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Registry and Plug and Play Subsystem
At the end of Chapter 1
, there was a simple example providing a general understanding of
the process used by the system to install new devices and resolve hardware conflicts.
However, this example was overly simplistic and, more importantly, covered the process
of hardware installation only from the user's point of view. But what actually happens
when the system installs new hardware? What components are required to accomplish
this task? How should we configure hardware and resolve hardware conflicts? These are
clearly topics of great interest to anyone who is initiating full-scale support for Windows
XP and Windows Server 2003. With the release of Windows 95, Microsoft introduced a
new concept for simplifying PC usage: Plug and Play (or PnP). What is Plug and Play? A
standard, a specification, or a concept? Actually, Plug and Play is a combination of the
general approach to designing PCs and a set of specifications describing the hardware
architecture. Strictly speaking, it is a combination of the system BIOS, hardware devices,
system resources, device drivers, and the operating-system software.
All Plug and Play components have the same purpose: to facilitate the automatic
functioning of the PC, peripheral devices, and their drivers, with a minimum of
intervention from the user. Users working with systems that meet all Plug and Play
requirements don't have to spend time wondering if a newly installed device will create
hardware conflicts with another device. The registry provides the basis for developing
such a system.
The HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/HARDWARE registry key contains a description of
the system hardware and the relationship between hardware devices and their drivers.
Before we go any further, you should note that this key is volatile and that all of the
information it contains is re-created every time the operating system is booted.
The hardware recognizer (Ntdetect.com) collects information related to system hardware,
and the OS kernel stores the information under the
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\HARDWARE\DESCRIPTION registry key. As the drivers
are loading, they pass their information on to the system so that it can associate the
hardware devices and their appropriate drivers. The operating system saves this
information under the HKLM\HARDWARE\DEVICEMAP registry key. Finally, all the
necessary information related to resources for the hardware devices (including ports,
DMA addresses, IRQs) is stored under HKLM\HARDWARE\RESOURCEMAP.
With the arrival of Windows 2000, two new Executive subsystems were introduced: Plug
and Play Manager and Power Manager. Plug and Play Manager is integrated with the I/O
Manager and doesn't participate in the initialization process. However, the drivers are
initialized in such a way that Plug and Play drivers recognize some hardware devices.
Windows NT 4.0, on the other hand, uses only Ntdetect.com to recognize hardware
devices, because of its limited Plug and Play support.
Though Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 are based on the Windows NT/2000
kernel, the Plug and Play support provided by these newer operating systems has been
further enhanced, improved, and optimized. The general idea of this design was to
combine the respective advantages of the two lines of Windows products — Windows
NT/2000 and Windows Millennium Edition (Windows ME). The approach has been a
success, providing greater stability in the OS and delivering better device compatibility.
For the moment, Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 include Plug and Play support
for hundreds of devices not recognized by Windows 2000, including scanners, cameras,
audio devices, storage devices, and media (CDs and DVDs). At the same time, these
systems also provide better support for Universal Serial Bus (USB), IEEE 1394,
Peripheral Component Interconnects (PCI), and other buses. Improvements introduced in
the Plug and Play subsystem have lead to better stability and performance. This is
especially true with regard to the device-installation process, which has been streamlined
and automated, as shown in the example in Chapter 1
. Beside this, power-management
support has also been improved, which is of benefit to both desktop and mobile computer
users.
Plug and Play Historical Overview
Plug and Play is a technology that allows the automatic configuration of the PC and all of
the devices installed on the system. It allows you to start using newly installed hardware
(for example, a sound card or modem) immediately after installation, and without having
to configure the device manually. Plug and Play operates at the hardware level, the
operating-system level and in the device drivers and BIOS.
The introduction of Plug and Play was the result of cooperation between software and
hardware vendors, who created an industrial committee in order to unite their efforts.
This committee was founded in May of 1993, and initially included three corporations:
Microsoft, Intel, and Compaq. By the end of 1995, a number of vendors were already
producing hundreds of hardware devices complying with this standard.
Microsoft® Windows® 95 was the first operating system that implemented Plug and
Play support. However, since then, PnP standards have undergone a significant evolution,
mainly as a result of the efforts of the members of the OnNow industry initiative. OnNow
is aimed at identifying a standardized approach to controlling both the operating system
and hardware-device configuration. The main achievement of OnNow has been the
Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) Version 1.0 specification, which
defines the basic interface between the motherboard and the system BIOS. This interface
expands Plug and Play capabilities, allowing the operating system to control power and
provide other extended configuration capabilities.
Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 all provide extended Plug and
Play functionality. Windows 2000 was the first operating system from the Windows NT
family that provided full-featured support for Plug and Play and power management.
However, those of you who want all of the advantages of Plug and Play and power-
management support need to ensure that both the system BIOS and the computer system
as a whole meet ACPI specification requirements. More detailed information concerning
this topic will be provided later in this chapter.
At present, Plug and Play technologies are defined for USB, IEEE 1394, PCI, ISA, SCSI,
ATA, LPT, COM, and Card/CardBus. Each Plug and Play device must have the
following capabilities:
Be uniquely identifiable
Be able to provide a list of services that it supports and resources it requires
Be able to identify the driver that supports it
Be able to provide the software capabilities for its configuration
Plug and Play Implementation in Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows
Server 2003
Plug and Play systems require interaction between the PC BIOS, hardware components,
device drivers, and operating-system software. In contrast to all the previous versions of
Windows NT, Windows 2000/XP and Windows Server 2003 provide improved reliability
and decreased downtime. These improvements are the result of an extended range of
supported hardware and full-featured Plug and Play support. The introduction of all of the
new capabilities is part of the Microsoft Zero Administration initiative, which is aimed at
minimizing Windows downtime. For example, Plug and Play devices can often be
plugged in or removed while Windows is running, and the system detects the change
automatically. Devices that can be removed while the system is running include any USB
device and a number of IEEE 1394.
Decreasing the frequency of required reboots is one of the most significant advantages
here, as it simplifies the procedure of installing both the operating system and hardware
components. In most cases, new devices can be added dynamically; that is, without
rebooting the system. The Hardware Compatibility List has also been extended
significantly. Now, the HCL includes hundreds of new printers, modems, tape devices,
floptical drives, and other devices. All of this is possible thanks to full-featured Plug and
Play support and Power Management features.
Removing a device from a computer without prior notifying the operating system is
known as a surprise removal. Typically, Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 can
handle this situation effectively, since device drivers developed according to the Windows
XP/Windows Server 2003 Logo Requirements specification must notify the operating
system when the device is removed. For such devices, the removal of the device does not
affect the system. However, surprise removal is not always recommended. Particularly,
the surprise removal of some storage devices, modems, and network adapters causes the
operating system to display an Unsafe Removal of Device screen (Fig. 5.1
), which tells
the user to use the Safe Removal application when unplugging the device the next time.
The user can manually disable the message for devices that can withstand surprise
removal. The Safe Removal application is used to notify the operating system that a
device is going to be unplugged, and can be found in the notification area (Fig. 5.2
), if
such a device is installed on the system.
Figure 5.1: The Unsafe Removal of Device window
Figure 5.2: To remove a hardware device safely, it is necessary to notify the OS that a
device is going to be unplugged using the Safe Removal application, which can be found
in the notification area
N
ote Some devices must be installed or removed only when the system is turned off.
When the device requires internal installation on the computer, this is the case.
Also, if data transfers are in progress while certain devices are removed or if the
operating system tries to access particular types of devices that have been removed,
data loss, data corruption, or even a system failure might result. For example,
surprise removal of a PC Card, a CardBus, or parallel or COM-port devices while
the device driver is attempting to write to its ports can freeze the system or cause a
STOP error, which requires you to reboot the system.
In contrast to Windows 95, Plug and Play implementation in Windows 2000, Windows
XP, and products of the Windows Server 2003 family isn't based on Advanced Power
Management (APM) BIOS or Plug and Play BIOS. These two legacy Plug and Play
functions are supported for backward compatibility only. Actual Plug and Play support in
Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 is based on the ACPI interface.
Some ACPI-compliant types of system BIOS may cause STOP errors in Windows 2000,
Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. To minimize this possibility, Microsoft
developers have included a special function with a text-based phase of the OS installation
procedure. This capability allows for the disabling or activating of ACPI mode support
based on the following lists:
Good BIOS list. This list is used for activating ACPI mode for some types of
BIOS' dated earlier than 01/01/1999. If the system BIOS ACPI tables match any
entries in the Good BIOS List, ACPI mode will be enabled. Microsoft isn't adding
any new entries to the "Good BIOS List".
Incompatible BIOS list. This list is used to disable the ACPI mode for certain
BIOSs dated 01/01/1999 or later. If the system BIOS ACPI tables match any
entries in the "Windows Non-Compliant ACPI List", the ACPI mode will be
disabled. BIOSs are added to this list if they have been found by the Microsoft test
teams or the BIOS developers to cause system-stability problems. If a system
doesn't pass the ACPI Hardware Compatibility Test (HCT), fails to boot, or
doesn't provide minimal functionality operating on Windows 2000, then Microsoft
will place the machine's BIOS on the "Windows Non-Compliant ACPI List". The
ACPI HCT is available on the Web at
http://www.microsoft.com/hwdev/acpihct.htm
.
