[SOLVED] Elan PS/2 Touchpad Driver for XP

[RainyShadow]

@Dave-H

 

On 4/15/2020 at 4:35 AM, RainyShadow said:

This is just the driver from SmartGesture_Win10_32_VER4012

...

If this driver runs fine, you should be able to import your settings from Win8. Install the full package there.

You better manually add "ATP" instead of using the .reg file. I exported that from my netbook running Win7.

When i tested the driver on my XP desktop, there were additional values there.

Did you get a "missing signature" error when installing? I got that, because i had to modify the .inf file for my PS/2 wireless mouse, and the silent install was failing... silently :P

Not sure if just .sys modification triggers it as well...

 

About cloning settings from Win8 to XP, you can try starting the configuration applet through Revo Uninstaller or a similar tool, as if you're installing a new program. Then open the log to see what exactly changed.

[Dave-H]

1 hour ago, RainyShadow said:

@Dave-H

 

You better manually add "ATP" instead of using the .reg file. I exported that from my netbook running Win7.

When i tested the driver on my XP desktop, there were additional values there.

Did you get a "missing signature" error when installing? I got that, because i had to modify the .inf file for my PS/2 wireless mouse, and the silent install was failing... silently

Not sure if just .sys modification triggers it as well...

 

About cloning settings from Win8 to XP, you can try starting the configuration applet through Revo Uninstaller or a similar tool, as if you're installing a new program. Then open the log to see what exactly changed.

No, I've not seen any "missing signature" messages.
So, just to be sure, I now need to uninstall the Elan driver from 8.1, and reinstall Asus Smart Gesture?
I already have version 4.0.12 so I can just reinstall that on 8.1, and then try just moving only its registry entries across to XP?
We already know that the Asus Smart Gesture programs are not XP compatible so the control panel cannot be used.

Edited April 16, 2020 by Dave-H
Quote added as reply appeared on a new page

[RainyShadow]

28 minutes ago, Dave-H said:

So, just to be sure, I now need to uninstall the Elan driver from 8.1, and reinstall Asus Smart Gesture?

Yes, install the one i linked previously.

It's best to use the same driver on both systems.

SmartGesture_Win10_32_VER4012.zip

You will NOT be using any additional files and programs in XP, do the configuring in Win8 and copy from there.

 

So, in XP the touchpad is moving and AsusTP.sys is listed among the driver files in device properties?

Also, you have "ATP" as first entry for "UpperFilters" in that registry location?

@Dave-H Confirm - Yes/No

Edited April 16, 2020 by RainyShadow
ping after multiple edits

[Dave-H]

OK I've uninstalled the Elan driver from 8.1 and reinstalled the Asus Smart Gesture program, which is working fine.
I exported the settings from HKCU\Software\Asus\Asus Smart Gesture, and I have imported them into XP.

I'm not sure about the "ATP" registry entry you refer to though.
Your reg file added a REG_MULTI_SZ entry called "UpperFilters" with a value of "ATP kdbclass".
The two words appear on separate lines when the entry is expanded.
The equivalent entry on Windows 8.1 is exactly the same.
Should there be anything else there?
The touchpad is working on XP, and AsusTP.sys is listed as one of the touchpad driver files, along with the usual two Microsoft files that are always there.
In fact the Device Manager entries for the "Asus Touchpad" are all exactly the same on XP as they are on 8.1.
The actual active settings are not being replicated between 8.1 and XP though.

Edited April 16, 2020 by Dave-H
Addition

[RainyShadow]

37 minutes ago, Dave-H said:

Your reg file added a REG_MULTI_SZ entry called "UpperFilters" with a value of "ATP kdbclass".
The two words appear on separate lines when the entry is expanded.
The equivalent entry on Windows 8.1 is exactly the same.
Should there be anything else there?

There may have been different entries on your system. That's why i suggested adding ATP manually. The .reg file replaces the previous values, it doesn't add to them.

5 hours ago, Dave-H said:

The install batch file tries to make a folder called "16/04/2020" which fails as "/" can't be used in a folder name.
Was that what you meant by "may fail due to regional settings"? I guess some date formats don't contain slashes.
I've manually backed up that registry key anyway.

Check your backup and if it contains something else than "kbdclass" add that to your registry.

---

Did your Win8 settings work on XP? Or, are they ignored again?

 

[Dave-H]

"kbdclass" was the only entry before.
"ATP" has been added above it.
XP is still ignoring the settings from 8.1.

Looking at the 8.1 Task Manager, there are four background programs running related to Smart Gesture.
They are "Asus Smart Gesture Center", "Asus Smart Gesture Detector", Asus Smart Gesture Helper", and "Asus Smart Gesture Loader".
I suspect that one (or more) of them is responsible for reading and implementing the settings.
Without the necessary background program(s) running, the settings in the registry are not doing anything, and I'm pretty sure that none of those programs will be XP compatible.

Edited April 16, 2020 by Dave-H
Typo

[RainyShadow]

11 hours ago, Dave-H said:

Without the necessary background program(s) running, the settings in the registry are not doing anything, and I'm pretty sure that none of those programs will be XP compatible.

Let's test this:

1. Start Win8.

1.1. Backup the driver settings.

1.2. Pick a few easily noticeable settings and change them.

1.3. Use Autoruns to disable all Asus programs and shell extensions from startup. Leave only the driver enabled.

2. Reboot to XP

2.1. Browse the Win8 drive in Explorer, find the folder containing the Asus Smart Gesture programs and rename it.

3. Reboot to Win8

3.1. Confirm that the touchpad behaves the way you last configured it. Don't try to start the mouse settings applet or any related programs! Check only by touchpad behaviour!

