusively for the devices which match the filters and is denied for all devices. Use this to assign a specific driver to the driver's target model and to prevent that driver from being installed to any other model.

‘Force’ means that the driver is preferred by the driver selection process and always copied for the installation on the devices which match the filters. If there are one or more force rules, then the device matching the filters will only use drivers from forced folders.

‘Deny’ means that the driver is not allowed to install for the devices which match the filters.

Adding a driver rule

Driver rules can be created from driver rules view, from the driver sheet or from asset model sheet.

To create a rule from the driver rules view:

To create a rule on the driver sheet:

To create a rule on the asset model sheet please see the asset model item page help.

Removing a driver rule

Disabling a driver rule

 

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