Manual Installation

The YubiKey Minidriver can be downloaded directly from the Yubico website and distributed and installed manually by anyone with administrator rights on the computer. The YubiKey Minidriver software is available both as an MSI installer for 32 and 64 bit systems, and as a CAB file.

MSI File Install

The MSI Installer is the preferred method of manually installing the YubiKey Minidriver.

Note

The MSI installer automatically looks for and uninstalls previously installed YubiKey Smart Card driver versions from CAB, Windows Update, and an earlier Windows installer package.

  1. Download the YubiKey Minidriver, available as an .msi file:
    1. Go to Windows Smart Card Applications and Tools.
    2. Scroll down the page to YubiKey Smart Card Minidriver (Windows).
    3. Select the 32 or 64 bit installer as appropriate for the environment it is installed on.
  2. Locate and double-click on YubiKey-Minidriver MSI Windows Installer.
  3. Follow the prompts to install the driver. If prompted, restart your computer.

Command Line MSI Install

The YubiKey Minidriver MSI can also be installed via command line interface (CLI) using the msiexec command.

In the following examples, the version number, 4.6.3.252, is an example. The actual number changes as downloads are updated.

Basic

The basic CLI install command is:

msiexec /i YubiKey-Minidriver-4.6.3.252-x64.msi

Unattended

To install in unattended mode with no user interaction required, include the /passive flag:

msiexec /i YubiKey-Minidriver-4.6.3.252-x64.msi /passive

Quiet

To install in quiet mode with no user interaction or dialog, use the /quiet flag:

msiexec /i YubiKey-Minidriver-4.6.3.252-x64.msi /quiet

Remote

When deploying the YubiKey Minidriver to remote servers where the YubiKey cannot be physically inserted:

Installing the MSI with the Legacy Node option enabled on servers prevents the “Smart Card Logon Over RDP Fails with Requested Key Container is not Available” error.

Create a legacy node for loading the YubiKey Minidriver. To do this, install the YubiKey Minidriver with the INSTALL_LEGACY_NODE=1 option set:

msiexec /i YubiKey-Minidriver-4.6.3.252-x64.msi INSTALL_LEGACY_NODE=1 /quiet

CAB File Install

Installing the YubiKey Minidriver via CAB file is suggested in cases where installing via the MSI installer is prohibited. We recommend removing previous version(s) of the YubiKey Minidriver prior to installing the latest version via the CAB file.

Note

Earlier versions of the YubiKey Minidriver are not automatically removed when installing via the CAB file.

  1. Download the CAB file for the YubiKey Minidriver:

    1. Go to Smart card drivers and tools.
    2. Scroll down the page to YubiKey Smart Card Minidriver (Windows).

  2. Extract the downloaded CAB file to your preferred location.

    This can simply be done via the CLI using the Expand command. For example, to extract the contents to the C:\ykmd directory, use the command:

    expand.exe yubikey-minidriver-4.6.3.252.cab -F:* C:\ykmd

    The version number, 4.6.3.252, is an example. The actual number changes as downloads are updated.

  3. Ensure no YubiKey is currently connected to your computer.

  4. Locate and right-click on ykmd.inf and select Install.

  5. Follow the prompts to install the driver. If prompted, restart your computer.