USB Drivers Win8 64 bit

[SavannahLion]

Trying to wrap my head around this exotic detail and my brain is refusing to comply.

Am I to understand that custom USB drivers are possible for various Windows up to and including Win7 including the driver signing implemented by Gates' company.

However, Win8 changed the paradigm with software divided into to classes. Windows Desktop and Windows Store. In addition to the requirement of having an additional signing (I've seen this referenced as a "CAT" file), developing a custom USB driver for Windows 8 is now impossible without paying a shitload of cash to Microsoft or one of their affiliates. Hold that that comment for a second. I've laso seen mention that Desktop programs USB API are explicitly blocked and USB is only possible with the Windows Store apps which absolutely must use the Windows Drivers. 

However the Windows article on this topic directly contradicts the above statement in that Store apps are restricted to a limited a small selection of HIDs and Desktop apps are not. I'm not entirely sure as the implication of this other than "Store" apps are more akin to Google Play or Apple Store apps for mobile devices.

I really can't see an entire cottage industry getting shafted for want of custom USB drivers. Even more confusing, the Windows LIVE site gives detailed documentation about the construction of custom USB drivers under Win8.1 using WINUSB which is apparently further differentiated on whether it is Win8 or Win8.1, the namespace involved and the desired operation of the USB driver in question.

I think what I'm missing is some sort of paradigm shift between Win8 and Win8.1. I have Win8 and have not upgraded to Win8.1 because of the increased restrictions on making archives of the hard drive.

It's bizarre that Linux and OSX make it dastardly simple to craft custom USB drivers and Windows makes it harder. Windows is like that hot chick at the party with that fat ugly ---smurfette--- for a friend. I'm not in the mood for a cock block at this party.

Can someone enlighten me on this?

[ark_ader]

Look at this for inspiration.
http://www.thesycon.de/eng/usbio.shtml

[SavannahLion]

Win8 custom USB driver CAT signing

[2600]

What are you designing that requires a custom driver?

Nowadays, I see a lot more designs using the built in USB classes instead of custom stuff. 

[SavannahLion]

I have two projects that are kind of overlapping here, but this question really only relates to one so forgive me if it's not clear.

I have an old card reader that reads/writes cards in a proprietary format. The company is still around but the only software they ever released still talks about (IIRC) Win98 or ME or some such. They do not offer any support whatsoever. I suspect this is because the box and drivers look like it was created by a third party and that third party has since disappeared.

The fact it worked in XP appears to be pure happenstance and the drivers absolutely do not work on any 64 bit version of Windows OS and I believe chokes up on post XP systems. I still have the XP box and drivers working so I've been logging and interpreting the packets. I'm using Linux tools to dig around the chatter logs as well (there is no Linux driver but Linux doesn't seem to notice  ). The key here is I'm exploring the possibility of parallel development to create a Win8 64-bit driver.

This is a get-brownie-points-from-the-wife-so-she-can-leave-me-alone project.

[2600]

Gotcha, so this is a legacy device.  I thought you were creating a new device.