Best Practices for Testing the Download of Device Metadata Packages

Because of how the device metadata retrieval client (DMRC) caches metadata packages, a delay can occur between the time when a device metadata package is available on the Windows Metadata and Internet Services (WMIS) server and the time when the DMRC downloads the metadata package to a client system. To test the download of a device metadata package, you can force a download in one of the following ways:

• Delete the folders in the device metadata cache. This cache is located in the following directory:

  Windows 7:

  %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Device Metadata\
  

  Windows 8:

  %PROGRAMDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\DeviceMetadataCache\
  

  Deleting these folders resets the value of LastCheckedDate and forces the DMRC to query the WMIS server for all devices.

• Set the CheckBackMDRetrieved and CheckBackMDNotRetrieved registry keys to 0. When these values are zero, the DMRC immediately queries the WMIS server for a target device.

  Be aware that the WMIS server overwrites these values every time that the DMRC receives a response from WMIS. Therefore, these parameters can change if the DMRC receives a response for any other device before it queries the WMIS server for your target device.

  Note  You must make these changes only when you test metadata packages. You must not provide end-users with any tools that change the registry values that are used by DMRC.