Uno on XP - Driver Install for Multiple Boards?

Development Tools IDE 1.x
1

I'm having some difficulty with the driver for the Uno on Windows XP. I have multiple boards, and the first time I connect a different board, pops up the "Found new hardware" wizard, and wants to install the driver again, and if i go through that, it assigns it the next highest COM port number. Is there any way to do the driver install just once, and have it work with multiple identical boards?

This is a problem because I'm using them in a classroom where I have many students and boards sharing the computers, but the students do not have privileges to install drivers. I can install drivers, but I'd prefer to do it only once.

2

Sanddrag
No-one has answered you on this one.

Can you confirm that its not when plugged into a different USB port.

I went through this with an UNO that wouldn't work on Win2K, and hence worked out what was going on in both 2k and XP.
What I found windows does is here Something else (where's the Arduino, should I call him Waldo???) - #23 by system - IDE 1.x - Arduino Forum
In theory the machine finding new hardware should recognise it, and use the same driver that's already installed.

I believe there may be some later boards that have a different VID/PID number, which will look for a different driver.

Mark