What are "Software Devices" in Device Manager?

I have some items in a group labeled Software Devices in Device Manager utility in Windows 7.

enter image description here

This group contains three items:

Lightweight Sensors Root Enumerator
Microsoft Device Association Root Enumerator
Microsoft IPv4 IPv6 Transition Adapter Bus

The questions are:

What is "Software Device" group and what do the devices in this group do? Can a device be software at all?
What are the functions of the three devices I maintained above?

aques

Posted 2014-12-31T13:51:33.557

Reputation: 71

– Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007 – 2014-12-31T13:55:11.527

Regarding "Microsoft Device Association Root Enumerator" I found a good explanation at answers.microsoft.com. The important part is in english. Since you asked so many questions, I won't post this as an answer :]

– nixda – 2014-12-31T13:59:51.710

Thank you @nixda but why this driver is not listed in many computers I have ever seen? even not it hidden list. – aques – 2014-12-31T14:02:07.323

Let's try to keep this to one question at a time. ;) – Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007 – 2014-12-31T14:02:53.633

@Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007 the main question is the function of "Software devices". other question is optionally :D – aques – 2014-12-31T14:03:50.810

Answers

Only clue I could find

"Software devices. To test filter drivers, firewalls, and antivirus software that's installed on the test computer."

Sounds like virtual hardware to me.

enter image description here

Moab

Posted 2014-12-31T13:51:33.557

Reputation: 54 203

Everything that runs as a driver also appears in Device Manager. This also includes virus scanners and software firewalls and whatnot. Most of these are in the Non-PnP devices category. They are also hidden by default, because they generally are not relevant to end users. You explicitly chose to show hidden devices.

Note: Beginning from Windows 8, the Non-PnP view no longer exists.

An easy-ish to understand example for “software device” is a virtual network adapter. These are used extensively for VPN connections. If you install the OpenVPN client, it installs a virtual network adapter. Rather than connecting to a physical network, it connects to the VPN client, which then encapsulates the traffic appropriately. This is great because applications don’t need to know they’re using a VPN connection. It’s just like any other network connection.

Of course, this is but a single use case. Another common use case is emulating storage drives, either hard disks or optical drives.

Daniel B

Posted 2014-12-31T13:51:33.557

Reputation: 40 502