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What's new in driver development for

Windows 11, version 22H2
Article • 08/27/2022

This section describes new features and updates for driver development in Windows 11,
version 22H2.

ACPI
The ACPI documentation has been updated with new _OSI string information for
Windows 11, version 22H2.

How to Identify the Windows Version in ACPI by Using _OSI (Updated)

Audio
To improve reliability and debuggability new Windows 11 APIs for Audio
Processing Objects are available.
Windows 11 provides additional capabilities with the use of resource groups and
these are now discussed Audio Hardware Resource Management.
Audio experience for these devices can be optimized for specific device postures,
such as when a device is held in portrait mode. This is described in Supporting
Audio Posture.
KSStudio documentation is now available on line at KsStudio Utility.

Camera and streaming media drivers

The camera driver documentation has been updated with information on background
segmentation and eye gaze modes available in Windows 11, version 22H2.

Background segmentation portrait mode and eye gaze stare mode driver sample
(New)
KSPROPERTY_CAMERACONTROL_EXTENDED_BACKGROUNDSEGMENTATION
(Updated)
KSPROPERTY_CAMERACONTROL_EXTENDED_EYEGAZECORRECTION (Updated)
USB Video Class (UVC) camera implementation guide (Updated)

Driver security
 New code scanning CodeQL rules and updated installation directions, are now
available. For more information, see CodeQL and the Static Tools Logo Test.

File system and filter drivers

The ability to do trusted kernel-mode file copy was introduced in Windows 11, version
22H2. This feature includes the ability for filters to easily detect copy scenarios.

Mobile broadband
Windows 11, version 22H2 introduces the following mobile broadband features:

MBIM Extensions Release number 4.0 (MBIMEx 4.0) introduces support for 5G SA
Phase 2 features. The 5G SA Phase 2 feature set includes support for end-to-end
URSP handling and multiple concurrent eMBB network slices.

MBIMEx 4.0 introduces access to an eSIM in the inactive SIM slot.

An errata for MBIMEx 3.0 updates the original MBIMEx 3.0 specification.

Print device apps

The Print support app (PSA) design guide has been updated with information about new
PSA functionality available starting in Windows 11, version 22H2.

Display name localization and PDL Passthrough API integration

Page level feature support and operation attributes
Enhancing the print dialog with PSA
PDL conversion with host-based processing flags
Set Print Device Capabilities (PDC) update policy

Provisioning support for loading pre-

production drivers
How to test pre-production drivers with Secure Boot enabled

Windows Debugging Tools

Debugging Tools for Windows supports kernel debugging over a network cable
using multiple Physical Functions (PFs) on the supported NICs. This approach
 improves efficiency of debugging, particularly in traffic heavy cloud environments.
For more information see, Setting Up 2PF Kernel-Mode Debugging using KDNET.
A new low level OS independent debugger transport – EXDI is described in
Configuring the EXDI Debugger Transport. This transport can connect to virtualized
environments such as QEMU, this is described in Setting Up QEMU Kernel-Mode
Debugging using EXDI.
AppVerifier test content is now updated and the documentation is now available
online – Application Verifier - Overview.

WPP Recorder
Drivers can add timestamps to Inflight Trace Recorder (IFR) log entries. Timestamps can
specify millisecond or tenth of a microsecond granularity.

Inflight Trace Recorder

WPP_RECORDER_TRI_STATE enumeration
RECORDER_LOG_CREATE_PARAMS structure
WppRecorderLogCreate macro (wpprecorder.h)

Related Topics
For information on what was new for drivers in past Windows releases, see the following
pages:

Driver development changes for Windows 11, version 21H2

Driver development changes for Windows Server 2022
Driver development changes for Windows 10, version 2004
Driver development changes for Windows 10, version 1903

Back to Top
What's new in driver development for
Windows 11, version 21H2
Article • 05/24/2022

This section describes new features and updates for driver development in Windows 11,
version 21H2.

Camera
Digital Window overview
Privacy shutter notification
Create device property keys from the MS OS descriptor in USB Video Class (UVC)
firmware
Microsoft extensions to USB Video Class 1.5 specification (Updated)
Network camera design guide (Updated)

HID
Use Human Interface Device (HID) class devices over a Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI)
bus.

