How windows driver(NDIS Miniport Driver) distinguish between reboot action and shutdown action

Question

Hi all:

    I am a windows driver developer. I want to know the difference between reboot and shutdown. Because driver needs to do different actions for these two scenario. Does it have any API interface to distinguish them? Can anybody give some suggestions or anybody have solutions about it?

    Because NDIS miniport driver can not capture power IRP, I want to know how to implement this fucntion.

    Thanks.

Answer 1

Hi Xiaojiang Gu, it's not so easy...

Both shutdown and reboot follow same sequence in Windows (services stop, drivers unload) and NDIS driver typically receives a MiniportHaltEx call during both ad Windows does not provide an explicit & direct API.

Both are treated as system halt operations from the driver's point of view.

You need a workaround, something like a user‑mode service to write a “Rebooting” registry flag before restart, which the driver reads on unload.

I hope it's helpful to you,

Regards,

S.