Dave-H

OK, I've already cleared the files, I'll now have a go at all that! Presumably I'll have to clean the files again after I've uninstalled the driver so that information isn't included in them. I had trouble with your animated GIF BTW, I normally use XnView to view them, but that file just crashes it, it says the file type can't be determined. I have managed to view it using my ancient copy of Ulead GIF Animator, but it's very difficult to get it all on the screen, and that program is also struggling to play it. I'll let you know how it goes! What did you think about @RainyShadow's hypothesis yesterday BTW? Cheers, Dave.

So, after I've removed all the (many!) entries relating to the Elan driver in SetupApi.log and DPINST.log, I should run - .\x86\dpinst.exe /U <path to INF>\ETD.inf /D /C What folder should I be in to run that though, the "Frankendriver" folder? And should the path to the INF be the Frankendriver folder too? Also am I using the existing unmodified INF or the modified one you attached earlier? That command will presumably uninstall the driver. So I do that, and then .\x86\dpinst.exe /C will reinstall it. Again, what folder should I be in and which INF file should I use? Sorry, so many questions, but I don't want to risk invalidating any test by not doing it absolutely correctly.

OK, here's the second part of the devcon results. It didn't seem to be able to find the device using ACPI\ETD0108\4&1B919E6A&0 for some reason. I downloaded your attachment. devcon2.txt

Thanks @RainyShadow! What do you think @jaclaz? The only way to completely eliminate that possibility would be to completely clean the system before every time an install is done I suppose, but I think one of the things we were testing was to see if an in-place INF install over the top of a non-working install would get the driver working properly again (which it didn't). @jaclaz Here's the directory file. As regards the control panel and the avi files, what is in there is actually ETDSimpleUI.exe renamed to Asus_UI.exe, so I can use that instead of the Asus control panel, which is really slow and unresponsive. The avi files are the ones that go with ETDSimpleUI.exe, from driver version 4.9.0.0. Also the first lot of output from devcon. I will do the others later on if that's OK (dinner time now!) Before I do, can I just confirm that I need to replace "HID\Vid_13ee&Pid_0003&Rev_0000" with "*ETD0108" in those commands? elantech.dir devcon1.txt

How about trying this the other way around? What about using 11.4.14.1 as the starting point instead of 11.5.20.3, as we know that all the files have to actually come from that version to work on XP anyway, and adding bits of the 11.5.20.3 INF to the 11.4.14.1 INF to see if we can get it to do what the 11.5.20.3 INF does?

After deleting HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Elantech\OtherSetting the settings are still being saved OK. After then deleting HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Elantech\ the driver stops working completely. The Asus style icon in the system try is replaced with the Elan style icon with a red "no entry" sign in it, and the touchpad is dead. Over-installing with the INF then did fix this, after replacing the necessary files and rebooting. HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Elantech\ has been restored. The settings had reverted to the defaults, and when changed they don't "stick". I exported the two keys you detailed (I assume the second one should have been saved to Elantech_OtherSetting_saving_NOT.reg, not as stated Elantech_OtherSetting_saving_OK.reg). Importing Elantech_OtherSetting_saving_OK.reg did not return the settings to being saved. Importing Elantech_saving_OK.reg did not return the settings to being saved either. So, it looks like the "magic" is not in that key!

After an in-place install on the working driver with the INF (from the "Frankendriver" folder) the settings are still being saved OK, so whatever change "setip.exe" made, it wasn't undone.

Thanks Jaclaz. Yes, I have a fully working driver at the moment. I'll do those further tests later this evening and get back to you. Cheers, Dave.

The reason why no changes were detected in the Elantech folder was that I had to restore it to get the driver working again after I ran setip.exe. To get it working in its "working but not saving settings" state I had replaced the files in that folder with the ones from 11.4.14.1 before I did the first snapshot. After I ran setip.exe it replaced those files with the non-working versions again of course, so the quickest way I thought to get it fully working for the second snapshot was just to restore the folder back to as it was before with the 14.4.14.1 files in it, so the second snapshot saw no changes there. As I thought we were only looking for registry changes, I assumed this would not matter.

OK, here's the differences between the two snapshots. The first with a driver installation from the INF file which doesn't save the settings over a reboot, and the second with the driver fully working. It certainly looks as if some relevant registry entries were added by the second "setip" install. TrackWinInstallDifferences.txt

I checked with filemon and couldn't find anything conclusive reported. Anyway, I rebooted again and tried again, and this time it worked! I'm none the wiser what the original problem was, but at least it worked eventually! I now have the driver in the condition where it's working but losing the settings when the system is rebooted. I'm now profiling the system.

I've already run into a problem here! I was assuming that I needed to do the INF install of 11.5.20.3 from the "Frankendriver" folder, but that wouldn't work, it got to the end and then said that it couldn't find a file, and aborted. I tried again using the unmodified 11.5.20.3 folder, and got the same result! Apart from the extra "setip.exe" file in the Frankendriver folder, the number of files in the two folders is the same, I can't see any files missing. Any idea what's wrong? Needless to say there seems to be no clue as to which file the installer "can't find"!

LOL, point taken!

OK thanks, I'll let you know how it goes. As you've seen I'm sure, thanks to @RainyShadow I also now have Soft Organiser Pro to deploy if necessary. Quick Update - On trying to remove the driver in Add/Remove Programs on XP, it just said that an error occurred, so those two "Uninst/Un_inst" files were needed after all! I replaced them back in the Elantech folder and it came good.

