Discovery Technologies: PnP-X

"Discovery" describes how Windows determines that a device is present. For physically connected devices, discovery occurs through PCI, USB, and other physical bus enumerators. For network-connected devices, Windows uses network communication protocols to discover the presence of a device.

Under Windows Vista, Plug and Play Extensions (PnP-X) allows network-connected devices to be discovered and installed on a PC client as if they were connected physically.

To take advantage of PnP-X, the device manufacturer must support either Devices Profile for Web Services or UPnP 1.0. Specifically, PnP-X relies on the discovery of network-connected devices by using SSDP and WS-Discovery.

Learn the Secrets of Automatic Discovery and Association
You can implement code in your network device so that when the device is first discovered on the network, it is automatically installed without the user being required to find the device and perform a right-click install action. Of course, you'll need to get your driver signed.

See also:
Building Deployable Device Driver Packages [WinHEC 2007; 964 KB]
Winqual Training Videos

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PnP-X Specifications

PnP-X: Plug and Play Extensions for Windows

PnP-X Papers

	Network Explorer Extensibility
	PnP X Out-of-Band Association
	Plug and Play for Network Connected Devices [WinHEC 2006; 2.59 MB]
	Function Discovery on MSDN
	Function Discovery Providers

Function Discovery and PnP-X References

	Function Discovery Provider Reference
	Function Discovery Reference
	PnP-X Association Database Reference
	PnP-X Newsgroup

See Also

	Windows Rally Development Kit
	UPnP Forum
	Web Services Developer Center [MSDN]

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