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The Device Manager uses registry keys that are stored in the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Drivers\key. The following are the major subkeys of the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Drivers\key:
When a device driver is loaded, the Device Manager passes the device driver the path to its Active\key as the dwContextparameter in the device driver's XXX_Initfunction. The device driver can rely on the presence of the following values:
Device handle from the RegisterDeviceor ActivateDevicefunction. Please note that in Windows CE 3.0 and later, RegisterDevicehas been replaced with ActivateDevice.
The device driver's Device File Name, for example "COM1:" or "SCR7:".
Registry path within HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINEto the device driver's Builtin\or PCMCIA\key
The Active\key for PC Card device drivers has the following additional values:
Plug and Play identifier string
Current socket and function pair of the PC Card
Device drivers should never modify any of the values in this part of the registry that are put there by the Device Manager. Once a device driver is loaded, it can add values to its Active\key. However, the Device Manager will delete the device driver's Active\key and any values in it when the device driver is unloaded.
The name of the device driver's .DLL file.
The device driver's Device File Name Prefix.
The device driver's Device File Name Index.
The loading order for this device driver. The Device Manager loads device driver according to their Order numbers, starting with 0. This value is optional.
A string containing a human-readable description or name for the device driver.
The name of a function for the Device Manager to call to initialize the device driver. This value is optional. If this value is not specified, the Device Manager will initialize the device driver by calling its RegisterDevicefunction.
If an Entryvalue is present, then the presence of a Keepvalue prevents the device manager from freeing the device driver DLL after calling the function named in the Entryvalue. The mere presence of a Keep value is sufficient; the actual value stored in Keepis irrelevant.
If an Ioctlvalue is present, the Device Manager will call the device driver's IOControl function, as described in XXX_IOControl, after loading the driver.
The value passed in the dwInfoparameter to RegisterDevicewhen the device driver is loaded.
Last updated on Tuesday, July 13, 2004