Using the USB2-E100 on Windows RT

Officially, we don’t support our USB 2.0 10/100 Network Adapter on Windows RT. This is because Windows RT won’t recognize it automatically — Windows RT 8.1 lacks the plug and play IDs, and doesn’t provide a way to install INFs or 3rd party drivers to provide them after the fact. The full Intel/AMD version of Windows has none of these issues. So skip this post unless you’re on an ARM-based Windows tablet.

But for those with an ARM-based Surface or other Windows RT device running 8.1 — If you jump through a few hoops, you may find that the adapter does work just fine on RT, using binaries that are already on the system.

Windows RT puts devices it doesn’t recognize under the “Other devices” category in Device Manager. While the drivers exist on the machine to get ASIX 88772-based network adapters working, the operating system can’t figure that out on it’s own. What it needs is to be force-fed the correct ASIX driver. The following slideshow with screenshots details that process.

[slideshow_deploy id=’11977′] (Click the right arrow to navigate through the slideshow)

As a side note, this same process works with the USB2-MICRO-200X. The only differences are the following:

6mIn step 6 “Imaging devices” needs to be selected instead of “Network adapter”
7mIn step 7 the manufacturer is “Microsoft” and the model is “USB Video Device”.

Have any questions or tips for other users with RT devices? Feel free to comment below. Thanks!