When a file is digitally signed, the tab Digital Signatures is present in the properties of the catalog file. The following screenshot shows the notification This driver is not digitally signed!. This means that either the driver is not signed or that the driver is signed, but the certificate is not trusted. In the screenshot below the driver is digitally signed.
The Add Printer Driver Wizard shows whether a driver is digitally signed or not. If the catalog file has not been signed or the publisher is not trusted, the installation will halt. The catalog file itself has to be signed with a certificate and the publisher (the issuer) of the certificate has to be trusted. Driver package appears to be tampered in this article for a detailed explanation.
If you need to create a new catalog file yourself, please see the section INF hash is not present in the catalog. In this case, you either have to obtain a new version of the printer driver, or create a new catalog file. In case the cryptographic checksum of one of the files do not match, the installation will end in an error. The error message will contain the word tampered or tampering. The catalog file contains a collection of cryptographic hashes, or thumbprints, for each of the files that are included in the CopyFiles section of the INF file. As per Microsoft, "the catalog (.cat) file contains the digital signature for all the files which are part of the driver package". The CAT file is the security catalog file. Do not interpret my examples as bad advertising regarding Samsung printers and printer drivers.
Please understand that this is for demonstration purposes only! I purposely manipulated these drivers to be able to demonstrate installation errors and warning messages. I used a Samsung driver to simulate these errors. The CAT file Disclaimer: in this section, I present some examples of potential printer driver installation errors. The printer driver source files may contain more than one INF file.
DLL (containing the core code and functions)Įach time a driver is installed, Windows looks in the INF file for the line Catalogfile=filename.cat, than finds the specified CAT file and verifies the digital signature.for images used in the Devices and Printers GUI)
Printer driver source files consist of a variety of files, such as: However, in some cases you may require a model specific drive if, for example, the universal printer driver does not support a specific feature.
The advantage of a universal printer driver is that you only need to install one driver to support all vendor specific printer models. The universal printer driver is "one driver to rule them all" and supports most or at least many of the vendor's various printer models. The installation methods apply to both model specific and universal printer drivers. In the sections below, you find a list of the main unattended installation methods as well as a detailed description of some of the common problems and their solution. I hope that this article may be of some help to you. Secondly, all sorts of problems may arise, the solution of which is not always straightforward. First of all, there are various installation methods to choose from. The installation of printer drivers, especially unattended, can be a daunting task. INF hash is not present in the catalog.