3.2. Restore the settings backed up in 1.1. Reboot if needed.

3.3. Check if touchpad behaviour changed according to restored settings.

4. Report here

 

Edited April 17, 2020 by RainyShadow

[Dave-H]

Could you just clarify something?
You said to use Autoruns to disable "all Asus programs and shell extensions".
I couldn't see anything in Autoruns specifically about shell extensions, so I just did a search for "Asus" and disabled everything that it found.
When I rebooted, I couldn't get into either operating system as the keyboard and mouse were completely dead, and the OS selection screen automatically ran 8.1 which I then couldn't log into!
Attaching a USB keyboard made no difference.
Eventually I had to keep aborting the start up until it went to the recovery options, and I could make it boot to XP, which was fine.
So, I presume that disabling "all Asus programs" was not a good idea!
Should I try again and this time only disable the programs that are specifically related to Smart Gesture, assuming I can identify them?
I recovered the 8.1 registry using ERUNT in XP, so I'm back to where I was before now.

Edited April 17, 2020 by Dave-H
Typo

[RainyShadow]

How come your OS selection is affected, huh?!? That's some pretty f****d up setup you have there...

29 minutes ago, Dave-H said:

Should I try again and this time only disable the programs that are specifically related to Smart Gesture, assuming I can identify them?

Yes, touchpad related things. You already listed 4 programs...

You better set the OS to auto-login. Also, first attach external mouse and/or keyboard and make sure they work properly.

Remote control availability won't be bad too.

And remember - the point of all this is to see if the driver alone is enough, or it needs the additional programs.

[Dave-H]

I think the OS selection was screwed up because it partially loads 8.1 to display the choices, and if you then select XP the machine reboots into XP.
If you select 8.1, or don't do anything, in which case it's set to happen automatically after five seconds, it goes on to the 8.1 login screen.
I don't think it's a "f****d up setup" at all, that's the way it's supposed to work using the new-style fancy blue OS selection screen!
The old monochrome text-based one might well have been OK in this scenario, as it wouldn't have pre-loaded some of 8.1.

Anyway, I think I've proved what needed to be proved anyway, simply by disabling the Asus Smart Gesture entries in the Start-up tab of the 8.1 Task Manager.
There are five sub-entries under the "Asus Smart Gesture Launcher" entry, AsusTPHelper.exe (which is listed twice although only one process of that name seems to be running), AsusTPCenter.exe, AsusTPLoader.exe, and AsusTPLauncher.exe. The last one does not appear as a running process.
If I disable them from running at startup, all the touchpad settings changes are ignored, and it reverts to the default behaviour.
Re-enabling them and rebooting returns things to normal.
I think that proves that at least one of those programs needs to be running for settings changes to work, which is not good news of course!

[RainyShadow]

You can revert to the old-style boot menu if you wish so. Start BOOTICE, in the BCD tab select "BCD of the current system", click "easy mode" and clear the checkmark for "Metro Boot Manager (Win8)".

 

Anyways, can you find the minimal set of programs that needs to be running for touchpad settings to work? Ability to run the configuration program doesn't matter.

Also, check if the settings stay if you kill those programs, or it reverts to default.

Edited April 17, 2020 by RainyShadow

[Dave-H]

Thanks for the tip, normally I much prefer the "Metro Boot Manager" though, I always thought the original text one was very ugly, even uglier than the XP one!
It obviously does have its advantages though as I've just found out the hard way!

If the programs are killed in Task Manager, the settings remain the same.
I assume that means that once the settings have been sent to the driver, they remain active until a reboot.

I will experiment to see what minimum combination of programs running at boot is necessary for that to happen.
It may take a while!

[Dave-H]

OK, it appears that the driver settings will load with just AsusTPCenter.exe running.
I've now got the other four program files disabled that were running in the background, I just closed them and renamed the files to disable them.
If I put AsusTPCenter.exe into the registry "run" key in place of AsusTPLauncher.exe, which was there, when the system loads the settings are correct, and can be changed by editing the registry.
That would be fine if it could be replicated on XP, but I'm not sure whether it will be possible to get AsusTPCenter.exe to run on XP, and that's assuming that it has no other dependencies of course.

[Dave-H]

I have tried to replicate this on XP.
I used CFF Explorer to change the settings in AsusTPCenter.exe from 6/0 6/0 6/0 to 5/1 5/1 5/1.
The first error I then got when AsusTPCenter.exe tried to run was that it couldn't find dwmapi.dll.
I copied that across from 8.1.
Now I'm getting "The procedure entry point _CxxFrameHandler3 could not be located in the dynamic link library msvcrt.dll".
Where to from here?

[RainyShadow]

1 hour ago, Dave-H said:

The first error I then got when AsusTPCenter.exe tried to run was that it couldn't find dwmapi.dll.
I copied that across from 8.1.

Don't bother with dwmapi.dll , that drags a pile of other things with it.

@jaclaz previously suggested a program stub that does nothing (can't remember the name now).

Try to use that in place of dwmapi.dll

You only need AsusTPCenter.exe to configure the touchpad once on startup, it doesn't need to show a window or be functional in any other way. It can just crash after doing its job - it doesn't matter.

Edited April 18, 2020 by RainyShadow