General INF File Format

An INF file is organized in several sections, which define information that Setup and the hardware detection process use to determine the resource needs of the hardware device, and to install software for that device. An INF file is organized by hardware, with each class of device described in its own section. Within each device section, the following general organization applies.

[Version] section

Contains a simple header that identifies the INF and the class of device this INF supports.

[Manufacturer] and [Manufacturer Name] sections

Lists all the individual manufacturers of the devices identified in this file and lists all the devices built by that manufacturer. These entries are displayed directly to the user and used to generate the appropriate registry entries. There must always be at least one manufacturer section.

[Install] section

Describes the device driver and physical attributes of the hardware device. It also identifies the names of all the [Install] sections that contain information and instructions for installing this device.

[ClassInstall] section

Defines a new class for this device. (Optional.)

[Strings] section

Defines all localizable strings used in the INF file.

Each section contains one or more entries. The typical entry consists of a key and a value separated by an equal sign. Keys within a section do not have to be unique, but the order of keys may be significant depending on the purpose of the section. An INF file can include comments — any string of text, up to the end of the line, that begin with a semicolon. A comment can start anywhere on a line.

For example:

Key=value   ; comment

For complete details about the syntax and use of statements in Windows 98 INF files, see the Microsoft Win32 Software Development Kit for Windows 98 and Windows NT. For more information about the content structure of Windows 98 INF files, see the Microsoft Windows 98 Driver Development Kit.