We develop a custom Windows CE-based device. To connect this to the PC via ActiveSync / Mobile Device Center, we have to set up entries so that the WCE USB Serial Host (wceusbsh.sys) recognises our Vendor ID (Vid) and Product ID (Pid).
To do this, to date, we have distributed a modified version of wceusbsh.inf and wceusbsh.sys: when the user first connects the device then ActiveSync basically says it does not recognise the device, and the user is asked to identify a driver for it. If they now point at the location where they've stored our wceusbsh.* files then all is well. However this is pretty clunky.
What we really want is a slick way to do this, preferably by running an installer which just gets everything ready, so that as soon as the device is plugged in it is recognised by wceusbsh.sys.
Any clues how to do this? There seem to be a ton of registry entries which relate to WCEUSBSH, and it's not clear how these are set: just "installing" the .INF file doesn't seem to allow for setting them all, so it does look like ActiveSync reads the .INF file and then adds some more information before appending the new info to the Registry.
Thanks
Well, in case anyone else comes looking for an answer to this, we managed to do it via this link from MSDN WinUSB (Windows Driver Kit). We now have a driver install program which sets up USB / Mobile Device Center so that when you plug in the CE device it is recognised correctly.
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I am designing a security utility for USB sticks that when a memory stick has been plugged in,an email is sent to the user with the computer's name and IP address. I have got the email part working, but do not know how to execute the .exe file I have made when the USB is plugged in. I know autorun.inf hasn't worked for a while now, and I would like it to run automatically regardless of the PC it is plugged into. Any suggestions? Thanks.
I am pretty sure there is no way to store an executable onto a USB mass storage device in such a way that it runs automatically on all Windows PCs, because that would be a security risk.
You can configure Windows to use AutoPlay though: go to Settings > Devices > Autoplay.
If you have control over the firmware of the USB device, you might try emulating an HID keyboard and taking control of the user's computer that way. See BadUSB and USB Rubber Ducky.
I'm manufacturing a device that connects to my computer using Bluetooth and then a desktop Java app uses the Bluetooth connection to send serial data to the device which is then displayed.
When I try to connect my device to windows 7 it successfully finds and pairs with it creating a Bluetooth link on a COM port. This link can then be used by a serial prompt (used for testing) or my Java application. It works initially however soon after windows drops the connection and the only way to reconnect is to delete the device within devices and printers and then reconnect.
This seems to be a known problem with windows bluetooth so I decieded to use a third party Bluetooth application. I downloaded and tried Toshiba's Bluetooth Stack and it was able to add a Bluetooth device and keep a stable connection which works great however this only works for Toshiba computers without getting a cracked version.
This device is commercial and can't be sold with cracked versions of software. Has anybody experienced the same problems or not in other operating systems and has any solutions of advice as that would be a tremendous help.
This is not a good idea/method to use the COM ports generated by Windows, it's not working fine and not reliable in any scenario ; you should use Bluetooth Sockets instead.
Using Toshiba or Widcomm or BleuSoleil won't help: under Win7, all dongles are now trying to use the Microsoft Stack, not their own implementation.
Is there any way Not to detect USB from windows PC?
The USB device should not mount on windows PC ,It should be handled by my application..
Suggestions please...
As far as I know there is no way of stopping the mount on the windows PC, however, you could set it up to autorun so that when it is plugged it in attempts to launch your application. This answer has some information on how to do this: https://stackoverflow.com/a/255067
There is also the option to hide a drive in windows by removing is drive letter (http://www.howtogeek.com/97203/how-to-hide-a-drive-in-windows-so-that-no-one-will-know-its-there/) however, this is almost certainly going to stop your application from reading it too.
If this is for a specific security reason then perhaps you could look at encrypting the drive and allowing only the application to decrypt the data. Thus, whilst mounted in windows it will be of little use.
Sorry I couldn't be of much more help.
Microsoft provides a utility called devcon for free download.
It's a "Command Line Uility Alternative to Device Manager".
It can actually do many things that I won't get into here, but removing a plug & play device is a simple operation once you know the unique name of the device you want to manipulate.
Refer this to check how to work with it.
