Architectural Description
[Function Discovery is available for use in the following versions of Windows: Windows Server 2012, Windows 8, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008, and Windows Vista. It may be altered or unavailable in subsequent versions.]
Function Discovery provides a programmatic interface for enumerating system resources. This interface serves as an abstraction layer over device- and network-specific programming interfaces. The following diagram illustrates the Function Discovery architecture.
Function Discovery supports an extensible discovery provider model. All enumerated resources are discovered through one of the built-in providers or a custom provider. For more information about implementing a custom provider, see Function Discovery Providers.
Function Discovery supports a query service, through which a client application can obtain a pointer to a COM interface that it can use to use or control the device or resource.