An INF file (setup Information file) is an INI

plain-text In computing, plain text is a loose term for data (e.g. file contents) that represent only characters of readable material but not its graphical representation nor other objects (floating-point numbers, images, etc.). It may also include a limi ...

file used by

Microsoft Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

-based operating systems for the installation of software and drivers. INF files are most commonly used for installing

device driver In the context of an operating system, a device driver is a computer program that operates or controls a particular type of device that is attached to a computer or automaton. A driver provides a software interface to hardware devices, enabli ...

s for hardware components. Windows includes the IExpress tool for the creation of INF-based installations. INF files form part of the Windows Setup API and of its successor,

Windows Installer Windows Installer (msiexec.exe, previously known as Microsoft Installer, List of Microsoft codenames, codename Darwin) is a software component and application programming interface (API) of Microsoft Windows used for the Installation (computer ...

. The directory contains several such .inf files. Precompiled setup Information file () is a binary representation of an INF file compiled by the operating system.

Structure

The structure of an INF file is very similar to that of an INI file; it contains various sections that specify the files to be copied, changes to the registry, etc. All INF files contain a

 ersion/code> section with a Signature  key–value pair specifying the version of Windows that the INF file is meant for. The signature is commonly $CHICAGO$ (for Windows 9x 




Windows 9x is a generic term referring to a line of discontinued Microsoft Windows operating systems released from 1995 to 2000 and supported until 2006, which were based on the kernel introduced in Windows 95 and modified in succeeding version ...
) or $WINDOWS NT$ (for Windows NT 



Windows NT is a Proprietary software, proprietary Graphical user interface, graphical operating system produced by Microsoft as part of its Windows product line, the first version of which, Windows NT 3.1, was released on July 27, 1993. Original ...
/ 2K/ XP). Most of the remaining sections are user-defined and contain information specific to the component being installed.
An example of an INF file might have something like this:

 utorunopen=example.exe

What this would do is open the example.exe file automatically whenever the media containing the file (in its root directory) is connected to the computer. This can be dangerous, as there is no way to tell whether such a file exists before inserting the media. Since Windows XP, however, this feature has been replaced with a menu forcing the user to choose which action to take.

INF Files can sometimes be dangerous on Windows 2000 as they may allow viruses 








A virus is a submicroscopic  infectious agent that replicates only inside the living  cells of an organism. Viruses infect all  life forms, from animals and plants to microorganisms, including bacteria and archaea. Viruses are found in almo ...
 to autorun without prompting.
They are blocked on Windows 7, but can be worked around. 

 utorunopen=example.bat
icon=cd.ico

icon=*.ico command replaces any old or default drive icon with the specified one.
 utorun/code> can be replaced by  utoRun/code> or  utorun/code>.

  Registry values 

The INF file may specify values for Windows Registry 


The Windows Registry is a  hierarchical database that stores  low-level settings for the  Microsoft Windows operating system and for applications that opt to use the registry. The  kernel,  device drivers,  services,  Security Accounts Manager, a ...
 entries. Drivers providers and users may for instance use this feature to override display Extended Display Identification Data 

Extended Display Identification Data (EDID) and Enhanced EDID (E-EDID) are metadata formats for display devices to describe their capabilities to a video source (e.g., graphics card or set-top box). The data format is defined by a standard publish ...
 (EDID) metadata for displays that have corrupted ROM memory.

 See also

*  Autorun.inf
*  Cabextract

 References

{{Reflist

 External links


INF Files
at MSDN

Internet Component Download with INF Files
at MSDN

Standard Modem Command Sets and INFs


 Configuration files
 Windows components