OEMPnPDriversPath

[XXX]

I know there is a limit to the path length for this value in sysprep.inf or
unattend.txt, but are sub-directories searched recursively for driver files?

i.e. if my OEMPnPDriversPath = Drivers\Video;Drivers\NIC


Will any folder within Drivers\Video and Drivers\NIC be searched recursively
for devicer drivers?

Thanks!

-Fred.

 

[XXX]

Thanks for the reply Gareth. I was pretty sure that was the case ...
although it's a bit problematic when you want to add drivers for 30 network
cards to a folder ... there are times where the files are the same name.

Cheers...

 

[XXX]

Unfortunately the registry key that OEMPnPDriversPath updates has a maximum
length ... I found this out the hard way a number of years ago. I had been
organizing the folders based on machine type, but this leads to a large
directory tree which quickly expands beyong the limit (not sure what that
limit is offhand but there is KB article about it).

No we don't have 30 NICs ... that was hypothetical ... but I have been
running into file version problems. I just find it messy to manage as it
is.

Cheers...

-Fred.

 

[Hunter01]

The problem is that approach doesn't work when you have duplicate file
names, this happens a hell of a lot, we're having the same problem as
the original poster. You'd think Microsoft would have the nouse to just
let you select a directory with a switch for recursing, and then we
could as you suggest just use "alphanumeric order" to determine which
directories are hit first. Anyone else got any experience or workarounds
for this painful problem in environments with a shitload of different
hardware?

Also does anyone know what Vista behaviour with Sysprep is expected to
be like, or if it'll even still work in that manner? I not looked into
it yet as we wont even be considering it until the first SP comes out.

 

[Guest]

From http://www.vernalex.com/tools/spdrvscn/index.shtml - a wonderful utility
that scans folders for .inf files and adds the paths to the correct reg entry
for driver discovery. Can't recommend it enough.

"Please note that this program makes it so you don't need a
OemPnPDriversPath line in your sysprep.inf file. In fact, all that line does
is copy that data into the registry when it's run. This is a great benefit
because the OemPnPDriversPath can only be 4096 bytes, whereas the registry
value can be as large as a REG_EXPAND_SZ, so you can have much larger paths
this way. In fact there is no direct limit to the size of the registry key,
but the key itself can't contain more than 64,000 bytes when combined with
the other data values"