The DCC Decoder Programmer

SPROG II on Windows 7
USB Driver Installation Instructions

For Windows 7 users, the following procedure will install the drivers for SPROG II.
Windows 8, 8.1 and 10 add a new level of Driver Signature security, which needs to be adjusted to install; please follow the specific additional instructions.

Briefly, the process is as follows:

• Open Device Manager and plug in your SPROG
• Under "Other Devices", update the drivers for SPROG DECODER PROGRAMMER
• check under "Ports (COM & LPT)" for assigned com port number

When the SPROG is recognized by the computer, the system will attempt to install the appropriate device drivers automatically.
Specific drivers are needed for SPROG to function correctly, and will not normally be found by the automatic routine.

The correct compatible USB drivers for Windows 7 and later are provided on the standard installation CD-ROM in the "X":\USB\Windows_2000_XP_Vista_7 directory, where X is the drive letter of your CD-ROM drive (usually D). Using the CD, you should specify the appropriate location during installation, as shown in the example following.
If you have already downloaded the drivers from our website online, select the uncompressed USB folder that you downloaded at the appropriate point of the instructions below, or follow the direct download link there.
Note: the installation process for SPROG II will install TWO drivers, one for USB connection, and the second to assign and support serial communications. Allow the Installer process to complete twice.

USB Drivers - Installation

Open Device Manager. Depending upon your edition of Windows, this may be accessed by slightly different paths.

On Windows 7, from the Start menu select Control Panel, then System, then Device Manager. If System or Device Manager is not shown, select "Hardware and Sound", and then Device Manager. Alternatively right click "My Computer" on the Windows desktop and select Properties, then Device Manager.

The SPROG DECODER PROGRAMMER will (most likely) appear under "Other Devices"
Point to the SPROG DECODER PROGRAMMER entry and press the Right mouse button. Select "Update Driver Software", or select Properties, and under the Drivers tab, click "Update Drivers"

Click "Browse my computer for driver software", and the window shown below will open. Click the Browse button to find the drive letter for the CD-ROM supplied with SPROG II. Be sure to Check the "Include subfolders" box.

(If you do not have the CD, click here to download the USB Windows_2000_XP_Vista_7 package for the drivers to install. These are compressed "zip" files and will need to be extracted by Windows, or a third party "zip" program. To uncompress these files, find them (probably in your "Downloads" folder) using the File Explorer, and then point to the item and double-click. This will open the compressed zip file and show a single entry with essentially the same name as the compressed file. Do not double-click that; instead drag it out of this window onto an empty space on the Desktop (background) of your screen, where it will be easy to find in the next step! You will briefly see a small window telling you that Windows is uncompressing the files.

The wizard will take a short time to find and verify the drivers in this location.

The base drivers are fully compatible with Windows7 and Windows8, 8.1 or 10, and those supplied on the CD are the latest drivers. To make them SPROG device specific, the .inf files have been custom configured, which surprises Windows, and causes this dialogue to appear. The drivers we supply are correct and are perfectly safe to use.
Click "Install this driver software anyway".

Click "Close".

Now return to the Device Manager,
and the entry will have changed.

Important! Repeat the process, updating the drivers on this entry, and following exactly the same steps.
Do not cancel this next sequence, even though it appears duplicate! There are two levels of driver that have to be installed.

Point to the USB Serial Port entry and press the Right mouse button.
Select "Update Driver Software", or select Properties, and under the Drivers tab, click "Update Drivers" and then follow the same sequence of steps as above.

Finally, the installation will complete, and the assigned serial port number will be displayed, see below.
Important! Note this Port number, as it is required when you run DecoderPro the first time.

For more information, please read the documentation in the SPROG II User Guide or see more at the FAQ page at http://sprog.us.com/faq.html.

The next step is to start DecoderPro, and set preferences for this connection.

Next an introduction to DecoderPro.