General Information on Support for Plug & Play Devices

Plug & Play devices can be used immediately, without any need for installation. These are detected and configured automatically as soon as they are connected to a computer. The appropriate device drivers are installed automatically. The user is not required to make any inputs.

Automatic installation by the operating system only works, however, under certain conditions, e.g.  (see more on this in Windows Help):

• The device driver has either the “Developed for Windows” logo or a digital signature.
• The device driver is already present on the computer.

If these conditions are not met, the operating system launches the Hardware Wizard. If the user does not have local administrator rights, he cannot complete the installation with this Wizard.

In these situations, DSM’s support for Plug & Play devices enables devices to be installed without the user having local administrator rights.

Ivanti DSM also supports installing virtual devices, i.e. devices which offer hardware functionality without having to install additional hardware components.
Examples of virtual devices:

• WAN miniport drivers
• Virtual network adapters

For this purpose, the InstallVirtualDevices command is used. InstallVirtu­alDevices can be added to any package using the Packaging Workbench. It is created automatically when the NetInstall Spy is used to analyze an application.
The usage of this command is similar to the Plug & Play devices process. More information you can find in the online help.