Install USB peripheral drivers

Follow the steps below to add third-party drivers (USB) for peripheral devices such as USB Mobile broadband modems, printers, scanners etc.

Step 1: Get Drivers from PC

The Step is to get the x86 version of the drivers from PC. For ARM, please contact the supplier of the peripheral to get the sys/inf files.

Connect the device to the windows PC

Install the driver for the device on the PC

Go to Device Manager, select this device (listed under Universal Serial Bus controllers) and right click and select Properties.

Go to Driver tab in the Properties window, and click on Driver Details. Note the sys files listed there.

Copy the sys files from C:\Windows\system32 and also the related inf file from C:\Windows\Inf . You can find the inf file by searching for the sys file reference in the .inf files. You may need to copy additional files listed in the Inf and these will be listed in the inf_filelist.txt file created when using inf2pkg.cmd in the next step.

Step 2: Create a driver package

The Driver package contains the references(InfSource)to the Inf file for the driver and also lists all the files referenced in the Inf file. You can author the driver .wm.xml using Add-IoTDriverPackage.

New-IoTInf2Cab creates the package xml file and also builds the cab file directly.

Step 3: Install on device

• Connect to the device (using SSH or using PowerShell)
• Copy the .cab file to the device to a directory say C:\OemInstall
• Initiate staging of the package using applyupdate -stage C:\OemInstall\ .cab . Note that this step is be repeated for each package, when you have multiple packages to install.
• Commit the packages using applyupdate -commit .

The device will reboot into the update OS (showing gears) to install the packages and will reboot again to main OS. This process can take a few minutes.

Step 4: Check status of driver

You can get the status of the installed drivers using the following PowerShell commandlets

Download the Windows Driver Kit (WDK)

The WDK is used to develop, test, and deploy Windows drivers.

Runtime requirements

You can run the Windows 10, version 2004 WDK on Windows 7 and later, and use it to develop drivers for these operating systems:

Client OS	Server OS
Windows 10	Windows Server 2019, Windows Server 2016
Windows 8.1	Windows Server 2012 R2
Windows 8	Windows Server 2012
Windows 7	Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1

WDK for Windows 10, version 2004

Step 1: Install Visual Studio 2019

The WDK requires Visual Studio. For more information about system requirements for Visual Studio, see Visual Studio 2019 System Requirements.

The following editions of Visual Studio 2019 support driver development for this release:

When you install Visual Studio 2019, select the Desktop development with C++ workload. The Windows 10 Software Development Kit (SDK) is automatically included, and is displayed in the right-hand Summary pane. Note that the version of the SDK that is compatible with the WDK for Windows 10, version 2004 may not be the default SDK. To select the correct SDK:

In Visual Studio Installer, on the Individual components tab, search for Windows 10 SDK (10.0.19041.0), select this version and continue with install. Note that Visual Studio will automatically install Windows 10 SDK (10.0.19041.1) on your machine.

If you already have Visual Studio 2019 installed, you can install the Windows 10 SDK (10.0.19041.1) by using the Modify button in Visual Studio install.

WDK has Spectre mitigation enabled by default but requires spectre mitigated libraries to be installed with Visual Studio for each architecture you are developing for. Additionally, developing drivers for ARM/ARM64 require the build tools for these architectures to also be installed with Visual Studio. To locate these items you will need to know the latest version of MSVC installed on your system.

To find the latest version of MSVC installed on your system, in Visual Studio Installer go to workload page, on the right pane under installation details, expand Desktop development with C++ and locate the MSVC v142 — VS 2019 C++ x64/x86 build tools (V14.xx) — note where xx should be the highest version available.

With this information (v14.xx), go to Individual components and search for v14.xx. This will return the tool sets for all architectures, including Spectre mitigated libs. Select the driver architecture you are developing for.

For example, searching for v14.25 returns the following:

Step 1.5 Install Refreshed Windows SDK 10.0.19041.685 for Windows 10, version 2004

This SDK is strongly recommended and will eventually be made available through Visual Studio

Step 2: Install Refreshed WDK for Windows 10, version 2004

The WDK Visual Studio extension is included in the default WDK installation.

If you can’t find driver project templates in Visual Studio, the WDK Visual Studio extension didn’t install properly. To resolve this, run the WDK.vsix file from this location: C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\Vsix\VS2019\WDK.vsix.

Enterprise WDK (EWDK) for Windows 10, version 2004

The EWDK is a standalone, self-contained command-line environment for building drivers. It includes the Visual Studio Build Tools, the SDK, and the WDK. The latest public version of the EWDK contains Visual Studio 2019 Build Tools 16.7.0 and MSVC toolset v14.23. To get started, mount the ISO and run LaunchBuildEnv.

The EWDK also requires the .NET Framework version 4.7.2. For more information about other requirements for the .NET Framework, see .NET Framework system requirements.

