Patent ID: 8028300
Filing Date: 2011-09-27
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
1. A method for registering a driver plug-in program for use by a device driver program of a device driver which supports the use of an external device by a computing device, the method comprising the steps of: identifying at least one available driver plug-in program located on an external source; selecting at least one identified available driver plug-in program for installation on the computing device; and installing each selected driver plug-in program on the computing device by storing each selected driver plug-in program in a memory on the computing device, and entering an identifier corresponding to each selected driver plug-in program into a system registry of an operating system which is executing on the computing device, wherein with respect to an existing program which has a same name as the selected driver plug-in program, when such an existing program is stored in the computing device, the existing program is renamed and the installation of the selected driver plug-in program is performed so that the device driver program uses the selected driver plug-in program, and wherein an interface module of the device driver program searches the installed driver plug-in program from the system registry and an additional function of the selected driver plug-in program is supported by access to the selected driver plug-in program by the interface module.