We had a major storm through here recently and we suffered damage to the house roof and ceilings. I just received the quote to repair. I’m hoping that a small fraction of the 80,000 odd people that download SDIO and/or Desktop Info every month won’t mind chipping in a few dollars to help out. Click on the big blue button at the bottom of the page to help us keep a roof over our heads, literally!
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@glenn Hey Glenn, sorry for the late reply. Thank you for your support. I found it and I can confirm on several systems, that it sometimes shows no drivers at all with "Windows 11" but on all systems it shows way more drivers with "Windows 10".
Is this behaviour intended or what is the matter about that change? Most of the usual users never will get it how to switch OS to see the drivers they are used to see 😏
That's expected behaviour. You could argue that the usual users shouldn't be seeing those drivers. If you're on win 11 you would expect to see drivers targeted to win 11. You don't expect or want to see drivers targeted to 10 or 8 or 7 or XP or win 3.1.... If you're a bit more clued up on how drivers work and how to recover from a dumb mistake then you can switch back to 10 or 8 or ms-dos and try your luck.@glenn Hey Glenn, sorry for the late reply. Thank you for your support. I found it and I can confirm on several systems, that it sometimes shows no drivers at all with "Windows 11" but on all systems it shows way more drivers with "Windows 10".
Is this behaviour intended or what is the matter about that change? Most of the usual users never will get it how to switch OS to see the drivers they are used to see 😏
@glenn Hey glenn, sorry I didn't want to offend you with my question.
But I don't see recent drivers that are intended for Windows 11, when I do not switch to "Windows 10" in SDI. As an example: recent Intel bluetooth or wifi drivers:
Both are not shown when I'm on "Windows 11", but are shown when I'm on "Windows 10".
I just want to understand the behaviour behind it, how does SDI "categorise" if a driver is for Windows 7/10/11 etc.?
none taken.I didn't want to offend you with my question.
how does SDI "categorise" if a driver is for Windows 7/10/11 etc.?
the driver itself decides what version it is targeted to. SDIO analyses this information and attempts to present the most relevant results. The mouse-over hover hint in expert mode shows the information gleaned from the inf file. There is also a line on driver list with driver version, date and target os if you have "Don't show driver pack names" or "Show driver pack names above" selected in the options.
@glenn OK got you. But what does that mean for the future? At the moment most of the drivers are "marked" inside of the .inf file with the "lowest" Windows version they are supporting. Same goes for the Intel Wifi or Bluetooth drivers I mentioned before, they are clearly meant for Windows 11, but inside of the .inf they state Windows 10 as they do support this OS either.
Maybe give a hint for this behaviour in the info box SDIO is showing? Most users who have used this tool before will start the new version, see that there are no "new" drivers available (or on a "fresh" system no drivers at all!) and will close it again, wondering what's wrong. Same goes for me, because it's not self-explanatory that you have to switch to "Windows 10" to get the drivers back that you saw before in the older version of SDIO.
I can understand your intention to "categorise" the drivers after OS version, but as it is now it's a bit counterproductive, which leads this tool to absurdity...
explain?At the moment most of the drivers are "marked" inside of the .inf file with the "lowest" Windows version they are supporting
... and this...they are clearly meant for Windows 11, but inside of the .inf they state Windows 10 as they do support this OS either.
why would you want to do that?you have to switch to "Windows 10" to get the drivers back that you saw before in the older version of SDIO.
You're overthinking it. SDIO will detect your OS and present the most appropriate drivers for installation. That's all.but as it is now it's a bit counterproductive, which leads this tool to absurdity...
explain?At the moment most of the drivers are "marked" inside of the .inf file with the "lowest" Windows version they are supporting
... and this...they are clearly meant for Windows 11, but inside of the .inf they state Windows 10 as they do support this OS either.
As example as mentioned above the Intel® Wireless Wi-Fi Drivers for Windows® 10 and Windows 11 here:
They are clearly for Windows 11, but are not shown when SDIO is on "Windows 11".
Inside of the .inf you can find this part:
[Manufacturer]
%COMPANY_NAME% = Device, NTamd64.10.0...17735
Which means: Apply to a particular OS version and later
Windows 10 Build 17735 or later (which includes Windows 11)
See Microsoft documentation for explanation:
Otherwise it had to be like in "Apply to only a single OS version" or there need to be two different sections in the .inf file to support different OS versions, like in "Apply to multiple OS versions with different settings".
why would you want to do that?you have to switch to "Windows 10" to get the drivers back that you saw before in the older version of SDIO.
Now you have to do that to get drivers offered, that are meant to be for Windows 11, but are not shown, because SDIO interprets the .inf file wrong.
You're overthinking it. SDIO will detect your OS and present the most appropriate drivers for installation. That's all.but as it is now it's a bit counterproductive, which leads this tool to absurdity...
I just want to be contributive, you do a great job here, but as it is now, the tool is not as helpful as it was before.
Maybe you change the mechanism to interpret the .inf file correctly and show the drivers that are compatible with Windows 11 again?
@bad-joker It seems I have misinterpreted how microsoft uses the version information.
BuildNumber
A number that represents the minimum OS build number of the Windows release to which the section is applicable, starting with build 14310 or later.The build number is assumed to be relative to some specific OS major/minor version only, and may be reset for some future OS major/minor version.
Any build number specified by the TargetOSVersion decoration is evaluated only when the OS major/minor version of the TargetOSVersion matches the current OS (or AltPlatformInfo) version exactly. If the current OS version is greater than the OS version specified by the TargetOSVersion decoration (OSMajorVersion,OSMinorVersion), the section is considered applicable regardless of the build number specified. Likewise, if the current OS version is less than the OS version specified by TargetOSVersion decoration, the section is not applicable.
If build number is supplied, the OS version and BuildNumber of the TargetOSVersion decoration must both be greater than the OS version and build number of the Windows 10 build 14310 where this decoration was first introduced. Earlier versions of the operating system without these changes (for example, Windows 10 build 10240) will not parse unknown decorations, so an attempt to target these earlier builds will actually prevent that OS from considering the decoration valid at all.
