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pnpunattend

Audits a computer for device drivers, and perform unattended driver installations, or search for drivers without installing and, optionally, report the results to the command line. Use this command to specify the installation of specific drivers for specific hardware devices.

Prerequisites

Preliminary preparation is required for older versions of the Windows operating system. Prior to using this command, you must complete the following tasks:

  1. Create a directory for the drivers you want to install. For example, create a folder at C:\Drivers\Video for video adapter drivers.

  2. Download and extract the driver package for your device. Copy the contents of the subfolder that contains the INF file for your version of the operating system and any subfolders to the video folder that you created. For example, copy the video driver files to C:\Drivers\Video.

  3. Add a system environment path variable to the folder you created in step 1.For example, C:\Drivers\Video.

  4. Create the following registry key, and then for the DriverPaths key you create, set the Value Data to 1.

  5. For Windows® 7 navigate the registry path: HKEY_LOCAL_Machine\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\, and then create the keys: UnattendSettings\PnPUnattend\DriverPaths\

Syntax

PnPUnattend.exe auditsystem [/help] [/?] [/h] [/s] [/l]

Parameters

Parameter Description
auditsystem Specifies online driver install.

Required, except when this command is run with either the /help or /? parameters.
/s Optional. Specifies to search for drivers without installing.
/l Optional. Specifies to display the log information for this command in the command prompt.
/? | /help Optional. Displays help for this command at the command prompt.

Examples

To command shows how to use the PNPUnattend.exe to audit a computer for possible driver updates, and then report the findings to the command prompt, type:

pnpunattend auditsystem /s /l