Windows new hardware wizard

[Guest]

One of the XP PRO images at my workplace is doing something different than
all the others. When a new hardware item for which drivers exist, such as a
USB flash drive, or USB floopy is added, the "Add new Hardware" wizard
appears. All the other images install the hardware automatically without the
wizard. In fact as far as I have researched the wizard should not appear
unless drivers for the item were not found. Since this is an image from which
other machines will be built I would lke to correct this. Thanks.

 

[Anthony G.]

Try this, though note the part about the infcache.1 file:

XP asks for drivers or just want to install new hardware

XP comes with drivers for USB mass storage. If it asks for drivers then
there are two common reasons:
1. It does not trust it's own drivers
This is the case when it cannot check if the drivers are signed which is
true when the servicie 'Cryptographic Services' ist not running (CryptSvc) or
if its data are corrupt.
Start -> Execute -> services.msc
Check here for 'Cryptographic Services' beeing started automatically.
Fixing corrupted data of the 'Cryptographic Services' is described at
Microsoft:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/822798

2. It does not find the drives
This is the case when the registry key that points to the INF folder is
corrupt.
Start the Registry Editor (Run -> Regedit). Check if under
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion the item
'DevicePath' points to '%SystemRoot%\inf'. Additional items, separated by
semikolons, are ok but '%SystemRoot%\inf' has to be one of them.
Then delete the file C:\WINDOWS\inf\infcache.1 - XP will recreate it.
The INF folder and the infcache.1 file are 'hidden'. To see them in the
Windows Explorer:
Menu 'Tools' -> 'Folder Options'
Tab 'View', mark 'show hidden files and folders'
If it still doesn't work after a restart, the files in C:\WINDOWS\inf might
be corrupt. An Windows repair install helps then.

Another thing to check is if the values 'FactoryPreInstallInProgress' and
'AuditInProgress' are set to '1' under
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Setup
and
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Factory
.. They should be 0 or non present.

For more info go here: http://www.uwe-sieber.de/usbtrouble_e.html

 

[paristotle]

Thanks for your reply, Anthony. This is what I was looking for. I knew
something was up with the digital signatures. When I ran sigverif almost all
the drivers were unsigned. All I had to do was to rename the
%systemroot%\system32\catroot2\edb.log file and after a reboot it worked.