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A comment on No one, not even the Secret Service, should randomly plug in a strange USB stick. Parent comment

Re:No one, not even the Secret Service, should randomly plug... by jpindar on Monday April 08, 2019 @06:47PM (#19609861)
Eeewww. Why not just make it a virtual com port, which most computers already have drivers for?
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Re:No one, not even the Secret Service, should randomly plug... by bsder on Monday April 08, 2019 @07:02PM (#19609977)
Because Windows, the most popular operating system on the planet, didn't have VCOM drivers by default until Windows 10.

This is why everybody tries to piggyback on being a USB HID device.

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Re:No one, not even the Secret Service, should randomly plug... by taneq on Monday April 08, 2019 @07:38PM (#19610234)
It did for a few different devices, they could have mimicked one of those.

Source: Have plugged several brands of USB-to-COM adapter in to Win 7 / 8.1 and they've "just worked".

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Re:No one, not even the Secret Service, should randomly plug... by bsder on Monday April 08, 2019 @08:51PM (#19610623)
Somebody, somewhere had to install a driver. And, because you could never count on it, you can't design to it.

Now, since most things use a Prolific chip, you only have to install the driver for one device and you pick up a ton of them.

But it has to be installed by somebody, and that means all of the silliness that goes along with Windows driver installation.

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Re:No one, not even the Secret Service, should randomly plug... by oarsinsync on Tuesday April 09, 2019 @03:25AM (#19612516)
FTDI chips have their driver deployed by default on most Windows, Mac and Linux installs. It's nice being able to buy a USB/serial cable and it just work, without needing to deploy any drivers at all. Check it out!
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Re:No one, not even the Secret Service, should randomly plug... by swish_bob on Tuesday April 09, 2019 @04:01AM (#19612654)
Had to install FTDI drivers on (an admittedly old) Windows laptop 3 weeks ago before I could use it to talk to the Cisco gear I was reconfiguring ...
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Re:No one, not even the Secret Service, should randomly plug... by InitialLastName on Tuesday April 09, 2019 @07:52AM (#19613667)
IIRC the FTDI chips use a non-standard com driver on Win 7. IF you want your device (with your VID and PID) to show up as a serial port, you need to associate your device with the usbserial driver, which at the very least requires a custom .inf.
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