[McStarfighter]

Thanks for changing ... Oh, and you are making a very very very good product ...

[kickarse]

Thanks for the nice words!

[McStarfighter]

And now I've some questions and a suggestion...

First the questions:

• Is DriverForge able to search a folder recursively (also searching all subfolder)?
  
• Can DriverForge search and use a network drive?

And now my suggestion:

• Making a silent mode in Driverforge (My wish is to use it in the WPI Wizard silent but with a progress bar and the drive letter as parameter like driverforge.exe /WPImode /X:)

That's all from me for the moment ...

[kickarse]

McStarfighter, on Jan 20 2008, 10:18 AM, said:

And now I've some questions and a suggestion...

First the questions:

• Is DriverForge able to search a folder recursively (also searching all subfolder)?
  
• Can DriverForge search and use a network drive?

And now my suggestion:

• Making a silent mode in Driverforge (My wish is to use it in the WPI Wizard silent but with a progress bar and the drive letter as parameter like driverforge.exe /WPImode /X:)

That's all from me for the moment ...

1. Yes it can use a already mapped network drive, either for compressed or uncompressed. Treating it as a local drive.
2. It searches all folders recursively of the folder you specify to find the uncompressed drivers, NOT the compressed ones though. All compressed drivers must be in ONE folder. However, all uncompressed drivers can be in folders within folders.
3. Silent mode, you mean no gui? Because currently there is unattended mode which requires no user interaction. (*edit* the 7zip utility won't allow me to hide it, but I'll see what I can do)

This post has been edited by kickarse: 20 January 2008 - 09:51 AM

[McStarfighter]

In my case the drivers are already uncompressed and so the 7-Zip utility isn't needed. The only GUI-like I "want" to see is a progress bar from your tool during the installations of the drivers (perhaps with showing what hardware is installing in that moment). And it would be very nice to "say" the drive letter via an argument / parameter ...

[kickarse]

McStarfighter, on Jan 20 2008, 06:01 PM, said:

In my case the drivers are already uncompressed and so the 7-Zip utility isn't needed. The only GUI-like I "want" to see is a progress bar from your tool during the installations of the drivers (perhaps with showing what hardware is installing in that moment). And it would be very nice to "say" the drive letter via an argument / parameter ...

I see... I might be able to add an option to show a small progress bar. But I'm not going to be able to add what driver/hardware is being installed specifically at each moment. That's not what the utility was designed for (blunt driver installer). I don't know if I'd even be able to add that option in the future even if I wanted to. I don't even know if I will add command line options (archaic but useful).

Just a note, the program functionality though isn't going to change much from this point forward. Just tweaking and such.

The latest version adds a completely silent mode though. Probably upload it tomorrow.

This post has been edited by kickarse: 20 January 2008 - 08:25 PM

[McStarfighter]

Thanks a lot...

The information about the hardware DriverForge installs it atm isn't so much important, the progress bar and the silent mode is enough for me.

And again: You're making a d.a_m.n. good job and product

This post has been edited by McStarfighter: 21 January 2008 - 03:54 AM

[kickarse]

v3.2 Up!

[ideas]

Is it possible to add an attached working file with a folder that consist all the contents in their correct directory?
for example:

contents:
DriverForge v3.2.exe
Drivers uncompressed

AND

contents:
DriverForge v3.2.exe
Drivers compressed

[kickarse]

ideas, on Jan 26 2008, 11:31 PM, said:

Is it possible to add an attached working file with a folder that consist all the contents in their correct directory?
for example:

contents:
DriverForge v3.2.exe
Drivers uncompressed

AND

contents:
DriverForge v3.2.exe
Drivers compressed

Hi Ideas,

Are you asking to have compressed AND uncompressed drivers on the same removable drive? From where you'd want to copy the uncompressed drivers to a local folder on the hard drive, then extract the compressed and copy it to the same folder??

Or... are you just asking if you can put a folder in the root of the DriverForge program folder and then point it to that?

7zRoot=Y
7zRootLoc=folder\on\root\of\drive\and\program\folder\and\folder\your\looking\for
DriverRoot=N
DriverRootLoc=Path\To\Uncompressed\Folder
DriverExtract=C:\Drivers
7zLoc=

7zLoc will be filled in automatically with X:\folder\on\root\of\drive\and\program\folder\and\folder\your\looking\for

This post has been edited by kickarse: 27 January 2008 - 08:55 AM

[kickarse]

Release, DriverForge v3.3!

