Clarification on Drivers in WIM

[KnightRiderAOE]

Myself ShanuRaj & Amn't that bright abt Deep Windows S**T ..So bear with me if I sound stupid...I run a computer shack & take installations very seriously..It takes more time for installations & a Custom image is used .I trim & tweak the image for optimal purpose but was a little liberal abt the Drivers as they are needed always.WIM usually is big.I assumed, that during installation , H/W ids are read and drivers are installed accordingly from theWIM.
Recently read a post abt drivers in WIM making C Full..I registered for the very same reason to ask a question.Do drivers in WIM are installed as a whole or as required by the H/W..As Will be installing Windows to multiple PCs,I add everything I hav assuming only the needed will be taken..But if thats not the case I will be making all C drives ,I install to, Pregnant..Pls help...
I still manage to Install Win 7 to Newer PCs using Nuhi's help.. NTLite .Hate Win10

 

[nuhi]

Drivers are installed only as needed, during the setup. However more drivers are added, there is a higher chance of Windows picking the wrong one, but that's very rare, just wanted to mention so that you don't just add entire driver packs, gigabytes of drivers.

For Win7 guides and drivers, check this forum and its sublinks for recommended drivers.

 

[Deleted member 8142]

Hate Win7

omg why do you Hate win7

Use RAPR to make a backup of drivers for your machine & integerate them using ntlite to install wim. i only do this single time a new machine is used to install OS . next time i always have a backup & ntlite preset to integerate all those drivers to install wim.

 

[garlin]

Your question deserves two answers.

Windows will pick the best matching driver, based on most specific HW id's and by the latest driver release date on every boot. If a "better" driver is found, Windows will register that one to be loaded. Previously registered drivers are kept in System32\DriverStore.

This includes older versions of the same driver. When you're in Device Manager and want to change versions, it will look in DriverStore first for previous versions. Tools like DriverStore Explorer (RAPR) will help you to safely remove old versions.

---

Many users don't want to copy unused driver files, especially on images targeted for multiple PC's.

One way is to leave them off the WIM, and instead ask Windows Setup to scan the ISO folder for driver files. This way you don't have to run NTLite every time to update drivers. You still need to integrate critical system drivers like storage or networking if the generic Windows drivers don't work for initial setup.

1. Create a \Drivers folder in the ISO folder path.

2. Copy your extracted driver INF, SYS, CAT files there. You can arrange them into sub-folders based on PC brand or whatever. Many driver EXE's can be extracted using 7-Zip, or by command line (go search online for your installer).

3. Using Notepad, copy this into PNPunattend.reg:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\UnattendSettings\PnPUnattend\DriverPaths]
"1"="D:\Drivers"
"2"="E:\Drivers"
"3"="F:\Drivers"
"4"="G:\Drivers"

4. Inside NTLite, load the PNPunattend.reg file under Registry tab.

5. Add a new Post-Setup command:

command -> C:\Windows\System32\pnpunattend.exe​

parameters -> AuditSystem /L​

6. Apply changes, or continue editing.

What this does is create a list of search paths for driver folders. We can't guarantee which drive letter your USB or DVD device will be, so we add a few possibilities. There's no harm in missing those extra drives. pnpunattend will scan EVERY folder underneath \Drivers for you.

Most of the driver bloat isn't the driver itself, but bundled tools. If you need those tools, there's no choice but use their installer to get the complete feature set. But if drivers-only setup works for you, then this is your best bet.

 

[Clanger]

Windows will pick the best matching driver, based on most specific HW id's and by the latest driver release date on every boot. If a "better" driver is found, Windows will register that one to be loaded.

Anyone remember the good old days of adding sata drivers to xp?
AMD used to be an absolute swine with their sata drivers and the only way to find the correct one was load the damn lot into nLite and let windows setup use the one it liked. Worked a treat with no hiccups.

 

[KnightRiderAOE]

omg why do you Hate win7

Use RAPR to make a backup of drivers for your machine & integerate them using ntlite to install wim. i only do this single time a new machine is used to install OS . next time i always have a backup & ntlite preset to integerate all those drivers to install wim.

U know I keep chanting Win7 Win 7...So I used it wrongly...My breath after XP....I hate Win 10.....I learn using Google & made so many tweaks to ma custom Win 7 ...Thanks a lot 4 pointing that out & Edited...

 

[KnightRiderAOE]

Your question deserves two answers.

Windows will pick the best matching driver, based on most specific HW id's and by the latest driver release date on every boot. If a "better" driver is found, Windows will register that one to be loaded. Previously registered drivers are kept in System32\DriverStore.

