USB Driver reinstalls when changing port!

If I connect an USB device to an USB port the "Found new
hardware wizard" pops up. Installation works and all is
fine. However, if I disconnect the device and reconnect to
ANOTHER port on the PC the wizard pops up again!!! The
drivers are already there so why the ---- does it need to
install the drivers again???

After some fiddling in the registry (HKLM) it seems that
the driver database is implemented in such a way that each
peripheral is identified by its connected port... duh!

Does anyone know of a work around? I would really like to
install the drivers ONCE and dont care much about which
USB port the user chooses to plug into. I suspect that
there is much magic involved in the driver's .inf file -
but I dont really want to spend the rest of my life trying
to decode it from MS documentation on the subject.

Best regards,
Mikael

Moving a USB device from one port to another port on Windows 2000 and
Windows causes a device reenumeration to take place. This behavior is
consistant across other buses like Cardbus/PC Card and PCI also.
In the case of USB, it is because the OS does NOT know if the USB device is
the same device or a new device when plugged into a new port. However, if an
IHV incorporates a unique serial number (as mandated in some class
specifications like USB Mass Storage), then the OS knows that the device is
the same device and will NOT reenumerate the device on a new port. This
behavious is consistant between Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows Server
2003.

Also, if the drivers are digitally signed, the INF is well written and the
customer moves the device from one port to another, the new drivers should
be installed without the Add-New-Hardware-Wizard popping up (though the new
hardware bubbles will appear as the device is being reenumerated).

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"Mikael" <anonymous@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:91ba01c3ea5c$15650a60$a001280a@phx.gbl...
> If I connect an USB device to an USB port the "Found new
> hardware wizard" pops up. Installation works and all is
> fine. However, if I disconnect the device and reconnect to
> ANOTHER port on the PC the wizard pops up again!!! The
> drivers are already there so why the ---- does it need to
> install the drivers again???
>
> After some fiddling in the registry (HKLM) it seems that
> the driver database is implemented in such a way that each
> peripheral is identified by its connected port... duh!
>
> Does anyone know of a work around? I would really like to
> install the drivers ONCE and dont care much about which
> USB port the user chooses to plug into. I suspect that
> there is much magic involved in the driver's .inf file -
> but I dont really want to spend the rest of my life trying
> to decode it from MS documentation on the subject.
>
> Best regards,
> Mikael