If a system's BIOS isn't on either of these lists, the ACPI mode will be enabled if the
BIOS presents itself as an ACPI BIOS that is dated later than 01/01/1999. The date that's
used by the operating system is the standard PC-AT date, which is found at F000:FFF5.
N
ote If the ACPI BIOS is detected as non-compliant in the Windows 2000, Windows XP
or Windows Server 2003 pre-setup system check, then the BIOS must be updated to
ensure complete Plug and Play and power-management functionality. Complete
information on this topic is available at http://www.Hardware-Update.com
.
For x86-based systems, there is a significant difference in the way the system BIOS
interacts with the Plug and Play devices. For some systems, the BIOS Setup program
contains the Enable Plug and Play operating system option, which affects this
interaction. Strictly speaking, this option specifies whether the system BIOS or the
operating system controls the hardware. If you have a non-compliant ACPI system or a
non-ACPI system, it is recommended that you set this option to No/Disabled. Microsoft
also recommends that you disable this option if you dual-boot Windows XP or Windows
Server 2003 and Windows 9x/ME, especially if the system check for Plug and Play on a
Windows 98/ME ACPI system passes but the system check for Plug and Play on
Windows XP/Windows Server 2003 fails. If you have a fully compliant ACPI system
(which means that ACPI BIOS is present and ACPI HAL installed), the device resources
are assigned by Windows XP/Windows Server 2003, rather than by BIOS settings. BIOS
settings are ignored, including the Enable Plug and Play operating system option.
Because of this, this BIOS setting can be left as it is. However, Microsoft still suggests
the No/Disabled setting as the preferable option.
The main idea of Plug and Play implementation is the simplification of PC operation for
end users. The presence of Plug and Play in Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows
Server 2003 also carries out the following tasks:
Extending the existing Windows NT I/O infrastructure in such a way as to support
Plug and Play and power management while providing backward compatibility for
existing Plug and Play hardware.
Developing common driver interfaces that support Plug and Play and power
management for multiple device classes under Windows 2000/Windows
XP/Windows Server 2003 and Windows 98/ME.
Optimizing Plug and Play support for various types of computers, including
portables, desktops, and servers equipped with ACPI-compliant motherboards.
Additionally, support for Plug and Play drivers is provided by Microsoft Win32®
Driver Model, WDM, which also supports power management and other new and
extended functions that can be configured and managed by the operating system.
ACPI Specification
The Plug and Play system requires the interaction of the system BIOS, its hardware
components, device drivers, and the operating system. The ACPI specification identifies
all the necessary requirements for the motherboard and system BIOS to support Plug and
Play in Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. Both Windows 98/ME
and Windows 2000/XP/Windows Server 2003 use this specification as a basis for Plug
and Play architecture, according to the requirements of the OnNow initiative.
The ACPI specification defines the new interface between the operating system and the
hardware components that provide power management and Plug and Play support. Notice
that all of the methods defined in ACPI are independent of both the operating system and
the processor type. ACPI defines the interface on the registers level for basic Plug and
Play and power management functions. It also defines a descriptive interface for
additional hardware functionality. This allows developers to implement a whole range of
Plug and Play and power management functions for multiple hardware platforms while
using the same driver. ACPI also provides a general mechanism for managing system
events for Plug and Play and power management.
Besides ACPI, there are other industrial standards. For example, Universal Serial Bus,
Version 1.0, PCI Local Bus Specification, Revision 2.1, and PCMCIA.
Support Levels for Devices and Drivers
The Plug and Play support level that is provided by a device depends both on the
hardware support for Plug and Play and on the Plug and Play support provided by the
device driver. This concept is illustrated by the data presented in Table 5.1
.
Table 5.1: Plug and Play Support Levels for Devices and Drivers
Device type Plug and Play driver Non-Plug and Play
driver
Plug and Play device Full-featured Plug and Play
support
No Plug and Play support
Non-Plug and Play
device
Partial support for Plug and Play No Plug and Play support
As shown in this table, the appropriate driver is necessary for providing complete PnP
support. A brief description of all possible configurations is given below.
Full-featured support — both the device and its driver support Plug and Play. To
provide optimum Plug and Play support, the hardware component has to meet the
OnNow initiative requirements, including ACPI specification. Plug and Play
support introduced in Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 is
oriented towards ACPI systems only.
