How to Use/Replace Windows 95 Hardware Wizard in Custom Code

SUMMARY

Someone developing their own setup utility for a hardware device might ask, how to use and or replace the Hardware Wizard in utility source code.

The short answer to emulating Hardware Wizard is that you cannot. The details of all the registry devnodes and entries is not meant to be completely documented. This is true also of the details of how the Hardware Wizard operates on the registry entries that it makes uniquely.

Running the Hardware Wizard is another matter. It is easy to do this in an application by using the WinExec() function to run the following line:

   control.exe sysdm.cpl,Add New Hardware
				

For a general form showing how to run any control applet, please see the "How to Start a Control Panel Applet in Windows 95" article in MSDN Library CD-ROM.