Publish a shared driver to Windows Update

[Some information relates to pre-released product which may be substantially modified before it's commercially released. Microsoft makes no warranties, express or implied, with respect to the information provided here.]

To publish a shared driver to Windows Update, follow the steps below.

  1. Find the hardware submission that contains the driver you want to distribute. Shared drivers have Publisher displayed in the Permission column.

  2. Go to the Distribution section of the hardware submission and select New shipping label.

    Screenshot that shows New shipping label button

  3. On the shipping label page, go to the Details section and enter a name for the shipping label in the Shipping label name field. This name allows you to organize and search for your shipping labels. The author of the shared driver will be able to see this shipping label, including the name.

    Screenshot that shows label name

  4. In the Properties section, complete the following information:

    Field Description

    Destination

    This must be set to Publish to Windows Update. Shared drivers can't be shared with other companies.

    Release date

    Specify when you want your driver to be available for download on Windows Update.

    If you want your driver to be published as soon as it passes certification, select Publish my driver as soon as it passes certification.

    If you do not want your driver to be published before a certain date, select No sooner than and specify the date.

    Specify the partner (if any) that is allowed visibility into this request

    Enter a partner that you want to have read-only permissions to your driver and shipping label. Use this field when you want a partner to be aware of this shipping label request.

    Driver promotions

    By default, drivers on Windows Update are marked as Optional. This means that a driver is only delivered if the device does not have a driver installed already. These options allow you to override the default behavior but require additional Microsoft evaluation.

    Select Automatically deliver and install this driver during Windows Upgrade to promote your driver to be available for Dynamic Update.

    Select Automatically deliver and install this driver on all applicable systems to promote your driver to Critical.

     

    Screenshot that shows publish properties

  5. In the Targeting section, select the driver package that you want to publish.

  6. After you select your driver package, Select PNPs becomes available. Select the hardware IDs you want to target. You are limited to the hardware IDs your partner chose when sharing the driver. You can search for a specific hardware ID or operating system by using the search boxes above the list of hardware IDs.

    To target all listed hardware IDs, select Publish All.

    To target specific hardware IDs, find each desired hardware ID and select Publish.

    If you targeted all hardware IDs and want to remove them, select Expire All.

    To remove targeting for specific hardware IDs, find each hardware ID and select Expire.

    Screenshot that shows targeting section

  7. If you want to add Computer Hardware IDs (CHIDs), enter each CHID into the text box and select Add CHID(s). To bulk add multiple CHIDs, ensure that each CHID is separated by a newline, select Add multiple CHIDs, and paste your CHIDs into the text box. You can view all added CHIDs in the list below the text box.

    To remove a CHID from the list, select Remove

  8. Select Publish to send your request to Windows Update. If you do not want to publish the shipping label right now, you can select Save. You can publish the shipping label later by either opening the shipping label and selecting Publish, or you can select Publish all pending from the hardware submission page. Note that selecting Publish all pending will publish all unpublished shipping labels.

 

 

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