04/02/2025 21:00 How to patch a driver to run on older versions of Windows | WinClassic

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How to patch a driver to run on older versions of Windows
How to patch a driver to run on older versions of Windows
Jevil7452 How to patch a driver to run on older versions of Windows Aug 12, 2023 at 10:46pm
Regular Member Post by Jevil7452 on Aug 12, 2023 at 10:46pm
NOTE: This will not work for every driver. Try at your own risk
This guide focuses more on getting drivers to work on older versions of Windows 10, not older versions of Windows in general.
Mentions of "older versions" are older versions of Windows 10.
Also, sorry if you can't understand something here, but I'm not really good at writing guides. But you can make a message and
I'll try to explain.
Sometimes, when installing device drivers, you might notice they don't work on an older version. Sometimes it's because they
actually don't work, but sometimes it's because the driver was made to not install on older versions of Windows by the means of
the INF file.
In this post, I'll show how to patch a driver that's been made to not work on older versions because of such an INF file.
Firstly, I'll show how you can tell the driver has been made to not install on older versions of Windows
Posts: 482 Open the INF in Notepad, and search for "10.0"
OS: Windows 7 Enterprise You might see something like this:
(6.1.7601)
Theme: Windows Aero (b. 7989
port) by Microsoft Corporation
CPU: Intel Core i7-3770k If you see something like this, this means the driver is not made to not install on older versions. If you get an issue with it, it's
RAM: 32GB (4x8GB DDR3) for some other reason.
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 (if you use older versions of Windows, you could try changing all references of NTamd64.10.0 to NTamd64.6.3 (for 8.1 for
Ti + Intel(R) HD Graphics 4000 example))
Computer Make/Model: OEM0 But, if you see something like this:

Then it means that the driver will not install under that specific build of Windows 10. (In this case, build 16273)

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04/02/2025 21:00 How to patch a driver to run on older versions of Windows | WinClassic
By changing the build number to be the build you're currently using, it'll let you install the driver, but it might not work
sometimes.
So, to change the build number you should replace ALL mentions of NTamd64.10.0...16273 with NTamd64.10.0...17134
(example, replace the 2 build numbers with your own ones)
After that, save the .inf file. Note that doing this will invalidate the signature, so to install the driver you will need either to boot
with Disable Driver Signature Enforcement or Test Mode. I personally do Test Mode. (Note. Test Mode won't work with Secure
Boot on)
The command to run in CMD as admin for Test Mode is:
Code
bcdedit /set {CURRENT} testsigning onAfter running that, reboot the PC and you'll be in Test Mode, as indicated by the
watermark
NOTE: It seems that you won't be able to turn off Test Mode after installing the driver, but from a quick Google search it seems
that someone's unsigned driver was working just fine when they turned off Test Mode.
After booting into either Test Mode or Disable Driver Signature Enforcement, install the driver.
In case the regular installer fails, you can install it using the command
Code
pnputil /add-driver *.inf /subdirs /install
in the driver's main folder
You will get this message:

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04/02/2025 21:00 How to patch a driver to run on older versions of Windows | WinClassic

Click Install this driver software anyway

(Sometimes, even the setup programs might have version checks you'll either need to bypass or skip the setup program entirely
and use pnputil)
I have confirmed this to work for Intel Smart Sound Technology on version 1803 (17134) - the driver officially runs on 1809
and up as stated by the INF and Intel Graphics Driver for version 1703 (15063) - the driver officially runs on 1709 and up as
stated by the INF
Notes for GPU driver
1. Even though it installs in 1607, it only gives a black screen after installing. However, it means that the OS at least recognizes
the driver, as 1511 doesn't install it at all.
2. For the GPU driver, after running the pnputil command to install it, I needed to go to the Device Manager, select the GPU,
and update it's driver, and select the Intel patched driver.
Screenshots of it working:
Intel Smart Sound Technology:

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04/02/2025 21:00 How to patch a driver to run on older versions of Windows | WinClassic

I don't have one for the GPU driver.

Also, if you would want to batch patch INF files, you can do that with grepWin
Set it to Regex Search mode.
In the Search for: field enter
Code

\b10\.0\.\.\.\d{5}\bIn the Replace with/Capture format: field enter

Code

10.0...17134(Replace 17134 with your version number)

Set Search in field to be the root of the folder with the drivers
Set File Names match: to text mode and enter *.inf in there
Click "Replace" and you'll have patched driver INFs you can install.
Last Edit: Oct 8, 2023 at 8:58pm by Jevil7452

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04/02/2025 21:00 How to patch a driver to run on older versions of Windows | WinClassic
vistalover07
Sophomore Member

How to patch a driver to run on older versions of Windows Sep 14, 2023 at 11:41am
Post by vistalover07 on Sep 14, 2023 at 11:41am
Posts: 190 have you tried oler vesions of windows?
OS: Project 2000
Theme: Constantly Changing/Maple
CPU: Intel I5-10400f/Celeron N3350
RAM: 16gb/4gb
GPU: RTX 3060 12GB/Intel HD Graphics 500
Computer Make/Model: ASUS X541NA

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