Early in the device driver development process, it’s important to devote some th...

Early in the device driver development process, it’s important to devote some thought to how you’ll distribute your driver and how an end user will install your driver and the hardware it serves. MicrosoftWindows XP and Microsoft Windows 98/Me use a text file with the file extension INF to control most of the activities associated with installing drivers. You provide the INF file. It goes either on a diskette or on a disc that you package with the hardware, or else Microsoft makes it available on line or on a setup disc. In the INF file, you tell the operating system which file or files to copy onto the end user’s hard disk, which registry entries to add or modify, and so on.