Modem driver files in Win2K/XP

[nateklomp]

Hello all,

I'm having an issue with deploying modems with Win2K, which also applies to XP (to a lesser degree, due to its bundled modem drivers):

I'm supporting ~60 different modems. For these, there are 60 different driver packages, totalling ~280MB (uncompressed), ~90MB after using the Driver Compressor application from the MSFN boards.

My question: most of the files included (besides INFs) are duplicates of SYS files, each with different versions. For example:

• AMOSNT.SYS - 11 versions
  
• BASIC2.SYS - 11
  
• FALLBACK.SYS - 11
  
• FAXNT.SYS - 11
  
• FSKSNT.SYS - 11
  
• HSF_CNXT.SYS - 7
  
• HSF_DP.SYS - 6
  
• HSFHWBS2.SYS - 6
  
• K56NT.SYS - 11
  
• LTMDMNT.SYS - 15
  
• LTMODEM.SYS - 14
  
• MDMXSDK.SYS - 8
  
• RKSAMPLE.SYS - 11
  
• TONESNT.SYS - 11
  
• V124NT.SYS - 11
  
• WINACHSF.SYS - 14
  

ETC....and this is not even mentioning the other 251 duplicated SYS files that have 5 or fewer versions.

If it makes sense, I'd like to just dump them all in a single folder, keeping only the highest version of each file--since these are pretty much all software modems, this would ensure that only the most recently updated version gets applied. Is this solid logic?

Thanks for your help,

Nate Klomp

[RogueSpear]

If the drivers are signed, you'll end up breaking the driver signing for all of them.

[nateklomp]

SFC is off and all CATs are removed anyway, so no worries there.

Edited March 30, 2006 by nateklomp

[nateklomp]

Update:

So using only the most recently updated files seems to be OK, as long as they have the filenames referenced in the INFs they're used by Windows and apparently work. Only thing to watch out for is the INFs--for instance, PCtel, 3Com/USRobotics use the same filename for ALL their devices' INFs! Carefully rename the INFs for different devices so as not to overwrite any, this will break support for your devices.

Good Luck!