How can I configure extra Plug and Play drivers for a Windows 2000 installation?

John Savill

February 19, 2000

1 Min Read
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A. If you are installing Windows 2000 over the network (includingRIS) and have the I386 structure on disk its possible to add extra plug and playdrivers that will be loaded as needed during installations.

  1. Move to your I386 structure and create a subdirectory $OEM$$1

  2. Under the $1 directory create a directory of no more than 8 characters of the company who make the driver, e.g. creative

  3. Under that directory create a subdirectory for the type of hardware, e.g. video, sound etc. (again no more than 8 characters)
    At this point you might have structure:
    - d:i386$OEM$$1creativevideo
    - d:i386$OEM$$1creativeaudio

  4. Copy the drivers and the .INF files into the appropriate subfolder

  5. Open you answer file (or your SIF file) and add the directories to the OEMPnPDriversPath under the [Unattended] section, e.g.

    [Unattended]
        OEMPnPDriversPath = "creativevideo;creativeaudio"


    Use a semi-colon (;) to separate the entries

  6. If any of the drivers are unsigned it will interrupt the unattended installation so also add the line

    DriverSigningPolicy = Ignore
    

    Under the OemPnPdriversPath line

You may if you wish just create a single directory under $OEM$$1 such aspnpdriv and just copy everything into there as long as you have no file nameclashes. If you do this the OEMPnPDriversPath would be just "pnpdriv".It would be recommended to keep them separated to help organization and alsoremember this structure will be copied locally to the system drive.

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