Win7: Replacing a driver without reboot

Question

I'm debugging an audio driver under Windows 7. When I need to replace it with an updated version, I have to reboot the system because a copy of current driver under DriverStore is locked despite the fact that the driver is unloaded. Is there a way to avoid rebooting? It was possible on XP...

Answer 1

Do you tried to stop driver with devcon.exe utility (an old version can be downloaded also in http://support.microsoft.com/kb/311272, a new version you find under C:\WinDDK\7600.16385.1\tools\devcon\i386 after intalling of WDK)? Do you examine which processed use your driver (for example with respect of Process Explorer http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx)? If you describes your problem more exactly I could try to help you.