This includes older versions of the same driver. When you're in Device Manager and want to change versions, it will look in DriverStore first for previous versions. Tools like DriverStore Explorer (RAPR) will help you to safely remove old versions.

---

Many users don't want to copy unused driver files, especially on images targeted for multiple PC's.

One way is to leave them off the WIM, and instead ask Windows Setup to scan the ISO folder for driver files. This way you don't have to run NTLite every time to update drivers. You still need to integrate critical system drivers like storage or networking if the generic Windows drivers don't work for initial setup.

1. Create a \Drivers folder in the ISO folder path.

2. Copy your extracted driver INF, SYS, CAT files there. You can arrange them into sub-folders based on PC brand or whatever. Many driver EXE's can be extracted using 7-Zip, or by command line (go search online for your installer).

3. Using Notepad, copy this into PNPunattend.reg:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\UnattendSettings\PnPUnattend\DriverPaths]
"1"="D:\Drivers"
"2"="E:\Drivers"
"3"="F:\Drivers"
"4"="G:\Drivers"

4. Inside NTLite, load the PNPunattend.reg file under Registry tab.

5. Add a new Post-Setup command:

command -> C:\Windows\System32\pnpunattend.exe​

parameters -> AuditSystem /L​

6. Apply changes, or continue editing.

What this does is create a list of search paths for driver folders. We can't guarantee which drive letter your USB or DVD device will be, so we add a few possibilities. There's no harm in missing those extra drives. pnpunattend will scan EVERY folder underneath \Drivers for you.

Most of the driver bloat isn't the driver itself, but bundled tools. If you need those tools, there's no choice but use their installer to get the complete feature set. But if drivers-only setup works for you, then this is your best bet.

Thanks from ma Deep Heart for Xplaining it in an easily undestandable format.

 

[KnightRiderAOE]

Drivers are installed only as needed, during the setup. However more drivers are added, there is a higher chance of Windows picking the wrong one, but that's very rare, just wanted to mention so that you don't just add entire driver packs, gigabytes of drivers.

For Win7 guides and drivers, check this forum and its sublinks for recommended drivers.

My First communication with You...Thanks 4 Short,Sweet Reply...Informative

 

[freMea]

[…]

3. Using Notepad, copy this into PNPunattend.reg:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\UnattendSettings\PnPUnattend\DriverPaths]
"1"="D:\Drivers"
"2"="E:\Drivers"
"3"="F:\Drivers"
"4"="G:\Drivers"

[…]

This reg is not valid. Use this instead.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\UnattendSettings\PnPUnattend\DriverPaths]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\UnattendSettings\PnPUnattend\DriverPaths\1]
"Path"="C:\\Drivers"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\UnattendSettings\PnPUnattend\DriverPaths\2]
"Path"="D:\\Drivers"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\UnattendSettings\PnPUnattend\DriverPaths\3]
"Path"="E:\\Drivers"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\UnattendSettings\PnPUnattend\DriverPaths\4]
"Path"="F:\\Drivers"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\UnattendSettings\PnPUnattend\DriverPaths\5]
"Path"="G:\\Drivers"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\UnattendSettings\PnPUnattend\DriverPaths\6]
"Path"="H:\\Drivers"

Good practice is to save reg files as unicode UTF-16 little endian because this is the used format when exporting a key from regedit.

 

[garlin]

Thanks for the syntax correction.

I do want to point out UTF-16 LE BOM is what regedit exports, because it supports Unicode text. Unless your file path includes Unicode filenames, most of the time a reg file is accepted in other encodings.

Correct Registry Syntax.md

 

[crazedalizamg]

This reg is not valid. Use this instead.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\UnattendSettings\PnPUnattend\DriverPaths]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\UnattendSettings\PnPUnattend\DriverPaths\1]
"Path"="C:\\Drivers"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\UnattendSettings\PnPUnattend\DriverPaths\2]
"Path"="D:\\Drivers"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\UnattendSettings\PnPUnattend\DriverPaths\3]
"Path"="E:\\Drivers"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\UnattendSettings\PnPUnattend\DriverPaths\4]
"Path"="F:\\Drivers"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\UnattendSettings\PnPUnattend\DriverPaths\5]
"Path"="G:\\Drivers"
This is already normal, wow. I can't even imagine this. I'm just getting goosebumps right now. I also sometimes use [URL='https://studyhelper.com/argumentative-essay-samples']https://studyhelper.com/argumentative-essay-samples [/URL]but not as often as I would like. Everything has its own rules. In general, I like your opinion. That's how it should be
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\UnattendSettings\PnPUnattend\DriverPaths\6]
"Path"="H:\\Drivers"

Good practice is to save reg files as unicode UTF-16 little endian because this is the used format when exporting a key from regedit.

thanks for that