Detailed description of Stream.sys
For what its worth, here is a detailed description of
stream.sys from
IUTools:
"Stream.sys is also known as WDM CODEC Class Device Driver 2.0. It is a driver file produced by Microsoft Corporation and is part of Microsoft(R) Windows(R) Operating System. WDM is short for the Windows Driver Model (WDM) and is otherwise called the Win32 Driver Model.
"WDM is a platform that was preinstalled with Windows 98 and Windows 2000 in order to replace VxD for device drivers, because VxD was only available for older versions of Windows such as Windows 95 and Windows 3.1, as well as the Windows NT Driver Model. WDM drivers have layers of a complex hierarchy and interact with each other via I/O request packets (IRPs). The Microsoft Windows Driver Model standardized requirements and reduced the amount of code that required to be programmed. Because of WDM, driver models became consistent for the Windows 98 and Windows 2000 product lines.
"WDM drivers feature forward compatibility for a newer version of Windows. That means the driver will fail to leverage any new features included in the new version. On the whole, WDM drivers are not backward compatible with earlier versions of operating systems than Windows 98 or Windows 2000, namely, a WDM driver is not surely able to work for any older version of Windows. WDM was designed to enhance the functionality and convenience of compiling drivers for Windows. WDM was primarily created to be compatible with binary source from Windows 98 to Windows 2000.
"Stream.sys is not only related to WDM drivers which have the types of Device function drivers, Class drivers, Miniport drivers and so on, but also includes the concept and functions for a codec. A codec is program that is applied to compress or decompress a digital media file, such as a song or video. Codecs have been implemented in Windows Media Player and other programs to play and generate digital media files. The codec can make up of two parts: an encoder and a decoder capable of encoding or decoding a digital data stream or signal."
That site also lists common stream.sys errors and solutions.