This section describes the Windows CE Registry keys related to installable device drivers. Some must be supplied by the installable device driver or its installation routine, while others are maintained by the Device Manager. Instances of key names that are variable or which must be supplied by the installable device driver itself or its installation routine are in italics.
All the registry keys related to device drivers (both built-in and installable) are subkeys of the [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Drivers] key. Note that some portions of this list may not be available on some Windows CE platforms. For example, a Windows CE platform with no PC Card sockets will not need to have the [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Drivers\PCMCIA] key. The overall structure is:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Drivers]
[Active]
[nn]
[Builtin]
[DriverName]
[PCMCIA]
[Detect]
[nn]
[PnPId]
[DriverName]
The [Active] key is used by the Device Manager to track device drivers that are currently loaded and active on the Windows CE platform. Installable device drivers and their installation routines should not count on any particular keys or values being present within the [Active] key.
The [Builtin] key contains information related to device drivers that are built into the Windows CE platform. It is not generally used by installable device drivers. However, if it is necessary for an installable device driver to be loaded at boot time, the installation procedure for that driver can create a key within the [Builtin] key for it.
The [PCMCIA] key is used to store keys for PC Card device drivers. Generally, the subkeys within the [PCMCIA] key are named after the Plug-and-Play IDs of the PC Cards they correspond to. The DriverName subkeys are used for more generic PC Card device drivers or in cases where a PC Card does not have a Plug-and-Play ID. The [Detect] subkey is used to specify the order in which generic PC Card device drivers are tried in order to detect an appropriate device driver for PC Cards that lack Plug-and-Play IDs.