Plug and Play device/legacy driver — no Plug and Play support. If the device
driver doesn't support Plug and Play, then the Plug and Play device will behave as
a legacy device. Notice that this may limit Plug and Play functionality for the
whole system.
Legacy device/Plug and Play driver — this combination may provide partial Plug
and Play support. If you have a legacy device that doesn't support Plug and Play at
the hardware level, it may provide limited PnP support if the appropriate Plug and
Play driver has been loaded. Although this system won't be able to automatically
and dynamically detect hardware and load the appropriate drivers, it will be
capable of managing hardware resources. This system will also provide the
interface for the driver to interact with the Plug and Play subsystem and register
device-notification events. If your hardware device has a Plug and Play driver, it
will be displayed by the Device Manager. The tabs that allow you to configure
device properties are available in the Device Manager window.
Neither the device nor its driver support Plug and Play: no Plug and Play support.
Legacy drivers will function as usual, but they won't support Plug and Play
functions. All newly developed drivers should support Plug and Play.
As you can see, Plug and Play support depends on both the hardware device and the
device driver. For example, if you have a manually installed legacy device, you can still
gain functionality and provide partial Plug and Play support by installing a Plug and Play
driver.
N
ote Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 support Plug and Play for monitors only if
the monitor, the display adapter, and the display driver are Plug and Play.
Otherwise, the monitor is identified by the system as a default monitor.
Plug and Play Architecture in Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows Server
2003
The Windows 2000/XP/Windows Server 2003 kernel provides Plug and Play support
during booting. It provides interfaces to interact with various operating-system
components, such as the Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL), the Executive subsystem,
and device drivers. User-mode functions interact with kernel-mode functions, thus
providing the capability for dynamic configuration and interface with all other
components supporting Plug and Play, such as Setup program and Control Panel applets.
A schematic representation of PnP architecture in Windows 2000, Windows XP, and
Windows Server 2003 is shown in Fig. 5.3
.
Figure 5.3: Plug and Play architecture in Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows
Server 2003
Kernel-Mode Plug and Play Manager
The Kernel-mode Plug and Play Manager supports functions for centralized management
and manages bus drivers during enumeration. It also supports device drivers, which
include adding or starting a new device.
For example, Plug and Play Manager queries if the device can be unplugged or removed,
and allows the driver of this device to synchronize pending I/O requests with the newly
received one. The kernel-mode Plug and Play Manager interacts with the user-mode Plug
and Play Manager when identifying devices available for these operations.
Power Manager and Policy Manager
Power Manager is the kernel-mode component that works together with Policy Manager
to process API calls, coordinate events, and generate I/O Request Packets (IRP). For
example, if devices send unplugging requests, Power Manager collects these requests,
identifies which of them should be serialized, and generates the appropriate IRPs.
Policy Manager monitors system activity and collects integrated status information on the
users, applications, and device drivers. Under certain conditions (or by direct request),
Policy Manager generates IRPs for changing device-driver status.
Input/Output Manager
Input/Output Manager provides basic services for device drivers. Input/Output Manager
is the kernel-mode component that translates user-mode read and write commands into
the appropriate IRPs. I/O Manager also manages all of the other basic operating system
IRPs. These interfaces function the same way as those in Windows NT 4.0.
N
ote Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 enhance the I/O subsystem by adding new
APIs that will be available to drivers developed according to the Windows
XP/Windows Server 2003 Logo requirements. Device drivers written specially for
Windows XP or Windows Server 2003 will take advantage of the new functions,
including System Restore (Windows XP systems only) and Volume Snapshot
Service. At the same time, Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 provide full
backward compatibility with drivers developed for Windows 2000. Notice that,
despite the fact that all existing Windows 2000 drivers will work with Windows XP
and Windows Server 2003, it is strongly recommended that you check if Windows
XP/Windows Server 2003 drivers are available. To obtain an updated driver,
contact the device vendor or visit the Windows Update site.
WDM Interface for Plug and Play
The Input/Output system provides leveled driver architecture. This section discusses
types of WDM (Win32 Driver Model) drivers, driver levels, and device objects. If you
are interested in this topic and intend to develop device drivers, you can find all of the
necessary information in the documentation supplied with the latest version of Windows
DDK.
Driver Types
From the Plug and Play system point of view, there are the following types of drivers:
Bus driver — serves the bus controller, adapter, bridge, or any other device that
has child devices. Bus drivers are required drivers and are normally supplied by
Microsoft. Each type of the bus present in the system has its own bus driver.
Function driver — this is the main device driver, which provides the operational
interface for the device. This is a required driver unless the device is used raw (an
implementation in which I/O is done by the bus driver and any bus filter drivers).
