Windows 7 has introduced a new plug&play feature for smart cards: now when you insert a smart card in the reader Windows 7 tries to find a smart card driver (aka minidriver, see this for more info: http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/device/input/smartcard/sc-minidriver.mspx) that must be used for security related functions like Windows-Logon or digitally signing of documents. Prerequisite for this kind of usage is that the card must be a cryptographic card, suitable for digital signature and encrytion and the manufacturer/issuer of the card, supporting this feature, must provide necessary drivers/software via Windows®-Update. Because most of the cards used by customers are not cryptograph...
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