Windows 8 driver install.

The drivers for Windows 8 will work fine. However the install process is not yet automated because they are only certified for automatic installation up to Windows 7. We are working on the process of getting Windows 8 Certification for them.

Until we post newer Windows 8 certified drivers here is the manual install process. First be sure that you have the latest certified drivers. If you are not sure, then download them from http://www.rr-cirkits.com/locobuffer-usb/drivers.zip then unzip the file onto your local computer. To unzip right click on drivers.zip and choose 'Extract all...' and a new folder named 'drivers' should appear. I did this to my desktop.

From the Windows 8 main window click in a right corner to bring up the options. Click on the Settings gearwheel. When the "Settings" slide out appears choose "Control Panel". When the "Control Panel" window opens select "Hardware and Sound" then click on “View Devices and Printers”. If the LocoBuffer-USB is not plugged into your machine, do it now.

An entry titled 'LocoBuffer-USB' should appear under 'Unspecified'. Double click on it. In the resulting window choose the 'Hardware' tab. Again double click on the 'LocoBuffer-USB' entry.

Another window should open, this one will have a 'Change Settings' button at the bottom of the 'General' tab. Click on 'Change Settings' to open yet a third window, also titled 'LocoBuffer-USB Properties'. In the third window you will find a button titled 'Update Driver'. Click it to open the 'Update Driver Software' window.

Select 'Browse my computer for driver software' and click on it. Browse to the 'drivers' folder you created above. On my machine it is called C:\Users\Dick\Desktop\drivers and be sure to also check the box called 'Include subfolders'.

After clicking on 'Next' the first driver should load automatically. When it is done click on 'Close' and go back to the 'Devices and Printers' window.

The entry titled 'LocoBuffer-USB' should still appear under 'Unspecified'. Double click on it again. In the resulting window choose the 'Hardware' tab. A new entry should have appeared named 'USB Serial Port'. Double Click on it.

Another window should open, this one will again have a 'Change Settings' button at the bottom of the 'General' tab. Click on 'Change Settings' to open yet another window, also titled 'USB Serial Port Properties'. In this window you will find the button titled 'Update Driver'. Click it to again open the 'Update Driver Software' window.

Select 'Browse my computer for driver software' and click on it. It should already be pointing to the same location as you chose above.

After clicking on 'Next' the second driver should also load automatically. At the end click on 'Close'.

Now when you select the 'LocoBuffer-USB' entry in the 'Devices and Printers' window it should show both LocoBuffer-USB drivers under the hardware tab. The second entry should include the new COM port number that will appear to your application software. (JMRI, RR&Co, etc.)

Enjoy.