INF DestinationDirs section

A DestinationDirs section specifies the target destination directory or directories for all copy, delete, and/or rename operations on files referenced by name elsewhere in the INF file.

[DestinationDirs]

[DefaultDestDir=dirid[,subdir]] 
[file-list-section=dirid[,subdir]]... 

Entries

DefaultDestDir=dirid[,subdir]
Specifies the default destination directory for all copy, delete, and/or rename operations on files that are not explicitly listed in a file-list-section referenced by other entries here. To ensure that file operations always occur in the correct directory, an INF file that includes Include and Needs entries should not specify a default destination directory. For more information, see the following Remarks section.

file-list-section=dirid[,subdir]] ...
Specifies the INF-writer-determined name of a section referenced by a CopyFiles, RenFiles, or DelFiles directive elsewhere in the INF file. Such an entry is optional if this section has a DefaultDestDir entry and all copy-file operations specified in this INF have the same target destination. However, any file-list-section referenced by a RenFiles or DelFiles directive elsewhere in the INF must be listed here.

dirid
Specifies the directory identifier of the target directory for operations on files that are referenced by name, possibly within a named file-list-section of the INF. For lists of commonly used dirids, see Using Dirids. On Windows 10 version 1709 and later versions of windows, it is recommended that DIRID 13 be used. See run from Driver Store for more information.

subdir
Specifies the subdirectory (and the rest of its path, if any, under the directory identified by dirid) to be the destination of the file operations in the given file-list-section.

Remarks

The DestinationDirs section is required in any INF file that uses an INF CopyFiles directive or that references a file-list-section, whether with a CopyFiles, DelFiles, or RenFiles directive.

If Abc.inf includes sections from another INF file, Def.inf, and both INF files include a DefaultDestDir entry for copy-file, rename-file, or delete-file operations, Windows ignores the default destination directory that is specified in Def.inf and performs all the corresponding file operations in the default destination directory that is specified in Abc.inf.

To ensure that file operations always occur in the correct directories, an INF file that includes Include and Needs entries should not include a DefaultDestDir entry in a DestinationDirs section. Instead, such an INF file should explicitly reference all the file-list-section names that are specified by CopyFiles, RenFiles, and DelFiles directives in the DestinationDirs section.

If an INF file does not include Include and Needs entries, the INF can use the DefaultDestDir entry to specify a default destination for copy, rename, and delete file operations that appear elsewhere in the INF file:

• CopyFiles directives that use the direct copy (@filename) notation must have a DefaultDestDir entry in the DestinationDirs section of the INF in which the direct-copy entry appears.
• CopyFiles, RenFiles, or DelFiles sections that are not directly referenced in the DestinationDirs section must have a DefaultDestDir entry in the DestinationDirs section of the INF in which the copy, rename, and delete file sections appear.

Examples

This example sets the default target directory for all copy-file, delete-file, and rename-file operations. Such a simple DestinationDirs section is common to INF files for new peripheral devices, because such an INF usually just copies a set of source files into a single directory on the target computer.

[DestinationDirs]
DefaultDestDir = 13

This example shows a fragment of the DestinationDirs section of the INF for a display/video driver.

[DestinationDirs]
DefaultDestDir     = 13

; ... 

; list of per-Manufacturer, per-Models, per-DDInstall-section, and
; CopyFiles-referenced xxx.Miniport/xxx.Display sections omitted here
; along with several other miniport/display paired drivers
; ...
vga.Miniport     = 13
vga.Display      = 13
xga.Miniport     = 13
xga.Display      = 13

See also

CopyFiles

DDInstall

DelFiles

RenFiles

SourceDisksFiles

SourceDisksNames

Using Dirids