The function driver for a device is typically set up as a driver/minidriver pair. In
these driver pairs, a class driver (usually written by Microsoft) provides the
functions required by all devices of that type and a minidriver (usually written by
the device vendor) provides device-specific functions. The Plug and Play Manager
loads one function driver for each device.
Filter driver — sorts I/O requests for a bus, a device, or a class of devices. Filter
drivers are optional, and any number of them can exist placed above or below a
function driver and above a bus driver. Usually, system original-equipment
manufacturers (OEMs) or independent hardware vendors (IHVs) supply filter
drivers.
In most cases, lower-level filter drivers modify the behavior of the device hardware. For
example, a lower-level class filter driver for mouse devices can provide acceleration,
performing a non-linear conversion of mouse movement data.
Upper-level filter drivers usually provide value-added features for a device. For example,
an upper-level device filter driver for a keyboard can enforce additional security checks.
Driver Layers
For any given device, there are two or more driver layers: a bus driver for the underlying
I/O bus (or the Plug and Play Manager for root-enumerated devices) and a function driver
for the device. Optionally, one or more filter drivers can be provided for the bus or
device.
Device Objects
[...]... Server 2003 to detect and configure it How you do it depends on what type of device you have, as the following list explains: For Plug and Play- compliant devices, plug the device in For PCI and ISA Plug and Play cards, turn the computer off, and then install the device When you restart the computer, Windows XP or Windows Server 2003 detects the device and starts the Plug and Play installation procedures... Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003 provide APIs that can be used by applications for customized-hardware event management and creating new hardware events Plug and Play Device Tree Plug and Play Manager supports the device tree that can be viewed using Device Manager (Fig 5.4) This device tree keeps track of the active devices in the system and information about those devices The Plug and Play Manager... devices are added and removed or as resources are re-allocated The device tree is hierarchical, with devices on a bus represented as children of the bus adapter or controller The registry is the central repository for static hardware information Plug and Play system components and drivers build, maintain, and access new and existing subtrees in the registry Figure 5.4: The device tree displayed by the... rollback, and change resources assigned to devices In order to scan for hardware changes, update the driver for the device, disable or uninstall the device, troubleshoot the device or view its properties, right-click the appropriate device node in the device tree, and then select the appropriate command from the popup menu Plug and Play Device Detection The inclusion of Plug and Play in Windows XP and Windows... in both Windows 98/ME and Windows 2000 or later, only WDM interfaces can be used WDM Bus Drivers Bus power management and Plug and Play are controlled by WDM bus drivers, which are standard WDM drivers that expose bus capabilities Notice that, in this context, any device from which other devices are enumerated is referred to as a bus A bus driver responds to new Plug and Play and power management I/O... input Some buses, such as PCI and USB, take full advantage of Plug and Play capabilities and are also automatically detected After the device is detected, PnP Manager and Bus driver enumerate the device, load the required driver(s), and start the device If the device is new (no information on this device is available in the registry) , Windows XP/Windows Server 2003 will install and start driver(s) for this... APIs for managing and configuring Plug and Play devices are 32-bit extended versions based on the Configuration Manager API for Windows 95 Windows 95 Configuration Manager is a virtual device driver (VxD) that exposes these routines as services to both ring 0 and ring 3 components In Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003, these procedures extend the user-mode Plug and Play Manager functions... Device Manager is supported by the Plug and Play Manager During enumeration, data for each device is stored under a new HKEY\LOCAL\MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Enum key in the registry (this is the enum tree) Plug and Play makes decisions about which device drivers are loaded based on the results of enumeration Thus, there is an important connection between the enum tree and the list of services under... advantages: Detects and enumerates devices Allocates resources during detection Dynamically loads, initializes, and unloads drivers Notifies other drivers and applications when a new device is available Works with power management to insert and remove devices Supports a range of device types After Windows XP/Windows Server 2003 detects a Plug and Play device, the device driver can be configured and loaded dynamically,... wizard and let Windows detect the device This requires administrator privileges Devices are installed after the user logs on to the computer Whenever possible, choose new Plug and Play devices, even for a computer that does not have an ACPI BIOS, to gain some Plug and Play functionality An example illustrating all of the processes that take place in the system when the user installs new devices and all . 5.1: Plug and Play Support Levels for Devices and Drivers
Device type Plug and Play driver Non -Plug and Play
driver
Plug and Play device Full-featured Plug. Full-featured Plug and Play
support
No Plug and Play support
Non -Plug and Play
device
Partial support for Plug and Play No Plug and Play support
As
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