[WT-support] Prolific Drivers and Devices

[Peter Stuge]

Lup S. DJ7SW wrote:
> http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/usb_devices_view.html

USBDeview is a fine utility.


> USB is kind like prostitution

That's amazingly inappropriate for a radio amateur, but no, USB
itself is not the problem. USB was designed to work really well
and it does in many operating systems, however the way that Microsoft
has implemented USB is absolutely awful.

The problem in Windows goes much deeper than just USB, the entire
device model in the Windows operating system kernel is quite, well,
special, and let's just say that a modern and dynamic interconnect
such as USB does not fit into it *at all*.

The result is the poor user experience that you all know.

While it's easy to be fooled by the name, also keep in mind that USB
is quite a lot more sophisticated than a simple serial port, and
while a serial port is something very easy to understand, the reward
that is excellent user experience coming from understanding and
implementing USB well is spectacular.

It is easy to create a USB device which is plug-and-play even on
Windows these days. In order to work around their broken device model
in the kernel Microsoft created a proprietary extension to the USB
specification, and have published it for anyone to use. Key word:
WinUSB Device

A USB device which behaves as a WinUSB Device doesn't need a kernel
driver to be installed manually, Windows does that automatically and
transparently when the device is plugged in, and applications can
communicate with the device using either the WinUSB API or libusb.

If libusb is used and care is taken to write portable source code
then the same application can be compiled for Mac OS or Linux
unchanged, and will work just as well there.

Of course all of this is of no help to consumers of USB devices,
unless you talk to the vendors that you buy from, and tell them that
you want them to make WinUSB Devices so that their hardware will work
better for you.


> A tip. blow away all older USB entries, you will be astonished abt
> the number.

Yes, this is good advice. A bit of cleanup now and then helps keep
Windows alive.


//Peter