Hidden XP Utility: Verifier

Earlier this week we covered the process of rolling back a device driver in XP.  One step we can take to help verify the driver we download will work is to use a little known XP utility called Verifier.   

To access Verifier go to Start \ Run and type in “verifier” without the quotes.

The Driver Verifier Manager utility will open up.  Here you have different options, where you will choose a task best suited for your setup.

In the next screen you can choose to auto select a driver or select from a list.  For this example I am going to use the list.

Let’s say I am having a problem with my audio driver.  I select that device driver and am prompted to reboot the computer.  If there are any issues with the driver you will get the famous Blue Screen of Death with an error message.  If the driver is working properly then the system will start up normally.

To disable the Verifier utility go to Start \ Run and type in “verifier /reset” without the quotes.

This article was written on 06/26/08 and tagged with: XP, Hardware, Windows

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Comments (11)

1. June 26, 2008 9:21 am
   KingofSiam77

   good article, very usefull. this will come in handy.

2. June 27, 2008 7:05 am
   Jon Randahl

   I so could have used this time and time again!
   Thanks!

3. June 27, 2008 7:32 am
   darkkosmos

   Works on vista too (not very useful though..)

4. June 27, 2008 9:48 am
   rbailin

   And how do you recover from the Blue Screen of Death if it doesn't pass?

5. June 27, 2008 12:01 pm
   raphoenix

   This "trick" DOES work HOWEVER I'm not sure why the interface appears just a bit different than the one which opens up when the verifier.exe file is run which is located in the system32 directory. The "trick" is using the verifier.exe along with the verifier.dll but the only difference is in the appearance. The verifier.DLL is dated 4/14/2008 which would be XP3 while the verifier.EXE is dated 3/21/2003 which would be XP1 or XP2. This is indeed a strange utility which works with the Same (2) files but with Different GUIs that perform the Same Functions ?? Try clicking on the verifier.EXE located in the system32 directory to see the GUI difference. Amusing.

6. June 27, 2008 3:06 pm
   PJ

   This also Does work in Vista Ultimate I just tried it! Nice Find! thanks

7. June 29, 2008 2:32 pm
   John Evans

   THANK YOU FOR ALL YOUR HARD WORK

8. June 29, 2008 6:47 pm
   Pavan Kumar

   Never knew this… thanks

9. June 30, 2008 8:05 am
   linuxishawt

   Nice post, useful when checking drivers on laptops that are designed for Vista but the customer wants to run XP.

10. July 3, 2008 10:27 pm
    paresh

    nice useful article. i like it.

11. July 12, 2008 2:45 pm
    Beth

    You have a very nice method of presentation - easy to understand, lots of screen shots, just clean and nice.