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Guide for adding drivers to active Windows 7 systems after via computer startup script

Prepare Driver Files

Copy the driver files - .inf .cat, .dll, .cab etc to a shared folder on the network. Make sure the shared drive can be accessed - it will make it easier if you set the share permissions to everyone has read access at a minimum.

Prepare Computer login script

Add the following line to your machine startup script:

pnputil -a -i path_to_INF_files\*.inf

eg pnputil -a -i  \\server\drivers\*.inf  

Troubleshooting

Windows tries to use Windows Update to locate drivers

You can disable this feature using group policy:

1. Click Computer Configuration, click Administrative Templates, click System, click Internet Communication Management, and then click Internet Communication settings.
    
2. In the details pane, double-click Turn off Windows Update device driver searching, and then click Enabled.