About Operating System Deployment Driver Management

 

Updated: November 1, 2013

Applies To: System Center 2012 Configuration Manager, System Center 2012 Configuration Manager SP1, System Center 2012 R2 Configuration Manager

In System Center 2012 R2 Configuration Manager, the driver catalog helps manage the cost and complexity of deploying an operating system in an environment that contains different types of computers and devices. By storing device drivers in the driver catalog and not with each individual operating system image, the number of operating system images that is needed is greatly reduced. For more information about the driver catalog, see http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=110504.

System_CAPS_noteNote

Before a driver can be used, it must be added to a driver package. For more information, see How to Create a Driver Package for a Windows Driver in Configuration Manager.

With the Configuration Manager Operating System Deployment server Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) classes you can manage the following:

  • Driver import

  • Driver packages

  • Boot images

  • Supported platforms

Using the SMS_Driver import methods, you can import the Windows drivers described by .inf and Txtsetup.oem files into the driver catalog. For more information, see How to Import a Windows Driver Described by an INF File into Configuration Manager and How to Import a Windows Driver Described by a Txtsetup.oem File into Configuration Manager.

Before a driver can be used, it must be enabled. For more information, see How to Enable or Disable a Windows Driver in Configuration Manager.

Driver packages contain one or more Windows drivers. A driver package is an SMS_DriverPackage object and is distributed in the same way as an SMS_Package package. They both derive from SMS_PackageBaseClass.

For more information about creating a driver package, see How to Create a Driver Package for a Windows Driver in Configuration Manager.

Windows device drivers that have been imported into the driver catalog can be added to one or more boot images. Boot images are stored in SMS_BootImagePackage objects. In an SMS_BootImagePackage object, Windows drivers are kept in an array of referenced drivers. For more information, see How to Add a Windows Driver to a Configuration Manager Boot Image Package

Windows drivers can be configured to support specific platforms. The supported platforms are stored in the driver package XML. For more information, see How to Specify the Supported Platforms for a Driver.

You can associate categories with Windows device drivers. For more information, see How to Add a Category to a Windows Driver

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