Driver protection

• US 6,950,964 B1
• Filed: 03/22/2002
• Issued: 09/27/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 03/22/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Bluvshteyn, Vadim, Jodh, Santosh Sharad, McMichael, Lonny Dean, Levidow, Bjorn, Lin, Eugene, Cobb, Jason Ty, Roussos, George Evangelos, Derbecker, Mark
• Primary Examiner(s): Beausoliel, Robert
• Assistant Examiner(s): Matthew, Aaron D
• Application Number:
  US10/104,202
• Time in Patent Office: 1,285 Days
• Field of Search: 714/25, 714/44, 714/38, 717168-178
• US Class Current: 714/38.13
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/004 Error avoidance G06F11/07 and subgroups take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4411 Configuring for operating with peripheral devices; Loading of device drivers

Abstract

Systems and methods are provided that prevent faulty drivers from being loaded and/or can prevent faulty drivers from being installed. Thus, instability of a computer system can be mitigated. Additionally, the occurrence of data corruption, system halting and the like can be reduced. A requested driver is compared to a list of faulty drivers from a faulty driver database. If the requested driver is in the list of faulty drivers, the requested driver is deemed faulty or defective, and is prevented from being loaded. Additionally, if the requested driver is in the list of faulty drivers, the requested driver can be prevented from being installed. Otherwise, the requested driver is operable and can be installed and/or loaded.

Claims

1. A system that prevents faulty drivers from loading, the system comprising:

a faulty driver database that maintains a list of faulty drivers; and

a driver protection component that compares a requested driver to the list of faulty drivers from the faulty driver database and that determines whether the requested driver is a faulty driver, and blocks loading of the requested driver on the requested driver being a faulty driver.

2. The system of claim 1, the requested driver having been installed via a recommended operating system installation procedure.

3. The system of claim 1, the requested driver having been installed via a non-recommended operating system installation procedure.

4. The system of claim 1, further comprising an event triggering a request to load the requested driver.

5. The system of claim 4, the event being a presence of an external device.

6. The system of claim 4, the event being triggered via an operating system kernel.

7. The system of claim 4, the event being triggered via an application.

8. The system of claim 1, the driver protection component operating at least partly in kernel mode.

9. The system of claim 1, the driver protection component operating at least partly in user mode.

10. The system of claim 1, the driver protection component displaying information regarding the requested driver being a faulty driver.

11. The system of claim 10, the information comprising the requested driver, identified problems associated with the requested driver and updated driver information.

12. The system of claim 8, further comprising a user interface that displays information regarding the requested driver on the driver being a faulty driver, the information comprising the requested driver, a reason for blocking the requested driver and updated driver information.

13. The system of claim 1, the faulty driver database being a remote database.

14. The system of claim 1, the faulty driver database being a local database and being updateable.

15. The system of claim 14, further comprising a master database that updates the faulty driver database.

16. The system of claim 15, the master database updating other local faulty driver databases.

17. The system of claim 14, the faulty driver database updateable via a network connection.

18. The system of claim 14, the faulty driver database updateable via a CDROM drive.

19. The system of claim 14, the faulty driver database updateable via a disk drive.

20. The system of claim 15, further comprising a verify component that further manually confirms a reported error of the questionable driver.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein the verify component further notifies a vendor regarding the questionable driver.

22. The system of claim 1, further comprising a plug and play manager that maintains a list of system devices and drivers associated with the system devices and that indicates devices having blocked drivers, the blocked drivers obtained via the driver protection component.

23. The system of claim 1, wherein the driver protection component further blocks installation of a driver on comparing the driver with the list of faulty driven and identifying the driver as being faulty.

24. The system of claim 1, wherein the requested driver is associated with a system device.

25. The system of claim 24, the system device being a CDROM drive.

26. The system of claim 24, the system device being a video card.

27. The system of claim 24, the system device being a hard drive controller.

28. A method of blocking a faulty driver comprising:

comparing a requested driver to a list of faulty drivers to determine whether the requested driver is faulty; and

on the requested driver being faulty, blocking the requested driver.

29. The method of claim 28, further comprising displaying a message regarding the requested driver being faulty.

30. The method of claim 28, the request to load the requested driver being submitted by an application.

31. The method of claim 28, the request to load the requested driver being submitted by an operating system.

32. The method of claim 28, further comprising updating the list of faulty drivers with additional faulty drivers.

33. The method of claim 28, further comprising updating the list of faulty drivers via a master list.

34. A method of updating a list of faulty drivers comprising:

generating a report regarding a questionable driver, the report comprising errors caused by the questionable driver;

verifying the errors caused by the questionable driver;

notifying a vendor associated with the questionable driver regarding the report and the questionable driver; and

adding the questionable driver to the list of faulty drivers as a new faulty driver.

35. The method of claim 34 further comprising evaluating a degree of faultiness associated with the questionable driver.

36. The method of claim 34, the errors verified by manually confirming the errors.

37. The method of claim 34, further comprising meeting faulty driver qualification requirements prior to adding the questionable driver to the list of faulty drivers.

38. The method of claim 34, generating the report comprising generating information regarding the questionable driver and errors caused by the questionable driver.

39. The method of claim 34, verifying the errors comprising creating an operating environment substantially similar to a reported operating environment and attempting to recreated the reported errors.

40. The method of claim 34, further comprising obtaining updated driver information related to the questionable driver.

41. The method of claim 34, adding of the questionable driver further comprises inserting the updated driver information in the list of faulty drivers for the new faulty driver.

42. A method of preventing installation of faulty drivers during an installation procedure, the method comprising:

executing the installation procedure;

determining a list of drivers to install;

identifying faulty drivers of the list of drivers to install by employing matching information; and

blocking installation of the identified faulty drivers by at least preventing copying of the identified faulty drivers.

43. The method of claim 42, the identifying faulty drivers further comprising employing a list of faulty drivers.

44. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable components operable to perform a method of blocking a faulty driver comprising:

a component for comparing a requested driver to a list of faulty drivers to determine whether the requested driver is faulty;

a component for loading the requested driver on the requested driver being operable; and

a component for blocking the requested driver on the requested driver being faulty.