Device Manager Registry Keys
The Device Manager uses the Active and BuiltIn subkeys of the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Drivers registry key.
Device drivers should never modify the values in this part of the registry if they are placed by the Device Manager.
The HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Drivers\Active registry key contains subkeys that track currently active drivers that the Device Manager loaded. Device driver setup routines should not modify the Active key's contents, nor should they rely on the presence of any specific values within the Active key other than those listed in the table below. When a driver is loaded, the Device Manager passes the path to the driver's Active key with the dwContext parameter to the initialization function. The initialization function can read and create new values in the Active key; however, it is not permitted to access the key after the initialization function returns. The following table shows the subkeys available in the Active registry key.
| Subkey | Description |
|---|---|
| Name | Device driver's device file name. For example COM1: or SCR7:. Some devices are unnamed and may not contain this value. This subkey is only present for drivers that specify a prefix. For more information on device file names, see Device File Names. |
| Key | Registry path to the device. |
| PnpId | Plug and Play identifier string. Only present for PC Card drivers. |
| Sckt | Current socket and function pair of the PC Card. Only present for PC Card drivers. |
During boot, the Device Manager invokes the ActivateDeviceEx function referenced by the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Drivers\RootKey registry key. By default, the referenced key is HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Drivers\Builtin and the Registry Enumerator is the default driver loaded. This action causes all device drivers to load correctly.
See Also
Last updated on Wednesday, April 13, 2005
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