Introduction to HID over SPI

Architecture and overview for HID over the SPI transport
Plug and Play support for HID over SPI
HID over SPI power management
Error handling for HID over SPI

New API pages:

hidspicx.h header
EVT_HIDSPICX_NOTIFY_POWERDOWN
EVT_HIDSPICX_RESETDEVICE
HIDSPICX_DEVICE_CONFIG
HIDSPICX_REPORT
HidSpiCxDeviceConfigure
HidSpiCxDeviceInitConfig
HidSpiCxNotifyDeviceReset

Print devices
 Print support app design guide
Print support app association

Related Topics
For information on what was new for drivers in past Windows releases, see the following
pages:

Driver development changes for Windows 11

Driver development changes for Windows Server 2022
Driver development changes for Windows 10, version 2004
Driver development changes for Windows 10, version 1903

Back to Top
What's new in Windows Server 2022
Article • 05/20/2022

This section describes new features and updates for driver development in Windows
Server 2022.

Kernel

DMA/MDL updates
New API pages:

PCREATE_COMMON_BUFFER_FROM_MDL callback function

DMA_COMMON_BUFFER_EXTENDED_CONFIGURATION_TYPE enumeration
DMA_COMMON_BUFFER_EXTENDED_CONFIGURATION_ACCESS_TYPE
enumeration
DMA_COMMON_BUFFER_EXTENDED_CONFIGURATION structure

Updated:

DMA_OPERATIONS structure (new field CreateCommonBufferFromMdl)

NUMA (Non-Uniform Memory Access)

New API pages:

KeQueryNodeActiveAffinity2
KeQueryNodeActiveProcessorCount

Updated:

KeQueryNodeActiveAffinity
xKeQueryLogicalProcessorRelationship

NetAdapterCx
The new NetAdapterCx platform-level device reset (PLDR) feature provides an
effective way to reset and recover malfunctioning network devices without
rebooting the system.

NetAdapterCx support for the following hardware offloads has been updated:
 Checksum offload

Generic send offload (GSO)

Receive Segment Coalescing (RSC)

Networking
New network driver documentation and features include:

The new NDIS packet timestamping feature supports the hardware timestamping
capability of a network interface card (NIC) for the Precision Time Protocol (PTP)
version 2.

The new NDIS Poll Mode feature is an OS controlled polling execution model that
drives the network interface datapath.

The Virtual Machine Multiple Queues (VMMQ) NIC offload technology extends
Native RSS (RSSv1) to a Hyper-V virtual environment.

Windows Driver Frameworks (WDF)

In Windows Server 2022, the Windows Driver Framework (WDF) includes Kernel-Mode
Driver Framework (KMDF) version 1.33 and User-Mode Driver Framework (UMDF)
version 2.33.

For info on what's included in these framework versions, see What's New for WDF
Drivers in Windows 10.
To see what was added in previous versions of WDF, see:

KMDF Version History

UMDF Version History

Debugger
For information on what is new on the WinDbg Preview debugger, see WinDbg Preview
- What's New. Highlights include:

Portable PDB Symbols support.

Support for Open Enclave debugging- WinDbg Preview can now debug Open
Enclave (OE) applications.
For user mode time travel debugging, a new timeline window displays a visual
representation of important events in your trace: exceptions, breakpoints, function
 calls, and memory accesses. For more information, see WinDbg Preview - Timeline.

Updates and addtions to debug transport topics, such as Setting Up KDNET Network
Kernel Debugging Automatically, Setting Up Kernel-Mode Debugging over USB EEM on
an Arm device using KDNET and Setting Up 2PF Kernel-Mode Debugging using KDNET.

Bugcheck stop code topic addtions and updates, including listing live dump codes in a
new section -
Kernel Live Dump Code Reference.

Driver Quality
New CodeQL and the Static Tools Logo Test and Supplemental Windows Driver CodeQL
Queries.

Updates and additions to Driver Verfier rules, for example the new DoubleFetch rule.

Driver Security
Updates to the Driver Security Checklist.

Audio
Updated and new topics including:

Default Audio Endpoint Selection Starting in Windows 10

Multiple Voice Assistant
Voice Activation
Low Latency Audio

New online help for the KsStudio Utility.

What's new in Windows 10, version 2004
Article • 12/15/2021

This section describes new features and updates for driver development in Windows 10,
version 2004 (Windows 10 May 2020 Update).

Windows Drivers
Windows 10, version 2004 is a transition release for universal drivers. In this release,
universal drivers still exist, but are being replaced by Windows Drivers. A Windows
Driver is a universal driver with a few additional requirements.

Windows Drivers are distinguished from Windows Desktop Drivers. While Windows
Drivers run on all Windows editions, Windows Desktop Drivers run only on Windows 10
Desktop editions.

No changes are required to universal drivers for the version 2004 release, but
documentation is available now so that you can plan ahead for upcoming changes.

For information about how to build, install, deploy, and debug a Windows Driver, see
Getting Started with Windows Drivers.

Windows Hardware Error Architecture (WHEA)

WHEA includes a new interface (v2). For info about how to register as an error source
and report errors, see Using WHEA on Windows 10.

