minidriver

English

Etymology

mini- +‎ driver

Noun

minidriver (plural minidrivers)

1. (computing) A device-specific plug-in that connects to a generic utility that is supplied with the operating system to form a device driver.
   • 1994, Adrian King, Inside Windows 95, page 91:

     The minidriver architecture first used for Windows 3.1 printer drivers and more recently for Windows NT disk drivers has found its way into the display and disk driver designs for Windows 95.

   • 2001, Erik Eckel, Brian Alderman, Windows 2000 Professional on Site, →ISBN, page 316:

     Microsoft provides device class drivers, which work with the device minidriver. The minidriver is written for a specific piece of hardware, most often by the hardware manufacturer.

   • 2015, Jan Axelson, USB Complete: The Developer's Guide, →ISBN, page 196:

     Cameras that use PTP require no vendor-provided driver components though a vendor can provide a minidriver to support vendor-specific features and capabilities.