EWDK with Visual Studio Build Tools

You can use the Visual Studio interface with the build tools provided in the EWDK.

1. Mount the EWDK ISO.
2. Run LaunchBuildEnv.cmd .
3. In the environment created in step 2, type SetupVSEnv, and then press Enter.
4. Launch devenv.exe from the same environment, using the full file path. Example: «C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\\%Community|Professional|Enterprise%\Common7\IDE\devenv.exe»

Note that the Visual Studio major version should match with the version in the EWDK. For example, Visual Studio 2019 works with the EWDK that contain VS16.X build tools.

Driver samples for Windows 10

To download the driver samples, do one of the following:

• Go to the driver samples page on GitHub, click Clone or download, and then click Download ZIP.
• Download the GitHub Extension for Visual Studio, and then connect to the GitHub repositories.
• Browse the driver samples on the Microsoft Samples portal.

Install Server Core

Applies to: Windows Server 2019, Windows Server 2016, Windows Server (Semi-Annual Channel)

When you install Windows Server for the first time, you have the following installation options:

In the following list, editions without «Desktop Experience» are the Server Core installation options

• Windows Server Standard
• Windows Server Standard with Desktop Experience
• Windows Server Datacenter
• Windows Server Datacenter with Desktop Experience

When you install Windows Server (Semi-Annual Channel), you have the following installation options:

• Windows Server Standard
• Windows Server Datacenter

The Server Core option reduces the space required on disk and the potential attack surface, so we recommend that you choose the Server Core installation unless you have a particular need for the additional user interface elements and graphical management tools that are included in the Server with Desktop Experience option. If you do feel you need the additional user interface elements, see Install Server with Desktop Experience.

With the Server Core option, the standard user interface (the Desktop Experience) is not installed; you manage the server using the command line, Windows PowerShell, or by remote methods.

Unlike some previous releases of Windows Server, you cannot convert between Server Core and Server with Desktop Experience after installation. If you install Server Core and later decide to use Server with Desktop Experience, you should do a fresh installation.

User interface: command prompt

Install, configure, uninstall server roles locally: at a command prompt with Windows PowerShell.

Install, configure, uninstall server roles remotely from a Windows client computer (or a server with the Desktop Experience installed): with Server Manager, Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT), Windows PowerShell, or Windows Admin Center.

For RSAT, you must use the Windows 10 version. Microsoft Management Console is not available locally.

Example server roles available:

• Active Directory Certificate Services
• Active Directory Domain Services
• DHCP Server
• DNS Server
• File Services (including File Server Resource Manager)
• Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services (AD LDS)
• Hyper-V
• Print and Document Services
• Streaming Media Services
• Web Server (including a subset of ASP.NET)
• Windows Server Update Server
• Active Directory Rights Management Server
• Routing and Remote Access Server and the following sub-roles:
  • Remote Desktop Services Connection Broker
  • Licensing
  • Virtualization
  • Volume Activation Services

Installing on Windows Server 2019 or Windows Server 2016

For general installation steps and options for Windows Server (Long Term Servicing Channel), see Windows Server Installation and Upgrade.

Installing on Windows Server (Semi-Annual Channel)

Installation steps for Windows Server (Semi-Annual Channel) are the same as installing previous versions of Windows Server (from an .ISO image), with the following exceptions:

• No supported upgrades from previous versions of Windows Server to Windows Server, version 1709. A fresh installation is always required. This means that when you run setup.exe from the desktop of a Windows computer, the setup experience does not permit the upgrade option (it is grayed out).
• There’s no evaluation version for Windows Server (Semi-Annual Channel)
• There’s no OEM or retail version. Windows Server (Semi-Annual Channel) can only be licensed through Software Assurance or loyalty programs.

For more info about Semi-Annual Channel, see Comparison of servicing channels.

To see what’s new in Windows Server Semi-Annual Channel, see What’s New in Windows Server

Install drivers on Windows Server 2016 Core

Hello to everyone.

I installed windows 2016 GUI for a test on wannabe hyper-V host. I found about 50 devices that need drivers and I clicked one-by-one right-click and update driver software and everything except coprocessor was clean (which I manually installed).

Than I installed desired state: windows 2016 core which is, I must say, working like a charm on 8 years old IBM server (who is not even on microsoft HCL for server 2012).
But on this 1 year old FS server, I am having problems with drivers.

first question: is there any way I can tell windows to automatically try to find drivers for all devices (ofcourse after I establish network connection) so I don’t have to click on each device?

second question: how can I do that on core?

Since I can’t open device manager from remote server, I have managed to see uninstalled devices through DevManView and ofcourse, there is the same number of those devices as there is on GUI.

third question: is there a way to use device manager from remote server?
btw: I am using everything else from computer management 🙂

• This topic was modified 3 years, 11 months ago by Milos Mitic .
• This topic was modified 3 years, 11 months ago by Michael Pietroforte .