[ideas]

Is it possible to add an attached working file with a folder that consist all the contents in their correct directory?
for example:

contents:
DriverForge v3.2.exe
Drivers uncompressed [folders & sub folders only]

AND

contents:
DriverForge v3.2.exe
Drivers compressed [dummy 7zip files]

then by downloading any of these all we (end users) have to do is to place the compressed or uncompressed drivers where they should be and everything would just work, hands off.....

[kickarse]

ideas, on Jan 30 2008, 01:13 AM, said:

Is it possible to add an attached working file with a folder that consist all the contents in their correct directory?
for example:

contents:
DriverForge v3.2.exe
Drivers uncompressed [folders & sub folders only]

AND

contents:
DriverForge v3.2.exe
Drivers compressed [dummy 7zip files]

then by downloading any of these all we (end users) have to do is to place the compressed or uncompressed drivers where they should be and everything would just work, hands off.....

I'll think about it

Oh and v3.5 is out!

This post has been edited by kickarse: 30 January 2008 - 09:18 AM

[kickarse]

v4.0 released!

[ty628659]

it worked very will, I would like to make a suggestion for both "DriveForge", "Post-Install". in many time people have big collection of drivers, it take long time copy, decompress and then install. we can easly knowing from Windows drvices manager what is the missing drivers types，so in your program UI give user option to select those missing drivers folder only, then run the proucess. it realy help to speed-up the total installration time. if people have USB or network Drive with decompress folders UI even can just click and map those missing drivers folder in Registry only. (Saving time to copy, decompress)

I am not good for writting so i drow a little UI in attachment. I hope it can help you

Dear kickarse,
I found out if select "Delete uncompressed drivers" option, it only delete \Drivers folder, but the registry DevicePath remain same even the \Drivers folder no longer in. I thanks it should reset back to windows default driverPath=c:\windows\inf only.

Attached File(s)

•  Driverinstall.png (18.31K)
  Number of downloads: 84

This post has been edited by ty628659: 21 February 2008 - 08:40 PM

[redia]

ty628659, on Feb 21 2008, 09:52 PM, said:

it worked very will, I would like to make a suggestion for both "DriveForge", "Post-Install". in many time people have big collection of drivers, it take long time copy, decompress and then install. we can easly knowing from Windows drvices manager what is the missing drivers types，so in your program UI give user option to select those missing drivers folder only, then run the proucess. it realy help to speed-up the total installration time. if people have USB or network Drive with decompress folders UI even can just click and map those missing drivers folder in Registry only. (Saving time to copy, decompress)

this is an interesting idea.
the only thing is that it might be difficult for Kickarse to know what each file stands for.
most of us are using driverpacks file.. but I also use my own pack..
and the driverpacks are updated so the filename might end up changing.

Quote

Dear kickarse,
I found out if select "Delete uncompressed drivers" option, it only delete \Drivers folder, but the registry DevicePath remain same even the \Drivers folder no longer in. I thanks it should reset back to windows default driverPath=c:\windows\inf only.

about this point you are right.
I am sure Kickarse will modify that.
on my test the devicepath is "c:\windows\inf;c:\drivers\3\mo\a;c:\drivers\3\mo\b...................."
but to be on the safe side the devicepath should not be set to "c:\windows\inf", but %systemroot%\inf (to cover the installation in a different folder), or even better, restore the previous value..

R.

[kickarse]

redia, on Feb 22 2008, 05:17 AM, said:

ty628659, on Feb 21 2008, 09:52 PM, said:

it worked very will, I would like to make a suggestion for both "DriveForge", "Post-Install". in many time people have big collection of drivers, it take long time copy, decompress and then install. we can easly knowing from Windows drvices manager what is the missing drivers types，so in your program UI give user option to select those missing drivers folder only, then run the proucess. it realy help to speed-up the total installration time. if people have USB or network Drive with decompress folders UI even can just click and map those missing drivers folder in Registry only. (Saving time to copy, decompress)

this is an interesting idea.
the only thing is that it might be difficult for Kickarse to know what each file stands for.
most of us are using driverpacks file.. but I also use my own pack..
and the driverpacks are updated so the filename might end up changing.

Quote

Dear kickarse,
I found out if select "Delete uncompressed drivers" option, it only delete \Drivers folder, but the registry DevicePath remain same even the \Drivers folder no longer in. I thanks it should reset back to windows default driverPath=c:\windows\inf only.

about this point you are right.
I am sure Kickarse will modify that.
on my test the devicepath is "c:\windows\inf;c:\drivers\3\mo\a;c:\drivers\3\mo\b...................."
but to be on the safe side the devicepath should not be set to "c:\windows\inf", but %systemroot%\inf (to cover the installation in a different folder), or even better, restore the previous value..

R.

Oh that's a good point about resetting the path. It should grab what the value is initially and then after it's finished it should reset it back. I'll add that.