It sounds like you don't want your device to show up as a drive in My Computer. In that case, why are you using the Mass Storage Device class at all? You could make a custom, vendor-specific device and talk to it using control/interrupt/bulk transfers with WinUSB. You would need to change the Device's USB descriptors to indicate it is a vendor-specific device and not a mass-storage device.
I have got a piece of hardware which communicates with my program using an FT2232C USB serial converter. All works fine if the device has already been attached to a computer before and the drivers were installed using an administrator account. But that is not the usual case.
These devices will be attached and removed at will and it will also not always be the same device that will be attached to a particular computer. Also, most of the users will not have administrator privileges and the computers are not connected to a LAN.
It is possible to automatically push files to these computers and add registry entries.
Does anybody have got any pointers on how to make Windows believe the devices driver has already been installed? I am currently thinking along the lines of tracking all changes that the driver installer does to the Windows installation and making these changes without any user interaction. But maybe there is an easier way?
We are currently talking Windows XP but in the not so far future there will be more and more Windows 7 (64 bit) computers as well.
While you could "pre-install" the driver by doing all the changes to the registry yourself (under a SYSTEM account, not regular Administrator -- you can use SysInternals PsExec to do this), this wouldn't help you unless you'd preinstall it for all possible ports. (Only USB devices which have an embedded serial number can be installed just once. Others are installed per-port.)
Another option is to sign the driver. A signed driver installs silently without the need for administrative credentials.
Does the vendor driver come with a .cat file? (And is the .cat file WHQL-signed?) If yes, you don't have a problem. Just install the driver with the standard tools (e.g. DPInst).
If not, you can always generate your own WHQL certificate (you cannot BUY a WHQL certificate), push this to all computers (since you're an administrator, you can do this) and then use the regular Windows tools (e.g. DPInst) to place the driver in the machines' driver stores. To generate the certificate, use CertUtil.exe and make sure you specify the "Windows System Component Verification" EKU. To sign the driver, use MakeCat.exe and SignTool.exe.
The best method with XP for the timebeing is to get hold of the administrator password, I used the following method a few months back and it has been brilliant, there is free software and instructions available here:
http://www.loginrecovery.com/
I'm using a Limited User account under Windows XP, and I'm having a bit of trouble getting my Adaptoid (the most coveted N64 controller -> USB adapter, because of it's support for sending raw N64 controller commands + the fact that it's been discontinued) to work smoothly: as installed, the included software requires Administrator privileges to load the driver.
Presumably, it is possible to arrange for the driver to be loaded automatically when the Adaptoid is inserted by adding some stuff to the INF file for the driver (wishna1.inf):
the question is, what stuff?
(It would also suit me just as well if the driver could be automatically loaded when anything attempted to open \Device\Wish_NA1, or even to have it automatically loaded at every boot, really, but doing it on insertion seems like the right way.)
Note: I do have access to an administrative account, it's just that I prefer not to have to use it day-to-day.
First of all, let's clarify that a USB device has a Plug & Play driver on Windows 2000 and higher, so services start modes are irrelevant. The driver will have an entry as a "service" in the registry, but its start mode is irrelevant here.
Let's split the problem into two parts:
Installing driver for the device: This requires administrative privileges. This happens when you insert a USB device into a port for the first time. Windows goes over your .INF files to find one that matches your hardware. If the driver is WHQL-certified, it'll load automatically. Otherwise, you'd see the dreaded Add New Hardware wizard. If you're running as admin, a few clicks on Next should be enough to install it. Otherwise, better have that Administrator password ready.
Loading the driver for the device: Once the device is installed, the driver will be loaded each time this device is inserted into this USB port without requiring any additional user intervention. Ever noticed how a USB printer, camera or disk drive load much faster the second time you plug it in? That's because that's just loading, without installing.
From looking at the .INF, it looks valid. Also, it's not WHQL-certified, so you'd have to install it manually.
I'm assuming when you insert the Adaptoid, you get an Add New Hardware wizard. If you point it manually to the installation directory, does the Adaptoid install and function? Does it appear in the Device Manager?
P.S. USB devices which have a serial number are an exception. They're installed once for all USB ports. Those devices are rather uncommon, though.