Display and Graphics Drivers

Several new and enhanced display and graphics driver features are available in Windows
10, version 2004, including D3D12 mesh shader support, sampler support, raytracing
extensions, video motion estimation, and video protected resources support. See What's
New for Windows 10 Display and Graphics Drivers for more details about these new
features.

Storage Drivers
A storage miniport driver can now get and set more information about a device's
internal state, including the ability to reset a device. See
IOCTL_STORAGE_GET_DEVICE_INTERNAL_LOG and StorPortHardwareReset as good
starting points.

Windows Debugger

WinDbg Preview

Updates to WinDbg Preview to cover new features such as WinDbg Preview - Timelines.
Time travel timelines allows for the visualization of time travel code execution traces.

Stop Codes
Updates to the Bug Check Code Reference topics and the addition of new
parameters to topics such as Bug Check 0x1A: MEMORY_MANAGEMENT and Bug
Check 0xC4: DRIVER_VERIFIER_DETECTED_VIOLATION.

New stop codes such as Bug Check 0x1DA:

HAL_BLOCKED_PROCESSOR_INTERNAL_ERROR, Bug Check 0x1A2:
WIN32K_CALLOUT_WATCHDOG_BUGCHECK and Bug Check 0x119:
VIDEO_SCHEDULER_INTERNAL_ERROR.

Driver Security
Updates to the Driver security checklist to use the BinSkim tool.

Deprecated features
The following table describes Windows driver development features that have been
removed in Windows 10.

Driver Feature Deprecated

technology in

GNSS/Location Geolocation driver sample for Windows 8.1 and related Windows
documentation 10, version
1709

Mobile Operator AllowStandardUserPinUnlock Windows

Scenarios 10, version
(Networking) 1709
Driver Feature Deprecated
technology in

Scan/Image WSD (Web Services for Devices) Challenger functionality and Windows
related documentation 10, version
1709

Mobile Operators Mobile broadband app experience apps with Sysdev Windows
metadata packages are deprecated in favor of MO UWP APPS 10, version
and COSA. 1803
What's new in Windows 10, version 1903
Article • 12/15/2021

This section describes new features and updates for driver development in Windows 10,
version 1903 (Windows 10 April 2019 Update).

Audio
The following is a list of new and updated Audio features in Windows 10, version 1903:

New reference topics on the Audio OEM Adapter used for Voice Activation in the
new eventdetectoroemadapter.h header.

New Far Field Audio information:

PKEY_Devices_AudioDevice_Microphone_IsFarField
KSPROPSETID_InterleavedAudio
KSPROPERTY_INTERLEAVEDAUDIO_FORMATINFORMATION

New jack description information in USB Audio 2.0 Drivers.

Camera
New Camera driver documentation and features added in Windows 10, version 1903
include:

New IR Torch extended property control to set an IR camera's infrared torch power
level and duty cycle.
New KSCATEGORY_NETWORK_CAMERA device.
New and updated USB Video Class (UVC) 1.5 extension documentation for the
following control selectors:
MSXU_CONTROL_FACE_AUTHENTICATION
MSXU_CONTROL_METADATA
MSUX_CONTROL_IR_TORCH

Debugging
Changes to the Debugger for Windows 10, version 1903 include the following:

New stop codes were added to allow better tracking on unique failure types in the
Windows operating system. In addition a number of existing bug check topics
 were expanded and updated. For more information, see Bug Check Code
Reference.

Updates to KDNET topics to improve ease of use, for example in new Setting Up
KDNET Network Kernel Debugging Automatically

Updates to IP V6 KDNET support.

New JavaScript Debugging topic

Display
Updates to Display driver development in Windows 10, version 1903 include the
following:

Super Wet Ink New DDIs were added to enable front buffer rendering. See
D3DWDDM2_6DDI_SCANOUT_FLAGS and
PFND3DWDDM2_6DDI_PREPARE_SCANOUT_TRANSFORMATION.

Variable Rate Shading Enables allocation of rendering performance/power at

varying rates across rendered images. See
PFND3D12DDI_RS_SET_SHADING_RATE_0062 and
D3D12DDI_SHADING_RATE_0062.

Collect Diagnostic Info Allows the OS to collect a private data from drivers for
graphics adapters which consist of both rendering and display functions. See
DXGKDDI_COLLECTDIAGNOSTICINFO.

Background Processing Allows user mode drivers to express desired threading

behavior, and the runtime to control/monitor it. User mode drivers would spin up
background threads and assign the threads as low a priority as possible, and rely
on the NT scheduler to ensure these threads don’t disrupt the critical-path threads,
generally with success. See PFND3D12DDI_QUEUEPROCESSINGWORK_CB_0062.

