Faulty driver protection comparing list of driver faults

• US 7,284,157 B1
• Filed: 06/03/2005
• Issued: 10/16/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 03/22/2002
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Jodh, Santosh Sharad, McMichael, Lonny Dean, Levidow, Bjorn, Lin, Eugene, Derbecker, Mark, Cobb, Jason Ty, Roussos, George Evangelos, Bluvshtevn, Vadim
• Primary Examiner(s): Baderman; Scott
• Assistant Examiner(s): Bonura; Tim
• Application Number:
  US11/145,326
• Time in Patent Office: 865 Days
• Field of Search: 714/25, 714/38, 714/44, 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 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 against a list of faulty drivers; and

blocking installation of the identified faulty drivers.

2. The method of claim 1, the blocking of installation of the identified faulty drivers comprises preventing copying of the identified faulty drivers.

3. The method of claim 1, determining at least one severity code associated with failure to load at least one of the identified faulty drivers.

4. The method of claim 3, halting the installation procedure based upon the at least one severity code associated with failure to load at least one of the identified faulty drivers.

5. The method of claim 3, continuing the installation procedure based upon the at least one severity code associated with failure to load at least one of the identified faulty drivers.

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

means for maintaining a list of faulty drivers in a faulty driver database;

means for comparing a requested driver to the list of faulty drivers from the faulty driver database and determining whether the requested driver is a faulty driver; and

means for blocking loading of the requested driver on determining that the requested driver is a faulty driver.

7. The system of claim 6, further comprising means for triggering a request to load the requested driver via an event.

8. The system of claim 7, further comprising means for detecting the presence of an external device as the event.

9. The system of claim 7, further comprising means for triggering the event via an operating system kernel.

10. The system of claim 7, further comprising means for triggering the event via an application operating in user mode.

11. A system that prevents faulty drivers from loading and installing, 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 and installing of the requested driver on determining that the requested driver is a faulty driver.

12. The system of claim 11, further comprising an operating system installation component that performs installation of an operating system on a computer system.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the operating system is being installed to upgrade a previously installed operating system and the requested driver is from a list of previously installed drivers in the previously installed operating system.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the operating system installation component determines that the requested driver is not compatible with the operating system being installed and the operating system installation component prevents installation of the requested driver.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein the requested driver is one of a plurality of drivers associated with a device.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the requested driver is critical for correct functioning of the device and the driver protection component blocks loading of the plurality of drivers associated with the device upon determining that the requested driver is a faulty driver.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein the requested driver is not critical for correct functioning of the device and the driver protection component blocks loading of the plurality of drivers associated with the device upon determining that one of the plurality of drivers associated with the device that is critical for correct functioning of the device is a faulty driver.

18. The system of claim 11, the faulty driver database being updateable on at least one of a periodic, dynamic and as requested basis.

19. The system of claim 11, further comprising a verify error component that verifies if a driver that is purported to be faulty is actually faulty, the driver protection component notifying the error component that a requested driver is a faulty driver, the verify error component notifying the driver protection component if the requested driver is faulty.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the driver protection component unblocks loading and installing of a requested driver upon notification from the verify error component that the requested driver is not faulty.