4 ms·

Drivers undergo a vetting process by Microsoft (at least, the ones that are signed and offered as updates) = quality control through their control of the chann

Drivers undergo a vetting process by Microsoft (at least, the ones that are signed and offered as updates) = quality control through their control of the channel. This has been the case at least since the late 90s if I remember correctly.

nullindividual 2y ago
WHQL has had some pretty awful drivers pushed through it. Granted, this was quite some time ago, early 2000s-ish, but they've lead to BSODs etc with nVidia drivers.
- zinekeller 2y ago
  Well, it seems GPU driver fraud were (and is?) rampant: a snippet from Defrauding the WHQL driver certification process (2004, https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20040305-00/?p=40373 https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20040305-00/?p=40...) Some unscrupulous drivers will detect that they are being run by WHQL and disable various features so they pass certification. Of course, they also run dog slow in the WHQL lab, but that’s okay, because WHQL is interested in whether the driver contains any bugs, not whether the driver has the fastest triangle fill rate in the industry. The most common cheat I’ve seen is drivers which check for a secret “Enable Dubious Optimizations” switch in the registry or some other place external to the driver itself. They take the driver and put it in an installer which does not turn the switch on and submit it to WHQL. When WHQL runs the driver through all its tests, the driver is running in “safe but slow” mode and passes certification with flying colors. The vendor then takes that driver (now with the WHQL stamp of approval) and puts it inside an installer that enables the secret “Enable Dubious Optimizations” switch. Now the driver sees the switch enabled and performs all sorts of dubious optimizations, none of which were tested by WHQL.

4 ms·

Drivers undergo a vetting process by Microsoft (at least, the ones that are signed and offered as updates) = quality control through their control of the chann

by smallnamespace 2y ago

nullindividual 2y ago
WHQL has had some pretty awful drivers pushed through it. Granted, this was quite some time ago, early 2000s-ish, but they've lead to BSODs etc with nVidia drivers.
- zinekeller 2y ago
  Well, it seems GPU driver fraud were (and is?) rampant: a snippet from Defrauding the WHQL driver certification process (2004, https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20040305-00/?p=40373 https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20040305-00/?p=40...) Some unscrupulous drivers will detect that they are being run by WHQL and disable various features so they pass certification. Of course, they also run dog slow in the WHQL lab, but that’s okay, because WHQL is interested in whether the driver contains any bugs, not whether the driver has the fastest triangle fill rate in the industry. The most common cheat I’ve seen is drivers which check for a secret “Enable Dubious Optimizations” switch in the registry or some other place external to the driver itself. They take the driver and put it in an installer which does not turn the switch on and submit it to WHQL. When WHQL runs the driver through all its tests, the driver is running in “safe but slow” mode and passes certification with flying colors. The vendor then takes that driver (now with the WHQL stamp of approval) and puts it inside an installer that enables the secret “Enable Dubious Optimizations” switch. Now the driver sees the switch enabled and performs all sorts of dubious optimizations, none of which were tested by WHQL.