Driver installation warning, driver signing and WHQL

Hi group,

I have a device driver from FTDI which I am using in my software
product (for Windows XP). The driver is already WHQL cedrtified. I
changed the driver .inf file such that it contains my company's
vendor- and product ID which results in loosing the WHQL
certification.
Software and driver work as expected but: The driver is not installed
automatically during the software installation procedure. Instead,
Windows complains about the driver and says it is not signed/certified
and may harm my computer.

1) How do I get rid of those warning dialogs during driver
installation? My guess is that the driver has to be (re-) certified/
signed. Is that true?

2) How do re-certify an already WHQL certified device driver? I
figured out that there is the WHQL reseller program. To participate, I
(my company) has to sign a lot of legal stuff. Before I continue, I
would like to know if I am on the right track...

3) If the WHQL reseller program is the right thing to do to get rid of
the warning message during installation, what is the result of this?
How is my driver resigned/recertified? Will I get some file from
Microsoft with magic information telling the driver is fine? If so,
what do I do with this file?

4) I searched the Microsoft WHQL internet pages but it drives me
crazy. I cannot find the information I need. Is there a source of
useful (!) information about driver signing/certifying and WHQL you
can point me to?

Thanks for your answers!

Regards,
Paul

chris
Thu Jan 31 09:32:10 CST 2008

On Jan 31, 9:12 am, Paul Schwann <paul.schw...@gmail.com> wrote:

> Software and driver work as expected but: The driver is not installed
> automatically during the software installation procedure. Instead,
> Windows complains about the driver and says it is not signed/certified
> and may harm my computer.
>
> 1) How do I get rid of those warning dialogs during driver
> installation? My guess is that the driver has to be (re-) certified/
> signed. Is that true?

Yes, that's true. In the past, I believe it was possible to resubmit
an .INF that had only hardware ID's changed and get another signed
catalog file (which "makes the warnings go away"), but not now (as far
as I know). Meaning, you will have to retest and resubmit.

It sounds like you got the driver and testing done by a third party,
so you might contact them again to get this done.

Paul
Thu Jan 31 10:59:56 CST 2008

Hi Chris,

thanks for your fast answer!

> Yes, that's true. In the past, I believe it was possible to resubmit
> an .INF that had only hardware ID's changed and get another signed
> catalog file (which "makes the warnings go away"), but not now (as far
> as I know).

Do you know since when this policy changed? Or is it still valid for
Windows XP (currently, I don't care about Windows Vista...)

> Meaning, you will have to retest and resubmit.

The result of the retest and resubmitting (probably by using the
Winqual submission and testing tools?) will than be such a catalog
file? What do I have to do with it? Just copy it to the same location
as the driver? Does it require an active internet connection to
validate the driver certificate/catalog file?

> It sounds like you got the driver and testing done by a third party,
> so you might contact them again to get this done.

Unfortunately no. FTDI grants the right to do the INF-File changes but
doesn't give any support in WHQL certification (Ok - that'sdefinitely
not their business :-).

Thanks for your help!

Regards,
Paul

Ben
Mon Feb 04 09:40:16 CST 2008


"Paul Schwann" <paul.schwann@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:049894bf-2e68-44a0-97be-bdc90d531d59@m34g2000hsb.googlegroups.com...
> Hi group,
>
> I have a device driver from FTDI which I am using in my software
> product (for Windows XP). The driver is already WHQL cedrtified. I

This is a rather sad statement about the whole WHQL process, because that
driver (if you are speaking of CDM 2.02.04) consistently blue-screens within
a few seconds after starting data transfer on any multi-core machine.

OTOH since they'll need to certify a new version in the near future, perhaps
you can convince them to include your VID/PID combination in the next
submission. Their tech support seems very helpful, even if the development
process does let a few bugs through.

> changed the driver .inf file such that it contains my company's
> vendor- and product ID which results in loosing the WHQL
> certification.
> Software and driver work as expected but: The driver is not installed
> automatically during the software installation procedure. Instead,
> Windows complains about the driver and says it is not signed/certified
> and may harm my computer.
>
> 1) How do I get rid of those warning dialogs during driver
> installation? My guess is that the driver has to be (re-) certified/
> signed. Is that true?
>
> 2) How do re-certify an already WHQL certified device driver? I
> figured out that there is the WHQL reseller program. To participate, I
> (my company) has to sign a lot of legal stuff. Before I continue, I
> would like to know if I am on the right track...
>
> 3) If the WHQL reseller program is the right thing to do to get rid of
> the warning message during installation, what is the result of this?
> How is my driver resigned/recertified? Will I get some file from
> Microsoft with magic information telling the driver is fine? If so,
> what do I do with this file?
>
> 4) I searched the Microsoft WHQL internet pages but it drives me
> crazy. I cannot find the information I need. Is there a source of
> useful (!) information about driver signing/certifying and WHQL you
> can point me to?
>
> Thanks for your answers!
>
> Regards,
> Paul