Merging a custom application installer with CP210x driver installation (Windows 8,10,11)

Question

I am relatively new in this field, so apologies for any obvious misunderstanding in advance. Using WixToolset I am trying to merge the CP210x USB driver into my application installer with not a lot of luck. Seems like the support for the Microsoft DIFx is removed for Windows 10 Version 1607 and later and I didn't have a lot of luck utilising PnpUtil within the WixToolset. Any suggestions would be highly appreciated.

I need to somehow install the inf as a custom action but cannot get this to work with the PnpUtil within WixToolset and seems like there is no drop in replacement for the Microsoft DIFx package.

Answer 1

Your custom action should call the Windows API function SetupCopyOEMInf.

The libusbp project has a function named libusbp_install_inf that shows how to do that in a custom action:

https://github.com/pololu/libusbp/blob/master/install_helper/install_helper_windows.c

You can compile this into a statically-linked 32-bit x86 DLL and then use it in a custom action. It will work on both 32-bit and 64-bit systems.

You don't need to use PnpUtil or bundle any executables with your installer, you just need the INF file, the corresponding signed CAT file, and any driver files they reference which aren't part of Windows.