Driver Hot Update Reduce server downtime as much as possible when an OS

component needs to be updated. See DXGKDDI_SAVEMEMORYFORHOTUPDATE
and DXGKDDI_RESTOREMEMORYFORHOTUPDATE.

Networking

NetAdapterCx
In the NetAdapter WDF class extension (NetAdapterCx), Net ring buffers have been
replaced by Net rings, which have a new interface for sending and receiving network
data using net ring iterators. The following is a list of new topics:

Introduction to net rings

Sending network data with net rings with a new animation that illustrates how to
send data
Receiving network data with net rings with a new animation that illustrates how to
receive data
Canceling network data with net rings

New headers that support this feature include the following:

Ring.h
Ringcollection.h
Netringiterator.h

The following is a list of NetAdapterCx content updates:

Default adapter objects have been removed in favor of a single adapter object
type. The following topics have been updated accordingly:
Summary of NetAdapterCx objects
Device and adapter initialization

Hardware offload and packet extension DDIs have been reorganized into new
headers:
Checksum.h
Checksumtypes.h
Extension.h
Rsc.h
Rsctypes.h

Fundamental networking data structures, packets and fragments, have been

updated and put into new headers:
Packet.h
Fragment.h

Overhauled Transmit and receive queues topic to include callback samples and
major operations for packet queues.

Mobile operator scenarios

New Mobile Plans content for mobile operators to sell plans to customers directly on
Windows 10 devices, through the Mobile Plans app:

Mobile Plans

Mobile broadband
The following features were added to Mobile broadband in Windows 10, version 1903:

New SIM card (UICC) file/application system access feature

New Cellular Time Information (NITZ) feature.
New modem logging with DSS feature.
New 5G data class support feature.

Power Management Framework

The power management framework (PoFx) enables a driver to define one or more sets
of individually adjustable performance states for individual components within a device.
The driver can use performance states to throttle a component's workload to provide
just enough performance for its current needs. For more information, see Component-
Level Performance State Management.

Windows 10, version 1903 includes support for the Directed Power Management
Framework (DFx). Related reference documentation includes the following:

PO_FX_DEVICE_V3
PO_FX_DIRECTED_POWER_DOWN_CALLBACK callback function
PO_FX_DIRECTED_POWER_UP_CALLBACK callback function
PoFxCompleteDirectedPowerDown function

For information about testing for DFx, please see the following pages:

Directed FX Single Device Test

Directed FX System Verification Test
PwrTest DirectedFx Scenario

Print
New Print driver documentation and features added in Windows 10, version 1903
include:

New USB print IOCTLs:

 IOCTL_USBPRINT_GET_INTERFACE_TYPE
IOCTL_USBPRINT_GET_PROTOCOL
IOCTL_USBPRINT_SET_PROTOCOL

New fpRegeneratePrintDeviceCapabilities PRINTPROVIDER structure member and

updated documentation.

Sensors
New features in sensor driver development in Windows 10, version 1903 include a MALT
(Microsoft Ambient Light Tool) tool for testing and calibrating screen brightness.

There were also updates to the Ambient Color OEM whitepaper.

Storage
The following Storage features were added in Windows 10, version 1903:

New Storport APIs for logging device failure and hardware protocol errors in ETW
events and to query for platform D3 desired behavior
New API to set the properties of a storage device or adapter
For file systems, new DDIs were added to support retrieving extended attributes
(EA) information upon create completion, allowing mini-filters to alter the ECP
payload to change what higher filters see

Windows Driver Frameworks (WDF)

In Windows 10, version 1903, the Windows Driver Framework (WDF) includes Kernel-
Mode Driver Framework (KMDF) version 1.29 and User-Mode Driver Framework (UMDF)
version 2.29.

For info on what's included in these framework versions, see What's New for WDF
Drivers in Windows 10.
To see what was added in previous versions of WDF, see KMDF
Version History and UMDF Version History.

Windows Hardware Error Architecture (WHEA)

Windows 10, version 1903 includes a simplified interface to WHEA. For more info, see
the following pages:

Using WHEA on Windows 10

 WheaAddErrorSourceDeviceDriver
WheaReportHwErrorDeviceDriver
WheaRemoveErrorSourceDeviceDriver
WHEA_ERROR_SOURCE_CONFIGURATION_DEVICE_DRIVER
WHEA_ERROR_SOURCE_UNINITIALIZE_DEVICE_DRIVER
WHEA_ERROR_SOURCE_INITIALIZE_DEVICE_DRIVER

Wi-fi
New Wi-fi driver development documentation and features include:

New Fine Timing Measurement (FTM) feature

New WPA3-SAE Authentication feature
New Multiband Operation (MBO) support to improve roaming performance in
enterprise scenarios
New beacon report offloading support
For OID commands, NDIS status indications, and TLVs for these new features, see
WDI doc change history

The following topics were updated for Windows 10, version 1903:

WDI_AUTH_ALGORITHM - added support for WPA3-SAE authentication

OID_WDI_TASK_P2P_SEND_REQUEST_ACTION_FRAME and
OID_WDI_TASK_P2P_SEND_RESPONSE_ACTION_FRAME - added additional
validation of outgoing Point to Point (P2P) action frames
Download the Windows Driver Kit
(WDK)
Article • 06/06/2023

７ Note

Make sure to use Visual Studio 17.4.1 or newer. Specifically, driver debugging
within Visual Studio does not work from Visual Studio 17.2.0 up until 17.4.1. For
more info, see WDK Known Issues.

The WDK is used to develop, test, and deploy drivers for Windows.

Learn what's new in driver development

Review known issues

Join the Windows Insider Program to get WDK Insider Preview builds . For
installation instructions for the Windows Insider Preview builds, see Installing preview
versions of the Windows Driver Kit (WDK).

Starting with the Windows 11, version 22H2 release of the WDK and EWDK, the kits
support:

Visual Studio 2022 exclusively

Building and testing kernel-mode drivers for x64 and Arm64
Building and testing drivers for Windows 10, Windows Server 2016 and later client
and server versions
Side by side (SxS) support with previous WDK/EWDK

Multiple WDKs and EWDKs can be installed concurrently on the same computer and
even be part of same build system. You can run the Windows 11, version 22H2 WDK on
Windows 7 and later.

To target Windows 8.1, Windows 8, and Windows 7, install an older WDK and an older
version of Visual Studio either on the same machine or on a separate machine. For links
to older kits, see Other WDK downloads.

Certain device-specific stacks (for example graphics) continue to have x86/ARM32 user-
mode components to support x86/ARM32 apps.

Starting with this release, WDF redistributable co-installers are no longer supported. To
learn how to work around this change, see WDK Known Issues.
Download and install the Windows 11, version
22H2 WDK

Step 1: Install Visual Studio 2022

The WDK requires Visual Studio. For more information about system requirements for
Visual Studio, see Visual Studio 2022 System Requirements.

The following editions of Visual Studio 2022 support driver development for this release:

Download Visual Studio Community 2022

Download Visual Studio Professional 2022
Download Visual Studio Enterprise 2022

When you install Visual Studio 2022, select the Desktop development with C++
workload. The Windows 11, version 22H2 Software Development Kit (SDK) that is
compatible with the Windows 11, version 22H2 WDK is not included in Visual Studio.
Please use the SDK download link in step 2 below.

WDK has Spectre mitigation enabled by default but requires Spectre mitigated libraries
to be installed with Visual Studio for each architecture you are developing for.
Additionally, developing drivers for Arm/Arm64/Arm64EC require the build tools for
these architectures to also be installed with Visual Studio. To locate these items, you will
need to know the latest version of MSVC installed on your system.

To find the latest version of MSVC installed on your system, in Visual Studio Installer go
to workload page, on the right pane under installation details, expand Desktop
development with C++ and locate the MSVC v143 - VS 2022 C++ x64/x86 build tools
(Latest).

With this information (Latest), go to Individual components and search for Latest. This
will return the tool sets for all architectures, including Spectre mitigated libs. Select the
driver architecture you are developing for.

For example, searching for Latest returns the following:

Console

MSVC v143 - VS 2022 C++ Arm build tools (Latest)

MSVC v143 - VS 2022 C++ Arm Spectre-mitigated libs (Latest)

MSVC v143 - VS 2022 C++ Arm64 build tools (Latest)

MSVC v143 - VS 2022 C++ Arm64 Spectre-mitigated libs (Latest)

 MSVC v143 - VS 2022 C++ Arm64EC build tools (Latest - experimental)

MSVC v143 - VS 2022 C++ Arm64EC Spectre-mitigated libs (Latest -

experimental)

MSVC v143 - VS 2022 C++ x64/x86 build tools (Latest)

MSVC v143 - VS 2022 C++ x64/x86 Spectre-mitigated libs (Latest)

Step 2: Install Windows 11, version 22H2 SDK

Download Windows 11, version 22H2 SDK

This SDK must be installed separately until available through Visual Studio

Step 3: Install Windows 11, version 22H2 WDK

Download WDK for Windows 11, version 22H2

The WDK Visual Studio extension is included in the default WDK installation.

 Tip

If you can't find driver project templates in Visual Studio, the WDK Visual Studio
extension didn't install properly. To resolve this, run the WDK.vsix file from this
location: C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows
Kits\10\Vsix\VS2022\10.0.22621.382\WDK.vsix.