OK, I'll do the tests on XP first then, but surely I cannot install 11.5.20.3 with its setup.exe (step 8) on XP, only with the INF? Also, your steps 4 and 6 are the same, if I've set up TrackWinInstall as specified in step 5, which I have, presumably I can ignore step 4?

Thank you!

My apologies @RainyShadow, I was so preoccupied at the time with following what @jaclazwas telling me to do, I completely overlooked that the software you were giving me the heads up on was free just for one day! I dug your deleted post out in my e-mail notifications so was able to still use the link, but of course the free offer has now expired. When the driver actually worked without going on to the analysis stage of Jaclaz's instructions, I was so over the moon that I didn't even think that we'd still want to do the analysis! Never mind, I downloaded Soft Organiser anyway, and it's only $20 if I buy it, which I'm quite happy to pay should it become necessary. I'll try and see how it goes with TrackWinInstall first. Thanks, and sorry again. Cheers, Dave.

Of course, understood, it was just a thought! Yes, I agree that although I now have a fully working driver on XP, the method to get to that state is very unsatisfactory for future use. The ideal outcome of all this should be to be able to pack up a driver which just works on XP without any "fiddling" needed. Incidentally, I have now put a copy of ETDSimpleUI.exe into the XP Elantech folder, renamed to Asus_UI.exe, and that now launches when I double click the system tray icon. I worked out which avi video files it needs in this configuration and copied them across too, so it's now fully working. It performs much better than the Asus control panel! So, to copy what you said before, I assume this is the next process, to be undertaken on Windows 8.1 - 1) clean the 8.1 system from traces of previous installations 2) install the Z115203-cab via Device Manager/Have disk .inf 3) verify that the settings changes are "volatile", reboot, etc. 4) start the trackwininstall and have it snapshot the system (in 2 phase mode) 5) make sure (better be safe than sorry) that the %program files%\Elantech\ folder is included in the snapshot and set the tool to not use MD5 for files (in the Options) 6) start the trackwininstall and have it snapshot the system (in 2 phase mode) 7) wait until it asks you to save the snapshot 8) install the Z115203-cab via its Setup.exe 9) re-launch the trackwinistall 10) check the differences (copying and saving them for later review) If the above does not work, repeat, cleaning between the two installs (and thus have two differences files to be compared between them)

Yes, that is interesting, I didn't realise that Windows 10 presumably doesn't allow setup programs to be run to install some devices. Quite how a non-technical user is supposed to know that I have no idea! I guess in future device manufacturers will have to change their installation mechanisms to take this into account. One thing I have already noticed with Windows 10 is that device control panels are moving over to being Windows 10 Apps rather that traditional Windows Control Panel applets. Anyway, slightly loathe though I am to uninstall what I've got now it's working, do you think my previous suggestion is worth a try? If it works that's presumably all we need. I can comment out of the INF all the files that we know now are not actually needed.

Have we tried just installing 11.4.14.1 normally, just substituting the INF from 11.5.20.3 and leaving all the other files as they are? I almost seems as if that's what we've effectively done now by a more roundabout route.

OK, here's the results with the DLLs - ETDApix.dll needed ETDCmds.dll needed ETDFavorite,dll needed ETD_DLL.dll not needed ETDApi.dll not needed ETDMcpl.dll not needed So ignoring the avi files and control panel files, the only files which seem to be needed in the Elantech folder for normal operation of the driver are - ETDApix.dll ETDCmds.dll ETDCtrl.exe ETDFavorite.dll

OK, certainly ETDAniConf.exe ETDCtrlHelper.exe ETDDeviceInformation.exe ETDService.exe ETDUn_inst.exe ETDUninst.dll Don't seem to be necessary for the correct operation of the driver, it's fine without them. There is no "setup.exe" file in the Elantech folder The ETDUn_inst.exe and ETDUninst.dll files may be needed if the driver is ever uninstalled perhaps? I'll try now eliminating the other dll files.

I think the "setip.exe" install actually did whatever was necessary in the registry for the settings to be saved, something that installing via the INF never did. After that it was just a matter of substituting the non-XP compatible files with ones which were. The Asus control panel is very unresponsive, you have to hold the cursor over an option for several seconds before it become "live" and you can change it, and the videos don't work, but as once I've got the settings as I want (basically turning all the gesture and tapping options off!) I will almost certainly never change it again, so that's not an issue! There is actually an "ETDSimpleUI.exe" control panel which was in one of the other drivers which works much better, I may see if I can substitute the Asus UI for that. I will check out which files are redundant.

Update. Without holding out any hope, I changed the settings and rebooted, and the driver settings are being saved properly now on XP! I actually rebooted three times because I couldn't quite believe it! So the driver is in fact now working on XP as well as it will ever need to, and that's without ETDCtrlHelper.exe or ETDService.exe running!

OK, I already tried the setip.exe method before your last post came through. The installation was fine as it was on 8.1, but resulted in a non-working driver. None of the three background programs were running, and there was an error in Device Manager. Substituting the files from 11.4.14.1 produced a better result, but only ETDCtrl.exe is running. The Device Manager error has gone away. The Elan Service has not been installed, which it was on 8.1. Should I roll back and try the earlier tests now?