Please below find an answers to your questions,

first question: is there any way I can tell windows to automatically try to find drivers for all devices (ofcourse after I establish network connection) so I don’t have to click on each device?

Try configuring windows (with the help of sconfig.cmd) to search windows updates for device drivers. Check the following links

second question: how can I do that on core?

You can manually install drivers on Windows Server core with Pnputil. Check the following link,

third question: is there a way to use device manager from remote server?

Yes, you can use access the device manager of your core server from other computers MMC snap-in. Check the following link (section 1.3)
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj574205(v=ws.11).aspx

Please let us know about your experience here.

• This reply was modified 3 years, 11 months ago by Karim Buzdar .

1. GUI: What exactly do you mean by Try configuring windows?
System updates are already configured (I applied updates successfully).
Also, windows will install driver automatically but only after I right click on device and select update driver software
Is there a way to tell windows to automatically try to find drivers for all devices so I don’t have to click each one of 50 devices?

2. CORE: I don’t have drivers. I want windows to retrieve them from windows update site automatically (since they exist there) 🙂
Even if I have them, I don’t like idea installing one by one manually (there are 50 devices).

3. CORE: As I wrote, I am using remote computer management for everything but device manager.
Error I receive is in the screenshot, and I should mention that those two services are started.
Are you managing remotely device manager?

Attachments:

You can configure Windows to automatically install drivers. If you want to access Server Core remotely with Device Manager, you have to enable this first. Drivers can be installed with pnputil.exe on Server Core.

Was information provided helpful? Please let us know your current situation.

Hello Karim and Michael,

Thank you for your answers but unfortunately I don’t find them useful for my situation. All links you have sent are for other and older versions of windows (some for windows 7, some for windows 2008)..

My current situation is:

I have 131 uninstalled driver on each of my core server. I cannot install them through pnputil because I don’t have drivers. As I already asked, I need a way to tell windows to install driver(s) automatically like in GUI version: right-click on device and update driver software.

It would be nice if that can be done for all uninstalled drivers, but I would satisfy with one by one solution.

Sorry if I wasn’t precise enough about device manager. If possible, I would like to manage/control device manager from a remote server, not just to use read-only mode as stated in Michaels link. Nevertheless I tried changing a setting in GPO: Allow remote access to the Plug and Play interface to ENABLED – but without success. I still receive the same error shown in screenshot from my previous post, I suppose it is because that setting was meant for windows 2008 core.

I must repeat that I can open and control all other options in computer management from a remote server.

Milos, all links I posted are still relevant. In Windows Server 2016 , you can still enable and disable automatic driver download in Devices and Printers. You can find the app in the Control Panel.

As far I as I know, you can use Device Manager remotely only in read-only mode.

I think, in Windows Server 2016 automatic driver download is enabled by default (only tried in Azure). Thus, I guess it is also enabled in Server Core. If you used the latest build for your installation, my guess is the drivers are not available through Microsoft.

I think your main assumption, that is, that you can just connect a server to the internet and then all drivers are installed automatically, is wrong. Best practice when installing drivers is to get the latest versions from the server manufacturer. They should also have instructions on how to install them.

Another thing. When working on Server Core, get used to working on the command line. You won’t get very far with remote GUIs. By the way, another useful tool when managing drivers on Server Core is devcon in the Windows Driver Kit (WDK).

Michael, I already tried devcon. Here is useful link for downloading devcon without entire WDK.
Unfortunately, it is the same thing as with pnputil – you need to have drivers locally.

My assumption for installing drivers automatically is based on experience from GUI version on that same server.
Thing that bothers me is that in GUI it can be done simply by right-click on device and update driver software.

I will try to find drivers from the server manufacturer.

For sure, I will let you know about final outcome.

It has a reason why you can’t install drivers remotely with the GUI. Drivers need to be downloaded on the remote machine, then the driver setup program has to be executed remotely, installation messages and configuration options have to displayed, the server wants your permission to reboot etc. It would be too much for the little Device Manager GUI to handle all this remotely.

All you can do is to check for Windows updates on a console and hope that some driver updates are available. However, as mentioned above, even on a server with GUI, you should not use Device Manager to install drivers because this way you only get the drivers from Microsoft. The drivers you get from the server manufacturer are usually more sophisticated and are the ones you should use for your sever.

Just a short note: after pausing this task for a while, I decided to stay on GUI.

Also, I finally found and installed manufacturers driver package for server 2016 which solved my problem.

Thanks for the update. You are not the first one who gave up on Server Core after a while. It can be quite time consuming to figure out how to configure things on a command prompt in an OS that was designed at its “core” run with a GUI.