question about how Add new hardware wizard works

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.device_driver.dev (More info?)

Hi,

I hope I have the right newsgroup

when I add a new device and reboot an XP machine, plug and play detects the
new device and installs the driver. However, when the machine is on an
isolated subnet, that process seems to take much longer. If i unplug the
network connection, the device gets installed without delay. If the network
cable is connected and the machine is on the internet accessible subnet, the
installation happens without delay.

On the isolated subnet i see that the machine is making a request to a
windows update IP address (which obviously will go nowhere since the subnet
is has no access to the internet). The required device drivers are already
pre-installed locally. Is there anyway to disable the XP client from
checking windows update via a registry or other setting?

Any tips will be much appreciated.

Thanks,
Rajan.