Guidelines for Writing Device Installation Applications

Device installation applications must do the following:

• Support removal of all device-specific applications that they install. As part of that uninstall process, the device installation application should check whether any associated devices are still present on the system and, if so, warn the user.

• Follow the guidelines for installing devices on 64-bit systems.

• Starting with Windows Vista, list all the applications that were installed by using Microsoft Windows Installer (MSI), and that are available in Programs and Features in Control Panel. You can then uninstall these items if necessary.

• In versions of Windows earlier than Windows Vista, list all the applications that were installed by using Microsoft Windows Installer (MSI), and that are available in Add Or Remove Programs in Control Panel. You can then uninstall these items if necessary.

• Follow the guidelines for Microsoft Windows applications. See the Microsoft Developer Network website for more information.

Device installation applications can do the following:

• Install device-specific applications

  Note  We highly recommend that your device-specific application is created as a Universal Windows Platform (UWP) app and associated with your driver package instead of using a device installation application to install a device-specific application. See Pairing a driver with a Universal Windows Platform (UWP) app for more information.

• Preload driver packages

• Preinstall driver packages

Device installation applications must not do the following:

• Instruct the user to copy or overwrite any files, especially .inf and .sys files.

• Delete the installed driver files from the system during the uninstall operation, even if the hardware is removed.

• Force any unnecessary system restarts. Restarts are generally not required for installing PnP devices or software applications. The NeedReboot parameter of the DiInstallDriver and DiInstallDevice functions and the bRebootRequired parameter of the UpdateDriverForPlugAndPlayDevices function indicate the need for a restart.

• Use RunOnce registry keys to start device installation applications, because this requires a system restart.

• Use a device or class co-installer, or a class installer, to start a device installation application, because the state of the system during device installation cannot be guaranteed to be safe for installing software applications. Specifically, if the device installation application runs during a server-side installation, the system will stop responding.

• Use the Startup Group to start device installation applications.

• Use win.ini entries to start device installation applications.

• Force the user to install any device-specific applications, unless the device will not operate without the application. Examples might include utilities for setting configurable keyboard keys or for setting a modem's country/region code, if an inbox application does not support such a capability.