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This newsletter contains archived content. No warranty is made as to technical accuracy of content or currency of URLs.
Windows Update (WU) follows the basic rules of Plug and Play to determine if a driver update should be offered to a user. Windows Update ignores several aspects of ranking in Plug and Play, and can do this only because the drivers on Windows Update always have the preferred aspects of an ignored rule.
For example, Plug and Play always prefers a signed driver over an unsigned driver, regardless of what hardwareID is being matched or how old the signed driver is. WU ignores this ranking item because all driver content on Windows Update is signed. This, however, means that a signed driver may not be offered to a user with an unsigned driver, even though by Plug and Play ranking the signed driver is a better match.
Another item ignored by Windows Update is INF compatibleIDs. This is where hardwareID is listed in the INF as a compatibleID, which is ranked worse than INF hardwareIDs. But remember that INF compatibleIDs are not the same as hardware compatibleIDs.
A new paper from the Windows Driver Installation team provides flowcharts describing the logic for Windows Update driver installation, describes the differences for printers versus other drivers, and provides details for Windows Vista and driver ranking using the INF DriverVerVersion.
This paper also describes FeatureScore, a new ranking item introduced in Windows Vista that causes a driver with a lower featurescore value to be preferred over a driver with a higher featurescore DriverVerVersion ranking.
New for Windows Developers
Windows Vista significantly improved the way in which the operating system handles the graphic processing unit (GPU). The Windows Vista Display Driver Model (WDDM) enables better sharing of GPU resources among multiple graphics applications. The video memory manager component of WDDM virtualizes the available video memory resources for applications to use. This enables the Windows Aero experience to run alongside other applications, such as video playback, that also use the GPU. However, the virtualization of video memory increases the amount of virtual address space that applications use. Consequently, some applications may exhaust virtual address space when running on 32-bit Windows Vista. A new paper from the Windows Graphics team describes the types of applications that might encounter such problems and the steps that Microsoft is taking to reduce virtual address space pressure for games running under WDDM.
This collection of sample XPS Documents can be downloaded and used to test a variety of XPS document features. These sample documents were generated from different sources. Some were generated by hand, whereas others were generated by 2007 Microsoft Office System applications, the Microsoft XPS Document Writer (MXDW), and the Windows Presentation Foundation included in .NET Framework 3.0.
These documents are compatible with v1.0 of the specifications and .NET Framework 3.0. The archive file for this download contains the readme.txt and known issues.txt files, and the license agreement. Review these files before using the sample document files.
Vendors can write card minidrivers to present a consistent interface to their smart card type to the Microsoft Smart Card Base Cryptographic Service Provider (CSP) or Crypto Next Generation (CNP) Key Storage Provider (KSP) and to the Smart Card Management Interface. These card minidrivers plug in Windows operating system code. The functionality in a card minidriver is narrowly scoped and carefully defined so that the card-dependent code is simple to implement and easy to verify functionally. A new draft Beta Version 6.0 of the specification provides new information and minidriver API reference for Windows Vista.
Notes and Tools for Driver Developers
Boot-start drivers for both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows Vista should have embedded signatures in the driver image file. Embedded signatures in boot-start driver image files optimize operating system boot performance by eliminating the need to locate the appropriate catalog file when the operating system loader verifies the driver signature. For background information and technical details, see Code-Signing Best Practices.
A dozen deep technical topics of critical interest to Windows developers are available on TechNet IT Showtime, including:
• Windows Memory Management Advances (Landy Wang)
• PCI I/O Virtualization Standards: Implementation (Mike Krause, Renato Recio)
• Future of Memory and Storage (Dean A. Klein)
• UEFI Implementation Guidelines (Andrew Ritz)
• Windows Server Longhorn (Iain McDonald)
• Dynamic Partition: Windows Server (Davis Walker)
• WHEA Systems: Design and Implementation (John Strange, Mukund Khatri)
• Power Management: Windows Server (Stephen Berard)
• Virtualization in Windows Server (Mike Neil)
• The 10 Most Important Things About Failover Clustering (Jim Teague)
• Application and Presentation Virtualization (Alex Balcanquall)
• NPIV SAN Integration and Microsoft Virtualization (Therron Powell, Mark Karnowski)
Windows Logo Program Tools and News
The Windows Logo team publishes Quick Fix Engineering (QFEs) releases for the Windows Logo Kit (WLK). Newly available: WLK QFE 301 - Critical Updates to Storage Tests.
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