Qualifying and Distributing PSHED Plug-Ins

To ensure the quality and integrity of the driver, a PSHED plug-in must be digitally signed. Platform vendors must follow these guidelines when digitally signing a PSHED plug-in:

• To minimize the system startup time, we recommend embedding an Authenticode digital signature into the PSHED plug-in file. For more information about this procedure, see Release-Signing a Driver through an Embedded Signature.

• Before the hardware platform can undergo additional verification through the server logo testing process, the plug-in's driver package must have a Windows Hardware Quality Labs (WHQL) digital signature. To obtain this digital signature, you must test and submit the driver package by using the WHQL Unclassified test category.

  Note  You must obtain a WHQL digital signature for the driver package regardless of whether the PSHED plug-in was embedded with an Authenticode digital signature.

For more information about how to digitally sign a PSHED plug-in, see Signing Drivers for Public Release.

After a PSHED plug-in has obtained a WHQL digital signature, the plug-in can be used in any system for which you request a system logo certification. For more information about the server logo certification process, see Windows Logo Program.

PSHED plug-ins will be qualified using a "family" approach, where a specific PSHED plug-in can be qualified for deployment across a class, or family, of hardware platforms.

PSHED plug-ins should be distributed to customers by hardware vendors in a manner similar to how BIOS and system firmware updates are distributed. Also, PSHED plug-ins should interface with the platform firmware in such a way that a single PSHED plug-in can be deployed across a family of hardware platforms.

Note  PSHED plug-ins are not distributed to customers through Windows Update.