Device driver code signing for windows XP 32 bit

Question

I have written a device driver for a device but each time I connect the device in windows XP 32 bit, "found new hardware" wizard appears.

I am signing the driver using a Comodo code signing certificate and not using the cross certificate chain to link to microsoft root authority. Nor is the driver wql certified.

So my question is to disable the found new hardware wizard on windows xp:
i) Does my driver needs to be wql certified?
ii) signed with microsoft root certificate using cross certificate from verisign?
iii) or something i missed out in my code which needs to be changed?

Answer 1

did some research and found the answer: windows XP does not support authenticode driver signing and there are no plans to add it. Only way is to sign using microsoft certificate by using a cross certificate

Answer 2

As far as I know, the only driver signing recognized by Windows XP is a WHQL signature. Cross-signing has nothing to do with it. (Cross-signing allows the Windows Vista kernel driver loader to recognize Authenticode signatures. It has nothing to do with Windows XP driver loading.)

Authenticode signatures, while they would validate with DIFx / DpInst, would fail to validate later when SetupAPI tries to install your device driver out of the driver store.