Ultimately it'd be nice to add the option to scan a directory for compressed files. Show a listing all compressed files. Add an option to select all, de-select all, or select individual packs (like it was at one time but not as flexible as I wanted). But that's a bit in the future, it was planned, but I wanted to get the initial stuff working.

This post has been edited by kickarse: 22 February 2008 - 10:07 AM

[Kingskawn]

I have a sysprep image with drivers integrated but for some pcs it won't install some drivers. I thought I could use this for a post-installation of missing drivers but how can I integrate this in my script? Can it be done like this?
So in my script I put the link for the .exe with a UNC path to the folder where all the drivers are?

[tslug]

This has happened to me on multiple computers when trying Driverforge. It will recognize 2 monitors, and not install drivers for either of them. Then it will also recognize anywhere from 2 to 10 unknown devices. When you plug in a USB thumb drive, it won't be able to find drivers for it. I figured out how to fix this last problem by pointing it to C:\WINDOWS\inf, thanks to previous post. But any idea why these other problems happen? This is on multiple brands, laptop and desktop, about 30% of the time. Right now I'm looking at a laptop where the device manager lists 3 (Three) LGPhilips DVD burners with yellow question marks, plus 2 unknown devices underneath. There's only one drive, of course. Fixing these driver errors takes much more time than just downloading the correct drivers from the OEM site in the first place, but this program has so much potential to make my life wonderful!

Thanks for your work so far! I definitely second replacing the driver location to %SYSTEMROOT%/inf so that future devices can plug and play.

[redia]

Kingskawn, on Mar 6 2008, 01:21 PM, said:

I have a sysprep image with drivers integrated but for some pcs it won't install some drivers. I thought I could use this for a post-installation of missing drivers but how can I integrate this in my script? Can it be done like this?
So in my script I put the link for the .exe with a UNC path to the folder where all the drivers are?

tslug, on Mar 8 2008, 08:52 PM, said:

This has happened to me on multiple computers when trying Driverforge. It will recognize 2 monitors, and not install drivers for either of them. Then it will also recognize anywhere from 2 to 10 unknown devices. When you plug in a USB thumb drive, it won't be able to find drivers for it. I figured out how to fix this last problem by pointing it to C:\WINDOWS\inf, thanks to previous post. But any idea why these other problems happen? This is on multiple brands, laptop and desktop, about 30% of the time. Right now I'm looking at a laptop where the device manager lists 3 (Three) LGPhilips DVD burners with yellow question marks, plus 2 unknown devices underneath. There's only one drive, of course. Fixing these driver errors takes much more time than just downloading the correct drivers from the OEM site in the first place, but this program has so much potential to make my life wonderful!

Thanks for your work so far! I definitely second replacing the driver location to %SYSTEMROOT%/inf so that future devices can plug and play.

Tslug,
are you using sysprep ? or are you deleting the drivers folders ?

Kingskawn,
are you deleting the drivers, or are they accessed through the network before sysprepping ?

the issue here is very "simple" or at least straightforward
when running the sysprep all the drivers are "cleaned" and when restarting the computer it goes through a discovery phase.
most of the drivers would work, but unfortunately due to the way the driver inf are built sometimes some leftover are included in the registry pointing to the "uncompressed" driver files.
I have face this type of issue. and it has nothing to do with driverforge.
my way of dealing with that is as follow :
after driverforge running (and I do not delete the drivers in the program) I run a script that I did build:
- it simply check (using devcon) for the existence of specific hardware that I have tested to create this problem,
- copy the drivers in a local directory
- modify the registry accordingly to make sure next time it will look for the correct location
- delete the uncompressed driver folders.

this way I minimize the amount of drivers kept locally on the computer, and through this I minimize the size of the image.

how do I find the problematic drivers ? well simply by testing. so the first computer of a type that I create brings up the errors...
afterword it is easy to deal with.

how hard does it go.. well it ends up being pretty fast, and you will notice that very often it is the same drivers that are creating problems, in my case solving 1 network driver solved the issue for 4 different type of computer.

I am looking into a more systemic solution that we could use in coordination with driverforge :
a pre-script that would delete all the unneeded folder, thus by simply choosing not to delete the drivers after running driverforge we should not face the problem again.
but I have to really dig into that as it really depends on the way the drivers are structured.

if I end up finding any constructive way to do it I will share my findings with kickarse so we could see whether he want to include it in his soft or prefers to keep it outside. do not expect any update in a short period of time as I have a ton of things to do first.

anyway if anyone need help on how to manually do it, or want a copy of my script let me know, it is a first step...

Cheers,
R.