Registry Keys Used by the Device Manager

The registry keys used by the Device Manager are stored in subkeys of the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Drivers\ key. The major subsections of this key are:

Active

The Active key contains subkeys that track any device drivers that Device Manager has loaded and which are currently active. There is no reason why your device driver or its setup routine should ever modify the contents of the Active key, nor should you expect any particular values to ever be present within the Active key.

Builtin

The Builtin key contains subkeys governing any installable device driver DLLs that are provided by the Windows CE platform's manufacturer. Recall from the Overview of Installable Device Drivers that platform manufacturers can implement drivers for certain types of built-in devices using the installable device driver model.

PCMCIA

This key contains subkeys related to PC Cards and their installable device drivers.

Detect

The Detect subkey contains numbered entries which list DLL names and detection functions used to identify a generic installable device driver for PC Cards that do not have a Plug-and-Play ID, or that have an unknown Plug-and-Play ID. See The [Drivers\PCMCIA\Detect] Key for more information.

Driver

Subkeys that are named after generic PC Card drivers contain values used to load such drivers. The correspondance between the name of this key and the installable device driver it is for is established with the driver's detection function, listed within the PCMCIA\Detect key, returns a successful detection.

Plug-and-Play ID

Subkeys named after the Plug-and-Play ID of a particular PC Card contain values used to load the installable device driver for that PC Card. The correspondance between the name of this key and the installable device driver it is for is established when the PC Card is inserted and the Device Manager reads the Plug-and-Play ID from the card.