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I installed some hardware on Windows 7 Pro, and clicked the "Always trust drivers from ..." checkbox before installing. However, now I want to disable this, i.e. I want to be prompted again. I cannot find this information on from searching on google with keywords like "windows 7" driver trust install... ugh. Can someone tell me how to do this?

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    I'm not 100% sure about this, but I can give you a place to start looking. My guess is that it would be in the certificate store; you can get to that by running MMC.exe and adding the "Certificates" snap in. I'm not sure if it would be in the personal or computer store (probably computer). Look through there to see if you can find the publisher of the driver (look for the publisher name, not the driver name). Let me know if you find it, I'm curious myself. =)
    – Coding Gorilla
    Commented Aug 13, 2010 at 20:11
  • That could be it! I added the Certificates snap-in for the computer account, and under Trusted Publishers, I found an entry for the device hardware manufacturer. Thanks for the tip! I'll wait until the others get in before I delete the entry -- they might want me to wait until later to mess with this. :) In the meantime, maybe submit your answer so I can mark it when the time comes?
    – Dave
    Commented Aug 16, 2010 at 13:05

2 Answers 2

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To be properly installed in Windows 7, a hardware driver must have a Setup Information file (with the extension .inf). This is a text file that contains detailed information about the device to be installed, including the names of its driver files, the locations where they are to be installed, any required registry settings, and version information.

All devices with drivers in the DriverStore folder include Setup Information files in the %SystemRoot%\Inf folder. The basic structure of a Setup Information file is similar to an old-fashioned Windows 3.x–style .ini file. Each piece of setup information appears on its own line under a bracketed section heading. Windows will not allow the driver package to be copied into the driver store unless these sections are present and filled in correctly.

In particular, an .inf file must contain valid [SourceDisksFiles] and [SourceDisksNames] sections. At the time the .inf file is copied into the driver store, Windows creates a folder for the driver files using the name of the .inf file with an eight-character hash appended to it.

You should delete the .ini file - make a backup first.

Source: http://www.webworldarticles.com/e/a/title/Windows-7-installs-drivers-from-trusted-publisher/

More info about signed drivers in Windows 7: http://www.webworldarticles.com/e/a/title/Windows-7-installs-drivers-from-trusted-publisher/

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  • Thanks, I'll have to try this on the next PC that comes in.
    – Dave
    Commented Aug 31, 2010 at 12:48
  • are those supposed to be the same link?
    – Claudiu
    Commented Apr 7, 2011 at 22:34
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The answer is wrong... the correct way to do this is to run the Certificate Manager and remove the certificate from the Trusted Publishers node.

Open a run box and type

certmgr.msc

Hit OK

It should be in the Trusted Publishers folder.

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    This is not enough, according the tests I performed with the OpenVPN TAP driver, I had indeed to remove the drivers from C:\Windows\Inf (aka the Drivers Store) as well. I think is is due to the fact cab files do actually contain driver certificates and removing the certificate from Certificates (Local Computer) –> Trusted Publishers –> Certificates in certmgr.msc like you specified is therefore not enough. This is a must read
    – wget
    Commented Nov 3, 2016 at 16:38
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    Found that the inf files have been renamed to oem9.inf and oem10.inf. After removing them I again got the pop-up :)
    – Joerg S
    Commented Aug 24, 2018 at 14:09

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