Error while deploying Window driver, Visual Studio 15, WDK

Question

Has any one encountered this error while trying to deploy on a target machine?

Target seems to be provisioned properly.

Here's the log:

1>------ Build started: Project: umvirtualcamera, Configuration: Debug x64 ------
1>  Building 'umvirtualcamera' with toolset 'WindowsUserModeDriver10.0' and the 'Universal' target platform.
1>  Stamping x64\Debug\umvirtualcamera.inf [Version] section with DriverVer=06/02/2017,14.8.2.786
1>  umvirtualcamera.vcxproj -> C:\Users\xxx\Repo\lessquitos\ee\projects\sortcamera\vs\umvirtualcamera\umvirtualcamera\x64\Debug\umvirtualcamera.dll
1>  umvirtualcamera.vcxproj -> C:\Users\xxx\Repo\lessquitos\ee\projects\sortcamera\vs\umvirtualcamera\umvirtualcamera\x64\Debug\umvirtualcamera.pdb (Full PDB)
1>  Driver is a Universal Driver.
1>C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\build\WindowsDriver.common.targets(1264,5): error MSB6004: The specified task executable location "C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\bin\x86\inf2cat.exe" is invalid.
========== Build: 0 succeeded, 1 failed, 0 up-to-date, 0 skipped ==========
========== Deploy: 0 succeeded, 0 failed, 0 skipped ==========

Answer 1

According to this page, you can restore the files by following instructions. I got my Inf2Cat.exe back by this way.

https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/hardware/windows-driver-kit

Important: If you have installed WDK for Windows 10, version 1607, some WDK files get removed when installing the WDK for Windows 10, version 1703 on top of the WDK for Windows 10, version 1607. To restore these files:

1. On the Start menu, enter Apps & features in the search box, and select Apps & features from the results.
2. Find Windows Driver Kit - Windows 10.0.15063.0 in the list of Apps & Features, and then select the program.
3. Select Modify, select Repair, and then follow the directions on the screen.
4. The files will be restored.

Answer 2

I had the same issue when I was building my V4 Printer driver package in VS2017. I just went through the following steps and it solved finally:

1- Right-click on your project (in my case that was a packaging project) and select "Properties".

2- Select General then in the options select "Windows SDK Version"

3- Change it to the proper version (in my case that was "10.0.17763.0"): Just for information, use a tool like "Search Everything" to find all instances and locations of your desired file. This helps to clearly see where those files really exist or not (in my case I need two files: "inf2cat.exe" and "stampinf.exe").

4- Press OK

5- Rebuild your project.

I hope this helps you.

PS: Sometimes changing the value of "Platform Toolset" at the same window to another value does the same (in my case changing the value of this option from "WindowsUserModeDriver10.0" to "Visual Studio 2017 (v141)" did same change as mentioned above)

Answer 3

I think it is already not required to provide an answer, but at the same time, I constantly have the same error when I try, for example, to build a driver from MS samples that are from WDK that targets Win 10. The only solution that I apply is to set appropriate version of Windows SDK Version property that can be found: {Project Properties} >> General >> Windows SDK Version. This is well known place. In my case I have the following items in the drop-down list: 10.0.15063.0; 10.0.16299.0; 10.0.17763 and finally 8.1;

VS About dialog indicates the version of WDK: 10.0.16292.1001;

Platform Toolset: WindowsUserModeDriver10;

The only successful solution for getting project built is to set Windows SDK Version to 10.0.16299.0.

The error disappears in such case and signing a driver completed successfully either for test mode or production one.

I hope my answer will be helpful.