Enterprise WDK (EWDK)

As an alternative to downloading Visual Studio, the SDK, and the WDK, you can
download the EWDK, which is a standalone, self-contained command-line environment
for building drivers. It includes Visual Studio Build Tools, the SDK, and the WDK.

You can also use the Visual Studio interface with the build tools provided in the EWDK.

The latest public version of the EWDK contains Visual Studio 2022 Build Tools 17.1.5 and
MSVC toolset v14.31.

The EWDK also requires the .NET Framework version 4.7.2. For more information about
other requirements for the .NET Framework, see .NET Framework system requirements.
 Windows 11, version 22H2 (updated May 2023)
EWDK with Visual Studio Build Tools
Download the Windows 11, version 22H2 (updated May 2023) EWDK

Once you have downloaded the ISO, use these steps to set up your build environment:

1. Mount the EWDK ISO.

2. Run LaunchBuildEnv.cmd .
3. In the environment created in step 2, type SetupVSEnv, and then press Enter.
4. Launch devenv.exe from the same environment, using the full file path. For
example: "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual
Studio\2022\%Community|Professional|Enterprise%\Common7\IDE\devenv.exe"

5. When you're done with the build environment, you may want to eject the ISO.

Note that the Visual Studio major version should match with the version in the EWDK.
For example, Visual Studio 2022 works with the EWDK that contain VS17.X build tools.
For a list of Visual Studio 2022 version numbers, see Visual Studio 2022 Releases.

Driver samples for Windows

To download the driver samples, do one of the following:

Go to the driver samples page on GitHub , click Clone or download, and then
click Download ZIP.
Download the GitHub Extension for Visual Studio , and then connect to the
GitHub repositories.
Browse the driver samples on the Microsoft Samples portal.

Related downloads
Download the WDK Insider Preview
Download previous versions of the WDK
Download the Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit (Windows ADK)
Download the Windows HLK
Download the Windows Debugging Tools (WinDbg)
Download Windows Symbol Packages

See also
Windows 11 hardware requirements
Installing preview versions of the
Windows Driver Kit (WDK)
Article • 05/31/2022

This page contains installation instructions for Insider Preview (pre-release) versions of
the Windows Driver Kit (WDK). The download links for the latest pre-release version of
the WDK and the EWDK are on https://www.microsoft.com/software-
download/windowsinsiderpreviewWDK .

Install Windows Driver Kit (WDK) Insider

Preview

1. Install Visual Studio

The WDK now supports Visual Studio 2022. All editions are supported. The WDK
no longer supports Visual Studio 2019.
Download from Visual Studio 2022.
Select workload: Development with C++.
For Arm64 and Arm64EC drivers, you must additionally install the component:
Individual components -> Compilers, build tools, and runtimes -> Visual C++
compilers and libraries for Arm64/Arm64EC. Note that the WDK has Spectre
mitigation enabled by default but requires Spectre mitigated libraries to be
installed with Visual Studio for each architecture you are developing for.

2. Disable strong name validation

The WDK Visual Studio Extensions are currently not strong name signed. Run the
following commands from an elevated command prompt to disable strong name
validation:

C++

reg add
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\StrongName\Verification\*,31bf3856ad36
4e35 /v TestPublicKey /t REG_SZ /d
00240000048000009400000006020000002400005253413100040000010001003f8c902c8fe7
ac83af7401b14c1bd103973b26dfafb2b77eda478a2539b979b56ce47f36336741b4ec52bbc5
1fecd51ba23810cec47070f3e29a2261a2d1d08e4b2b4b457beaa91460055f78cc89f21cd028
377af0cc5e6c04699b6856a1e49d5fad3ef16d3c3d6010f40df0a7d6cc2ee11744b5cfb42e0f
19a52b8a29dc31b0 /f

 reg add
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\StrongName\Verification\*,
31bf3856ad364e35 /v TestPublicKey /t REG_SZ /d
00240000048000009400000006020000002400005253413100040000010001003f8c902c8fe7
ac83af7401b14c1bd103973b26dfafb2b77eda478a2539b979b56ce47f36336741b4ec52bbc5
1fecd51ba23810cec47070f3e29a2261a2d1d08e4b2b4b457beaa91460055f78cc89f21cd028
377af0cc5e6c04699b6856a1e49d5fad3ef16d3c3d6010f40df0a7d6cc2ee11744b5cfb42e0f
19a52b8a29dc31b0 /f

3. Install SDK Insider Preview

Get SDK Insider Preview

4. Install WDK Insider Preview

Get WDK Insider Preview

７ Note

During installation you will see the Visual Studio installer install the WDK Visual
Studio Extensions.

