How to Import a Windows Driver Described by an INF File into Configuration Manager

Article
10/04/2022

You can import a Windows driver that is described by an information (.inf) file, in Configuration Manager, by using the CreateFromINF Method in Class SMS_Driver.

To import a Windows driver

Set up a connection to the SMS Provider. For more information, see SMS Provider fundamentals.
Call the CreateFromINF Method in Class SMS_Driver to get the initial SMS_Driver Server WMI Class management base object.
Create an instance of SMS_Driver by using the management base object.
Populate the SMS_Driver object.
Commit the SMS_Driver object.

Example

The following example method creates an SMS_Driver object for a Windows driver by using the supplied path and file name. The example also enables the driver by setting the value of the IsEnabled property to true. The helper function GetDriverName is used to get the name of the driver from the driver package XML.

Note

The path parameter must be supplied as a Universal Naming Convention (UNC) network path, for example, \\localhost\Drivers\ATIVideo\.

In the example, the LocaleID property is hard-coded to English (U.S.). If you need the locale for non-U.S. installations, you can get it from the SMS_Identification Server WMI Class LocaleID property.

For information about calling the sample code, see Calling Configuration Manager Code Snippets.

Sub ImportINFDriver(connection, path, name)  

    Dim driverClass  
    Dim inParams  
    Dim outParams  

    On Error Resume Next  

    ' Obtain an instance of the class   
    ' using a key property value.  

    Set driverClass = connection.Get("SMS_Driver")  

    ' Obtain an InParameters object specific  
    ' to the method.  
    Set inParams = driverClass.Methods_("CreateFromINF"). _  
        inParameters.SpawnInstance_()  

    ' Add the input parameters.  
    inParams.Properties_.Item("DriverPath") =  path  
    inParams.Properties_.Item("INFFile") =  name  

    ' Call the method.  
    ' The OutParameters object in outParams  
    ' is created by the provider.  
    Set outParams = connection.ExecMethod("SMS_Driver", "CreateFromINF", inParams)  

   If Err <> 0 Then  
        Wscript.Echo "Failed to add to the driver catalog: " + path + "\" + name  
        Exit Sub  
    End If      

    outParams.Driver.IsEnabled =  True  

    Dim LocalizedSettings(0)  
    Set LocalizedSettings(0) = connection.Get("SMS_CI_LocalizedProperties").SpawnInstance_()  
    LocalizedSettings(0).Properties_.item("LocaleID") =  1033   
    LocalizedSettings(0).Properties_.item("DisplayName") = _  
            GetDriverName(outParams.Driver.SDMPackageXML, "//DisplayName", "Text")  

    LocalizedSettings(0).Properties_.item("Description") = ""          
    outParams.Driver.LocalizedInformation = LocalizedSettings  

    ' Save the driver.  
    outParams.Driver.Put_  

End Sub  

Function GetDriverName(xmlContent, nodeName, attributeName)  
    ' Load the XML Document  
    Dim attrValue  
    Dim XMLDoc  
    Dim objNode  
    Dim displayNameNode  

    attrValue = ""  
    Set XMLDoc = CreateObject("Microsoft.XMLDOM")       
    XMLDoc.async = False  
    XMLDoc.loadXML(xmlContent)  

    'Check for a successful load of the XML Document.  
    If xmlDoc.parseError.errorCode <> 0 Then  
        WScript.Echo vbcrlf & "Error loading XML Document. Error Code : 0x" & hex(xmldoc.parseerror.errorcode)  
        WScript.Echo "Reason: " & xmldoc.parseerror.reason  
        WScript.Echo "Parse Error line " & xmldoc.parseError.line & ", character " & _  
                      xmldoc.parseError.linePos & vbCrLf & xmldoc.parseError.srcText  

        GetXMLAttributeValue = ""          
    Else  
        ' Select the node  
        Set objNode = xmlDoc.SelectSingleNode(nodeName)  

        If Not objNode Is Nothing Then  
            ' Found the element, now just pick up the Text attribute value  
            Set displayNameNode = objNode.attributes.getNamedItem(attributeName)  
            If Not displayNameNode Is Nothing Then  
               attrValue = displayNameNode.value  
            Else  
               WScript.Echo "Attribute not found"  
            End If  
        Else  
            WScript.Echo "Failed to locate " & nodeName & " element."  
        End If  
    End If  

    ' Save the results  
    GetDriverName = attrValue  
End Function

public void ImportInfDriver(  
    WqlConnectionManager connection,   
    string path,   
    string name)  
{  
    try  
    {  
        Dictionary<string, object> inParams = new Dictionary<string, object>();  

        // Set up parameters for the path and file name.  
        inParams.Add("DriverPath", path);  
        inParams.Add("INFFile", name);  

        // Import the INF file.  
        IResultObject result = connection.ExecuteMethod("SMS_Driver", "CreateFromINF", inParams);  

        // Create the SMS_Driver driver instance from the management base object returned in result["Driver"].  
        IResultObject driver = connection.CreateInstance(result["Driver"].ObjectValue);  

        // Enable the driver.  
        driver["IsEnabled"].BooleanValue = true;  

        List<IResultObject> driverInformationList = driver.GetArrayItems("LocalizedInformation");  

        // Set up the display name and other information.  
        IResultObject driverInfo = connection.CreateEmbeddedObjectInstance("SMS_CI_LocalizedProperties");  
        driverInfo["DisplayName"].StringValue = GetDriverName(driver);  
        driverInfo["LocaleID"].IntegerValue = 1033;  
        driverInfo["Description"].StringValue = "";  

        driverInformationList.Add(driverInfo);  

        driver.SetArrayItems("LocalizedInformation", driverInformationList);  

        // Commit the SMS_Driver object.  
        driver.Put();  
    }  
    catch (SmsException e)  
    {  
        Console.WriteLine("Failed to import driver: " + e.Message);  
        throw;  
    }  
}  

public string GetDriverName(IResultObject driver)          
{  
    // Extract   
    XmlDocument sdmpackage = new XmlDocument();  

    sdmpackage.LoadXml(driver.Properties["SDMPackageXML"].StringValue);  

    // Iterate over all the <DisplayName/> tags.  
    foreach (XmlNode displayName in sdmpackage.GetElementsByTagName("DisplayName"))           
    {                  
    // Grab the first one with a Text attribute not equal to null.  
        if (displayName != null && displayName.Attributes["Text"] != null    
            && !string.IsNullOrEmpty(displayName.Attributes["Text"].Value))    
        {                        
                // Return the DisplayName text.  
                return displayName.Attributes["Text"].Value;      
        }              
    }   
    // Default the driverName to the UniqueID.  
    return driver["CI_UniqueID"].StringValue;         
 }

The example method has the following parameters:

Parameter	Type	Description
`connection`	- Managed: `WqlConnectionManager` - VBScript: SWbemServices	A valid connection to the SMS Provider.
`path`	- Managed: `String` - VBScript: `String`	A valid UNC network path to the folder that contains the driver contents. For example, \\Servers\Driver\VideoDriver.
`name`	- Managed: `String` - VBScript: `String`	The name of the .inf file. For example, ATI.inf.

Compiling the Code

This C# example requires:

Namespaces

System

System.Collections.Generic

System.Text

Microsoft.ConfigurationManagement.ManagementProvider

Microsoft.ConfigurationManagement.ManagementProvider.WqlQueryEngine

Assembly

microsoft.configurationmanagement.managementprovider

adminui.wqlqueryengine

Robust Programming

For more information about error handling, see About Configuration Manager Errors.

.NET Framework Security

For more information about securing Configuration Manager applications, see Configuration Manager role-based administration.