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Installing drivers with the extension inf. How to install .sys or .inf files

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This page contains information about installing the latest INF driver downloads using the INF Driver Update Tool.

INF drivers are small programs that enable your INF hardware to communicate with your operating system software. Maintaining updated INF software prevents crashes and maximizes hardware and system performance. Using outdated or corrupted INF drivers can cause system errors, malfunctions and failure of equipment or computer. Moreover, installing the wrong INF drivers can make these problems worse.

Advice: If you are inexperienced with updating INF device drivers manually, we highly recommend downloading the INF Driver Utility. This tool will automatically download and update correct versions INF drivers, preventing you from installing the wrong INF drivers.

About the author: Jay Geater is President and CEO Solvusoft Corporation, a global software company focused on innovative service programs. He has been passionate about computers all his life and loves everything related to computers, software and new technologies.

Driver is a specific control program that reports operating system information about connected equipment and provides mechanisms for its use. Many such software products contain quite complex functionality, processing a wide variety of information passing through the serviced equipment. This can be audio and video information, data streams of scanning, printing and network machines, information about keystrokes, mouse movements, interaction with portable media, various mobile phones etc. etc.

Information about the installed hardware can be found by going to the "Control Panel", selecting the "System" section and clicking the link or the "Device Manager" button

In the tree-like list that opens, all devices visible to the operating system will be visible.

What are the installation methods?

If, when connecting new equipment, the operating system was unable to automatically configure the appropriate software, then you can go in two ways:

1. Take advantage special programs for search and automatic installation.

2. Independently find and install the necessary software.

Both of these methods have their advantages and disadvantages. The first option is definitely more convenient and saves a lot of time. And when using standard equipment, this approach will give good results - all pieces of iron will work as they should and without failures. In addition, when using the latest versions of such automation programs, you will receive the most recent versions of the driver files. You can read more about this method on this page of our website:.

Despite the considerable convenience, it often happens that it is not possible to install the control program automatically due to the fact that it simply does not exist in the database of the selected utility. In this case, you will have to do the configuration manually. Although it takes more time, this approach is the most reliable. After all, having received a control program directly from the equipment manufacturer, you simultaneously receive guarantees of its full compatibility with the device being installed, taking into account all the nuances of its operation. Such nuances may not be taken into account in universal collections.

How to get a driver?

Usually, all the necessary software comes with the purchased product on an optical disc. In this case, it is often enough to insert the disc into the drive, run the application and follow the prompts during the setup process.

If the disk is lost, or you want a more recent version, then you can do this on the equipment manufacturer's website in the appropriate section, which is usually called "Service / Support".

When searching desired files you should not forget for which version of the operating system you need them. Because applications developed for Windows XP will most likely not work properly on newer operating systems, and 32-bit software may refuse to function in a 64-bit environment. And vice versa.

It may happen that outdated equipment falls into your hands. And just like that run it on latest versions operating system will not work. In this case, you can try installing it in compatibility mode for older versions of Windows. Unfortunately, this does not always lead to a successful result. And the problem of the lack of normal support for new versions of the OS forces users to refuse to use many quite working and useful products.

Manual driver installation

Control programs are usually supplied by manufacturers as installation applications. After starting the installation, the user receives prompts and follows the installation steps without any problems coping with the entire setup process.

But the situation is quite common when such friendly software is not provided. And many users do not know what to do in this case.

The procedure for dealing with such a situation is described below using the iRiver IFP-700 MP3 player as an example.

To save the information recorded on the microphone of this player, you must both install its driver, and then use special utility iRiver Music manager. But unfortunately, the iRiver official website fails to download the necessary files. Moreover, from the content of the page on the site it is clear that this player is designed for OS not newer than Windows xp.

Accordingly, to guarantee success, you will need to install this player in Windows XP.

After some searching, I managed to get such an archive with the necessary files:

Unpacking the contents of the archive

and we see that there are no exe-files in it. But there is, which is described as "Information for installation".

It is this file (complete with neighboring ones from this folder) that the operating system needs in order to successfully connect the player to the USB port.

We connect the player with a cord to the computer and see that such a typical window has appeared:

If we go the usual way and choose automatic stop, then after a long display of this window

a failure message will appear. Therefore, we press the "Back" button to go the alternative way.

In this window, instead of the automatic method, select the option "Install from a list or specified location"

We press the browse button and select the folder into which we unpacked the files from the zip archive.

As a result, the search line should contain the path to the folder in which the inf file is located:

Upon completion of the process, a success window appears:

You can additionally verify this by going to the Device Manager and seeing the presence of the installed player there:

Results

Using the methods listed in this article, you will be able to successfully install control programs for the devices you use. And knowing how to install the driver manually using an inf file will allow you to maximize the amount of equipment used without involving third-party specialists. In addition, the use of official software from the websites of device manufacturers will significantly increase the reliability of your computer.

How to install drivers on Windows 7 forcibly.

This type of driver installation almost always helps when the driver for the device is not installed by simply running the installation file setup, with extensions *.exe or *.msi.

But the main condition for successful installation of the driver in this case is that the driver must be completely unpacked and the file with the extension *.inf should be available. Often, hardware manufacturers pack their drivers not only with standard ZIP archivers, but also using intricate programs of their own making. Here, for unpacking, the program can be very useful. Universal Extractor, which can unpack almost any driver installer.

