Driver Store and Driver Packaging

Introduced in Windows Vista, the driver store is a central location where all driver files are stored before they are copied to their final destinations during device installation. The location of the driver store on a Windows Vista or later system is the following:

Driver files are stored in folders called driver packages, which are located within the FileRepository subfolder under the preceding path. For example, the driver package developed by Microsoft that contains core mouse support files is contained in the following folder:

Within this folder are the driver (.sys) files, driver setup (.inf) files, Precompiled INF (.pnf) files, and an Extensible Markup Language (XML) manifest (.man) file that contains the manifest of all the files within the driver package. Together, all these files add up to the driver package, which contains all the files needed to install the device. To protect these driver files, the NTFS File System (NTFS) permissions on the driver store and all its subfolders and files is Full Control for the LocalSystem account and Read and Execute for the Everyone built-in identity.

This central store and driver package architecture is different from Windows XP, where driver source files needed for installing devices are typically found in several locations, including the following:

• %SystemRoot%\Driver Cache\I386\Drivers.cab
• %SystemRoot%\Driver Cache\I386\Service_pack.cab (for example, Sp2.cab)
• .inf files under %Windir%\Inf
• .sys files under %SystemRoot%\System32\Drivers
• Support dynamic-link libraries (DLLs) under %SystemRoot%\System32
• Third-party co-installers in various locations

The following benefits result from maintaining a single, central store as an authoritative point from which to install driver files when new PnP devices are detected:

• Allows for potentially faster device installations, more reliable driver rollback, and a single standard for uninstalling drivers
• Allows you to protect drivers by using WRP
• Uses index files to minimize the performance impact on installing devices when the driver store grows in size as a result of the addition of new packages