After you have driver packages on your server, you can delete them from the server, enable or disable them, or add a selection of them to a driver group.

  • To delete, enable, or disable driver packages, right-click the Drivers node, and click the task you want to perform.

  • To add packages to a group, right-click the driver group and click Add Driver Packages to this Group.

This topic contains information about the attributes that you can search on in order to perform these tasks. For instructions on how to configure these attributes in order to deploy driver packages, see Deploying Driver Packages.

Driver package attributes

The following attributes apply to the entire driver package. A driver package consists of a set of software components that are required for a device to be supported by Windows—for example, the driver files (typically with the .sys file name extension) and the installation files. For more information about driver packages, see https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=143447.

Attribute TypeAccepted ValuesDescription and Examples

Package ID

GUID in the form {XXXXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXXX}

The GUID that is randomly generated when a driver package is added to the Windows Deployment Services server. To find this number for a package, click the driver group that the package is in (or the All Packages node), right-click the package and click Properties. The Package ID is listed on the General tab. For example: {DD098D20-1850-4FC8-8E35-EA24A1BEFF5E}.

Package Name

String

The name of the package on the server. By default, the name is InfFilename [arch]. To determine this value, click the driver group that the package is in (or the All Packages node), locate the driver package, and view the Package Name column.

Package Enabled

Yes|No

Specifies whether or not the package is enabled on the server. Disabled packages are not available to clients. To view this value, click the driver group that the package is in (or the All Packages node), right-click the package and click Properties. The Status is listed on the General tab.

Package Date Added

Date

The date the package was added to the Windows Deployment Services server. To locate this value, click the driver group that the package is in (or the All Packages node), locate the driver package, and view the Date Added column. If you are managing servers in different time zones, note that this date is the local time for the server and not the Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).

Package Inf Filename

String

The name of the .inf file associated with the driver package. To locate this value, click the driver group that the package is in (or the All Packages node), locate the driver package, and view the File Name column. You must specify the name including the .inf extension.

Package Class

String or GUID

A valid class name or class GUID. For a list of class names and GUIDs, see System-Supplied Device Setup Classes (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=143448). To locate this value, click the driver group that the package is in (or the All Packages node), locate the driver package, and view the Class Name and Class GUID columns. For example, you can specify either Net or {4D36E972-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}.

Package Provider

String

The company that provided the driver package as stated in the package .inf file. To locate this value, click the driver group that the package is in (or the All Packages node), right-click the driver package, and click Properties. The Provider is listed on the General tab. For example: SigmaTel or Microsoft.

Package Architecture

X86|x64|ia64

The architecture of the package. To locate this value, click the driver group that the package is in (or the All Packages node), locate the driver package, and view the Architecture column.

Package Locale

String in the form XX-XX

The locale for the package. Although it is rare, some .inf package files indicate that a package is only valid for a specific locale. In these cases, you can search for the locale using this attribute. To locate this value, click the driver group that the package is in (or the All Packages node), right-click the driver package, and click Properties. The Locale is listed on the General tab.

The language is in the format <language>-<COUNTRY/REGION>, where <language> is the lowercase ISO 639 language code and <COUNTRY/REGION> is the uppercase ISO 3166-1 country/region identifier. The valid language specifications are listed in the Culture Name column on the National Language Support (NLS) information page (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=86010). For example, en-US, ar-SA, and de-DE.

Package Signed

Yes|No

Specifies whether the driver package has a signature file. Note that Windows Deployment Services does not determine whether the signature is trusted on the Windows Deployment Services server, just whether it is a valid signature file. To locate this value, click the driver group that the package is in (or the All Packages node), right-click the driver package, and click Properties. Is package signed is listed on the General tab.

Package Date Published

Date

The date the package was released by the manufacturer as listed in the .inf file. To locate this value, click the driver group that the package is in (or the All Packages node), locate the driver package, and view the Package Date column.

Package Version

String

The version of the package as specified in the .inf file. To locate this value, click the driver group that the package is in (or the All Packages node), locate the driver package, and view the Version column. For example: 2.1.2.

Driver file attributes

The following attributes (except for Driver Group Name) are for the individual drivers within the driver packages. To view a list of the drivers, right-click a driver package, click Properties, and select the Drivers tab.

Attribute TypeAccepted ValuesDescription and Examples

Driver Description

String

The description of the driver from the .inf file. To view a driver’s description, click the driver group that the package is in (or the All Packages node), right-click the driver package, and click Properties. The drivers and descriptions are listed on the Drivers tab.

Driver Manufacturer

String

The manufacturer of the driver as indicated in the package .inf file. To view a driver’s manufacturer, click the driver group that the package is in (or the All Packages node), right-click the driver package, and click Properties. The drivers and manufacturers are listed on the Drivers tab.

Driver Hardware ID

String

Driver Hardware IDs, Driver Compatible IDs, and Driver Exclude ID s are vendor-defined device identification strings that Setup uses to match a device to an .inf file. These IDs are Plug and Play IDs that refer to the driver packages. For example, if a driver is valid for a specific network adapter, the device ID of the network card will be a Driver Hardware ID for the driver. If the driver is generic and works on any version of the network card, then the corresponding device IDs will be listed as Driver Compatible IDs. Lastly, if there is one version of the card that this driver is not valid for, then the device ID for that card will be listed as an Driver Exclude ID (this is rare).

To locate these values, click the driver group that the package is in (or the All Packages node), right-click the driver package, and click Properties. The IDs are listed on the Drivers tab under PnP IDs. Driver Hardware IDs have an asterisk (*) before the ID, Driver Compatible IDs have a plus sign (+) before the ID, and Driver Exclude IDs have a minus sign (-).

Driver Compatible ID

String

See “Driver Hardware ID”.

Driver Exclude ID

String

See “Driver Hardware ID”.

Driver Group Name

String

The name of the driver group on the server that the package is in. You can use this attribute to restrict the search to one or more of the driver groups. To view the groups that a driver package is in, locate the package in the All Packages node, right-click the package, click Properties, and view the Group Membership tab.

Additional references