Install Enterprise WDK (EWDK) Insider Preview

As an alternative to the above steps, the EWDK is a standalone self-contained
command-line environment for building drivers that includes Build Tools for Visual
Studio 2022. See more at Installing the Enterprise WDK.

Get the Enterprise Windows Driver Kit (EWDK) Insider Preview

To get started, disable strong name validation by running the following commands from
an elevated command prompt:

Console

reg add
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\StrongName\Verification\*,31bf3856ad36
4e35 /v TestPublicKey /t REG_SZ /d
00240000048000009400000006020000002400005253413100040000010001003f8c902c8fe7
ac83af7401b14c1bd103973b26dfafb2b77eda478a2539b979b56ce47f36336741b4ec52bbc5
1fecd51ba23810cec47070f3e29a2261a2d1d08e4b2b4b457beaa91460055f78cc89f21cd028
377af0cc5e6c04699b6856a1e49d5fad3ef16d3c3d6010f40df0a7d6cc2ee11744b5cfb42e0f
19a52b8a29dc31b0 /f

 reg add
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\StrongName\Verification\*,
31bf3856ad364e35 /v TestPublicKey /t REG_SZ /d
00240000048000009400000006020000002400005253413100040000010001003f8c902c8fe7
ac83af7401b14c1bd103973b26dfafb2b77eda478a2539b979b56ce47f36336741b4ec52bbc5
1fecd51ba23810cec47070f3e29a2261a2d1d08e4b2b4b457beaa91460055f78cc89f21cd028
377af0cc5e6c04699b6856a1e49d5fad3ef16d3c3d6010f40df0a7d6cc2ee11744b5cfb42e0f
19a52b8a29dc31b0 /f

Then mount the ISO that you downloaded from the Insider Preview page and select
LaunchBuildEnv to use the EWDK.
Other WDK downloads
Article • 06/21/2023

The Windows Driver Kit (WDK) is used to develop, test, and deploy Windows Drivers.
This topic contains information about earlier versions of the Windows Driver Kit (WDK),
Enterprise WDK (EWDK), and additional downloads for support purposes. To develop
drivers,
use the latest public versions of the Windows Driver Kit (WDK) and tools,
available for
download on Download the Windows Driver Kit (WDK).

To use these earlier versions, you must first install the version of
Visual Studio that is
appropriate for your targeted platform.

Runtime requirements
You can run the Windows 10 WDK versions (including the WDK for Windows Server
2022) on Windows 7 and later, to develop drivers for the following operating systems:

Client OS Server OS

Windows 11, version 21H2 Windows Server 2022

Windows 10 Windows Server 2019, Windows Server 2016

Windows 8.1 Windows Server 2012 R2

Windows 8 Windows Server 2012

Windows 7 Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1

Step 1: Install Visual Studio

The WDK requires Visual Studio. For more information about system requirements for
Visual Studio, see Visual Studio 2019 System Requirements.

７ Note

Visual Studio 2022 is not supported by the Windows 11, version 21H2 WDK. To use
Visual Studio 2022 to develop and test drivers, download the Windows 11, version
22H2 WDK. For details, see Download the Windows Driver Kit (WDK).
The following table indicates which Visual Studio version is required for the different
releases of the WDK.

Targeted versions of Windows Edition(s) of Visual Studio

Windows 11, version 21H2

Visual Studio Community 2019

Windows Server 2022

Visual Studio Professional 2019
Windows 10, version 2004
Visual Studio Enterprise 2019
Windows 10, version 1903

Windows 10, version 1809

Visual Studio Community 2017

Windows 10, version 1803

Visual Studio Professional 2017
Windows 10, version 1709 Visual Studio Enterprise 2017

Windows 10, version 1703

Visual Studio Express 2015 for Desktop

Windows 10, version 1607 Visual Studio Community 2015

Visual Studio Professional 2015

Visual Studio Enterprise 2015

Windows 8.1 Update

Visual Studio 2013
Windows 8.1

Windows 8 Visual Studio Professional 2012

Visual Studio Ultimate 2012

Configure Visual Studio for Windows 11, version 21H2 and

Windows 10, versions 1709, 1803, 1809, 1903, 2004, and
Windows Server 2022
When you install Visual Studio, select the Desktop development with
C++ workload.
The Windows 10 Software Development Kit (SDK) is
automatically included and is
displayed in the right-hand Summary
pane.

To develop drivers for Arm/Arm64, choose Individual components and

under
Compilers, build tools, and runtimes select Visual C++
compilers and libraries for
Arm/Arm64.

