i use windows 2003 enterprise edition on my laptop, and i use a hp ipaq cell phone, i do need the irDA function badly on my laptop computer but Microsoft has disabled it on windows server 2003 enterprise/datacenter edition. the microsoft website tells that only windows server 2003 standard edition support irDA.

i do not want to reinstall my laptop. so i searched the internet for several hours. finally i find 2 ways that i would like to share with everyone.

first also the simplest way is: if you have windows xp or 2003 std/web edition installed, simply import the attached register key then install driver by pointing to the windows xp or 2003 std/web windows INF folder( may located at c:\windows\inf). it will prompt the driver for you to install. during install, you may be prompted for some file, which can be found on the Windows CD or the installed windows\system32;windows\system32\drivers directory.

Here’s the 2nd way: to enable irDA for my windows server 2003 enterprise laptop by copy some files from the standard version and import the register key.

Download and merge the attached win2k3-irda.reg registry file, it adds an Infrared devices class.

find irda driver files by search from a windows server 2003 standard edition CD to a folder on your harddisk.
some files are located in driver.cab and some files are compressed which has a underscore and the end of the file name,
for example, you need expand irbus.sys from irbus.sy_ by run below command:
expand irbus.sy_ irbus.sys

hidir.sys
irbus.inf
irbus.sys
irclass.dll
irda.sys
irdaalif.inf
irdasmc.inf
irenum.sys
irftp.exe
irmk7w2k.sys
irmon.dll
irnsc.inf
irprops.cpl
irsir.sys
irsnap.chm
irstusb.inf
irstusb.sys
irtos4mo.inf
ir_begin.wav
ir_end.wav
ir_inter.wav
KBDIR.DLL
msircomm.sys
netirda.inf
nscirda.sys
rasirda.sys
smcirda.sys
viairda.sys
wshirda.dll

Now open up the Device Manager the search for hardware change or update the unknown infrared device." don't search, chose the driver to install" Select Infrared devices from the device list, point the driver dir to where above driver files are located. then the irDA works.

some irDA device drive didn't integrated in the windows CD so that you may need download the driver from the manufacturer and extract to the folder where above files located.

content of win2k3-irda.reg

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{6BDD1FC5-810F-11D0-BEC7-08002BE2092F}]
"Class"="Infrared"
@="Infrared devices"
"EnumPropPages32"="NetCfgx.dll,NetPropPageProvider"
"Icon"="1401"
"Installer32"="NetCfgx.dll,NetClassInstaller"