When trying to install a new device (like a USB mouse, printer, video card, etc.), Windows Vista might report that there is “no driver found for you device [sic]” and/or will not display the pre-installed Vista OEM drivers.
Even by manually selecting the driver, you will still get the “no driver found…” error. This also tends to happen with HP printers (as we know their drivers are bulky and complex). You will get a red X at the end or it won’t find the drivers - again.
This is caused by a corrupted INFCACHE.1 file. This file is hidden, has restricted access, and can be found in “c:\windows\inf”. This file stores the location of drivers and their INF files.
Delete this file and it will force Windows to rebuild the INFCACHE.1 file the next time Windows searches for drivers.
To delete this file, you have to set the security permissions of it to allow Full Control for the User Group Administrators or full control for your account. Here’s the complete how-to:
1. Open a Windows Explorer window (right click Start> Explore)
2. In the address bar, type c:\windows\inf and press Enter
3. Right click on the file INFCACHE.1
4. Select Properties
5. Click on the “Security” tab
6. Click “Edit” to edit permissions
7. Click “Add” to add User Groups
8. Type “Administrators” in the User Groups field and click ok
9. Set Administrators to “Full Control” and click ok
10. Move or delete the file “INFCACHE.1″
11. Reinstall a device to force Windows to rebuild the “INFCACHE.1″ file (not the one you were having problems with)