Consider, how to force install driver in windows 7 on the example of a webcam Defender AV-W2035. There is a driver downloaded from the Internet AV-W2035_VISTA.zip, which we successfully unpacked into a folder C:/AW-0350-MIC-VISTA. First we need to see where we have a file with the extension *.inf. To do this, in the properties Windows folders you need to enable the display of file extensions so that the file names are written with their extensions. Or use very useful program Total Commander or similar file manager. Looking through the folders (you can use the file search) we found the file snpstd2.inf

You should remember the entire path to this file, so that later it will be easier to find it in Explorer. We connect the camera to the computer, and wait until Windows completes all its operations to determine new hardware.

We open Device Manager (Start –> Control Panel –> Device Manager)

The device is immediately visible usb camera without installed drivers. Right click on the camera and context menu select item Update Drivers...

in the window that opens, click

and then select the button Further

A window with lists of equipment categories will open.
In order not to waste time and puzzle over, just point to the first line Show all devices and press the button Further

In the next window, we will open a list of available drivers in the system (if any). But since we know that we have a folder with the driver, without choosing anything from the list, we click on the button

We press the button Review…

and using Explorer we are looking for our file with the extension *.inf, select it with the mouse and follow the button Open

and of course the button OK

Now our driver will appear in the window with the list of available drivers (if the driver is not suitable for the equipment, the system will give an error).

Here you should pay attention to the checkbox Only compatible devices. The fact is that if the connected equipment has not been tested for compatibility with installed version Windows, then there is no driver for it, despite the fact that it may be quite working. Therefore, in some cases, this checkbox should be unchecked and the driver search should be repeated again.

So, after the file with the driver is found, select our driver in the list with the mouse and press the button Further

Driver installation will start

You may receive a Windows warning that the driver you are installing is not digitally signed or has not been tested for compatibility. If you are sure that the driver is taken from a reliable source and is definitely intended for the equipment being installed, then you should absolutely not be afraid of such a warning, but you should agree to the further installation of the driver. When the installation is completed, the system will display a completion window.

You can verify the successful installation of the driver by Device Manager, where the connected device will no longer have a question mark, and its name will change to the correct one created by the manufacturer. In our case with a camera, this will be the device that appears with the name USB PC Camera (SN9C103)

The installation is complete, you can safely start using the new equipment!

This edition is intended for users who are already somewhat familiar with the computer and want to learn how to install and configure the operating system on their own. Available language presentation and a large number of Visual illustrations help you install Windows 7 correctly and set up your PC for optimal performance. In addition, the book describes in detail the basic principles of restoring the operating system.

The information contained in this book has been obtained from sources believed by the publisher to be reliable. However, bearing in mind the possible human or technical errors, the publisher cannot guarantee the absolute accuracy and completeness of the information provided and is not responsible for possible mistakes related to using the book.

Book:

Consider a situation where a set of INF files is used to install equipment.

open Control Panel and start the mechanism Device Manager. As a result, a window will open in which you can see a list of all devices detected by the operating system on the computer (Fig. 16.1).

Most of it is made up of devices located on motherboard, and only a few entries indicate devices that are installed as an expansion board or connected using external ports.

Our task is to install a driver for a device that is not detected by the operating system. If your device is not yet connected to your computer, now is the time to do so.

If the device is already connected to the computer, then right-click on the computer name at the very top of the list and select the Install old device item in the menu that appears (Fig. 16.2). This will launch the hardware installation wizard, which will guide and guide you through the hardware installation (Figure 16.3).

Rice. 16.1. Launching Device Manager

Rice. 16.2. Select Install Old Device

After reading the opening speech and preparing the driver disk, if needed, press the button Further, to start the device installation process.

Rice. 16.3. Hardware Setup Wizard

The installation wizard offers two options for further actions: automatic and manual installation equipment (Fig. 16.4). Automatic installation will do nothing, since the operating system already tried to do this during the installation process. For this reason, it is immediately necessary to proceed to the second option. Set the switch to Installing equipment manually selected from a list and press the button Further.

Rice. 16.4. Choose an action option

In the next window you will see a list of devices different type, drivers for which are available in the operating system (Fig. 16.5).

Rice. 16.5. Specify the type of device to be installed

Let's first consider the option when you found the driver you need in the list of manufacturers and drivers. Having marked it, press the button Further, to move on to installing it.

In the next window, the Add Hardware Wizard will display a list of all drivers available on the system for the selected device type, sorted by hardware manufacturer. If you are sure that one of the proposed drivers is suitable for your equipment, then select the required manufacturer in the left part of the window, and the necessary driver in the right part. After that, you can try to install it by clicking the button Further(Fig. 16.6). This will bring up a confirmation window in which you need to click the button again. Further(Fig. 16.7).

After the driver installation is confirmed, the Add Hardware Wizard copies the necessary drivers to the system and attempts to initialize the device. If the device initialization was successful, you will see a window with a message that the driver for the device was installed correctly and the device is ready to work. AT otherwise the wizard will report that the installation failed and the device cannot be started, or that there are some difficulties (Fig. 16.8).