Signed Drivers category in Windows 7 no longer exists?
It appears that the Signed Drivers category (under Software Environment) has been eliminated from MSINFO32 reports in Windows 7. I have a couple of questions about this that extensive searches have not answered: What happened to the Signed Drivers category? As a support tech, it was helpful to determine the chipset of the machine, what chipset drivers were installed, and in some cases with ATI video devices, the driver version (since the numeric version doesn't match the Y.MM format publicly used) without asking for another diagnostic file. Is there a simple way to turn it back on (if that makes sense in this context) or a better way to determine these values that doesn't require requesting multiple files from the user or installing third-party software (e.g. Belarc Advisor or whatever remains of the free version of Everest)? The remaining "Drivers" category doesn't contain the same information as the Signed Drivers category did; it shows drivers that aren't even currently in use, among other issues.
October 26th, 2009 3:19am

Hi jacobjsmith, It is true that Signed Drivers Category which is located in the Software Environment category in System Information on Windows Vista is now missing from Windows 7. You know that the Signed Drivers Category displays information about the signed drivers that are installed on your system, including their device name, device class, driver version, manufacturer, device ID, and other information. Signed drivers are drivers that have been certified by Microsoft. Actually, signing driver function may be integrated in Windows 7 and you can look at the article, Disable Digital Driver Signing in Windows 7. (which should approve it and this function is still running at the background of your system) If you would like to determine the chipset of your machine, you can use Device Manager to verify that your system is using signed drivers. For more information about Device Manager, see Device Manager. For more information about Software Environment, see Software Environment. Here is the article I referred to, Signed Drivers. In addition, I am afraid that this category cannot be turned back. If you would like to check the status of the problematic drivers, you can go to System Information=>Components=>Problem Devices. Or other specific items such as CD-ROM, Display and etc. Also, the following step can be done to check if there is unsigned drivers running on your system. 1. Start=>Run=>SigverifHope helpful!
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October 27th, 2009 5:44am

This is a design change. Yes, the Sigverif tool can help you to find unsigned drivers. Other drivers listed in System Information should be signed drivers. Anyway we will report this feedback to proper department.Arthur Xie - MSFT
October 28th, 2009 1:31pm

Thank you for forwarding my feedback. Little late to the party since apparently I didn't receive the expected e-mail notification of responses to this question. I did realize that the Components > I/O category does contain some of the information I look for (chipset make/model) but unfortunately the System Drivers category does not contain date or version of listed drivers, and does not contain a number of the driver listings I can typically find in the Signed Drivers category of earlier Windows MSINFO32 reports. I'm aware that Windows Vista and later requires driver signing by default so they should be signed anyway, and I'm sure that was sort of a misnomer, but the removal of that section is unfortunate in my personal opinion.
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November 6th, 2009 12:51am

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