We have a few driver packages that we pre-install in the driver store on Windows with SetupCopyOEMInf, following Microsoft's suggested procedures. This process has worked properly for years; no problems on XP, Vista, 7, and even 8.
While evaulating Windows 8.1 RTM, we found that our drivers were no longer pre-installing.
Checking the setupapi.dev.log, I found:
!!! sto: Failed to query boot critical status of device class. Error = 0x00000002
and later:
!!! idb: Failed to query inbox status of device class {ff646f80-8def-11d2-9449-00105a075f6b}. Error = 0x00000002
!!! idb: Failed to publish 'C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\[ourinfname].inf_x86_3361fc76cd85b678\[ourinfname].inf'. Error = 0x00000002
I've poured through documentation, trying to find out what we're doing incorrectly.
Preinstalling from the commandline with pnputil.exe -a or using InstallScript's DIFxDriverPackagePreinstall() produce the same results.
The drivers work on Windows 8.1 if we DON'T try and put them in the driver store. The preinstallation also works if we upgrade a Windows 8 machine that already had our drivers on it to Windows 8.1. In either case, once it's working, it continues to work.
Why is this failing on Windows 8.1?
My previous answer was actually a bit of a red herring. While one should definitely not use the GUID in the sample INF, the REAL problem ended up being with our installer. Turns out, our installation was trying to pre-create the registry key for the class:
HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{FF646F80-8DEF-11D2-9449-00105A075F6B}
Removing this from our installer fixed the problem.
Microsoft must have changed how driver preinstallation works under the hood from previous versions of Windows.