In the last month the Surface Pro team have started releasing driver and firmware packs that include all on the drivers and firmware required for Surface Pro. This pack is a simple zip file that contains all of the drivers as INF files that can be installed with out requiring an executable, which for those of you that have followed my previous posts will know is the way I like to see drivers provided.
Firmware Deployment
Perhaps the coolest thing about this pack is the fact that it includes firmware that is delivered in the form of a driver package. This is possible due to a UEFI feature called capsule packages. These capsule packages can be installed several ways:
- Published via Windows Update
- Injected into an offline Windows image
- Installed into Windows 8 online
Note - They cannot be installed via Windows Software Update Service (WSUS).
The firmware is exposed to the machine as a device under the firmware node in device manager.
To update the firmware manually simply install the driver package on the machine then Windows will then seamlessly take care of the update process for you, ensuring that the correct firmware is applied. Once installed a flag is set for the loader and on restart all available firmware updates are applied. During the boot process a dialog will appear that states “installing system updates”. If you are deploying the drivers as part of an OS deployment, perhaps with the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit or System Center Configuration Manager 2012 you simply add these firmware drivers to your existing driver deployment methodology and the Windows will handle handle the update process for you.
Driver Deployment
Deploying these drivers as part of your existing OS deployment process is simple, however what happens if you want to update drivers on a Surface Pro that has already been deployed. This is definitely something you will want to do as the Surface team has already delivered a number of significant performance improvements as driver and firmware updates. One option would be to manually right clicking on the device in device manager, and select the appropriate driver to install. However this is a laborious process. It is possible to automate this process using a PowerShell script that calls the PnPUtil utility.
The following script iterates recursively through the pack and installs all of the drivers that it finds:
$ScriptPath = Split-Path -parent $MyInvocation.MyCommand.Definition
$files = get-childitem -path $Scriptpath -recurse -filter *.inf
foreach ($file in $files)
{
Write-host "Injecting driver $file"
pnputil -i -a $file.FullName
}
To use this script extract the driver pack and place the script in top level folder of the extracted zip file. Then execute the script, it will install all drivers (including firmware). This could also be packaged into a System Center Configuration Manager package and deployed to existing machines.
For further details on Surface Pro deployment please refer to the Surface Pro - Enterprise Deployment Quick Start Guide within the Surface Pro firmware and driver pack that I worked with the Surface Team create.
This post was contributed by Ben Hunter, a Solution Architect with Microsoft Consulting Services.
Disclaimer: The information on this site is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, confers no rights, and is not supported by the authors or Microsoft Corporation. Use of included script samples are subject to the terms specified in the Terms of Use.