Install the Windows SDK to target Windows 10, versions

1607 and 1703
If your development targets systems that run Windows 10, version 1607 or Windows 10,
version 1703, you should install Visual Studio 2015, and then also download and install
the version of the Windows SDK for the targeted version of Windows 10, as identified in
the following table.
 Targeted versions of Windows Version of Windows SDK

Windows 10, version 1703 Windows SDK for Windows 10.0.15063.468

Windows 10, version 1607 Windows SDK for Windows 10.0.14393.795

Windows 8.1 Windows SDK for Windows 8.1

Windows 8 Windows SDK for Windows 8

The Windows SDK was not included in Visual Studio 2015, so you must install the SDK
separately. Later versions of Visual Studio include the Windows SDK.

Step 2: Install the WDK

The WDK is integrated with Visual Studio and Debugging Tools for Windows
(WinDbg).
This integrated environment gives you the tools you need to
develop, build, package,
deploy, test, and debug drivers.

７ Note

Starting with Windows 10, version 1709, installing the WDK

will by default install
the WDK extensions for Visual Studio. These
extensions are required for integration
of the WDK with Visual Studio.

Targeted WDK and related downloads

versions of
Windows

Windows 11, Download the Windows Driver Kit (WDK)

version 22H2

Windows 11, Windows 11, version 21H2 WDK

version 21H2

Windows Server WDK for Windows Server 2022

2022
Targeted WDK and related downloads
versions of
Windows

Windows 10, WDK for Windows 10, version 2004

version 22H2

Windows 10,
version 21H2

Windows 10,
version 21H1

Windows 10,
version 20H2

Windows 10,
version 2004

Windows 10, WDK for Windows 10, version 1903

version 1909

Windows 10,
version 1903

Windows 10, WDK for Windows 10, version 1809

version 1809

Windows Server
2019

Windows 10, WDK for Windows 10, version 1803

version 1803

Windows 10, WDK for Windows 10, version 1709

version 1709

Windows 10, WDK for Windows 10, version 1703

version 1703

Windows 10, WDK for Windows 10, version 1607

version 1607

Windows 10,
version 1511

Windows 10,
version 1507

Windows Server
2016

Windows 8.1 WDK 8.1 Update (English only) - permanently unavailable

Update WDK 8.1 Update Test Pack (English only) - permanently unavailable

WDK 8.1 Samples

Note: You can use any WDK from Windows 10, version 1607 through
Windows 11, version 21H2 to build drivers for Windows 8.1.
 Targeted WDK and related downloads
versions of
Windows

Windows 7 WDK 7.1.0

Windows 8 WDK 8 (English only)

WDK 8 redistributable components (English only)

WDK 8 Samples

７ Note

Please review Hardware development kits for Windows 10, Version 2004
(10.19041.1) , which addresses a bug with ExAllocatePoolZero.

） Important

If you have installed the WDK for Windows 10, version 1703 on a system that had
the WDK for Windows 10, version 1607 installed, some files from the earlier version
of the WDK might have been removed. To restore these files:

1. On the Start menu, enter Apps & features in the search box, and select Apps
& features from the results.
2. Find Windows Driver Kit - Windows 10.0.15063.0 in the list of Apps &
Features, and then select the program.
3. Select Modify, select Repair, and then follow the directions on the screen.
4. The files will be restored.

Download previous versions of the EWDK

The Enterprise WDK (EWDK) is a standalone, self-contained, command-line environment
for
building drivers and basic Win32 test applications. It includes the
Visual Studio Build
Tools, the SDK, and the WDK. This environment
doesn't include all the features available
in Visual Studio, such as
the integrated development environment (IDE).

Using the EWDK requires .NET Framework 4.6.1. For more information about which
systems run this version of the framework, see .NET Framework system requirements.
For links to download the .NET Framework, see Install the .NET Framework for
developers.

For more information about the EWDK, see

Using the Enterprise WDK.
 Versions of Windows EWDK

Windows 11, version 21H2 Windows 11, version 21H2 EWDK

Windows Server 2022 EWDK for Windows Windows Server 2022

Windows 10, version 2004 EWDK for Windows 10, version 2004

Windows 10, version 1903 EWDK for Windows 10, version 1903

Windows 10, version 1809 EWDK for Windows 10, version 1809

Windows 10, version 1803 EWDK for Windows 10, version 1803

Windows 10, version 1709 EWDK for Visual Studio with Build Tools 15.6 (Recommended)

EWDK for Visual Studio with Build Tools 15.4

EWDK for Visual Studio with Build Tools 15.2

Windows 10, version 1703 EWDK for Windows 10, version 1703

７ Note

Starting in Windows 10 version 1709, the EWDK is ISO-based. To get started,

download and mount the ISO, and then run LaunchBuildEnv.

Optional: Install updated test certificates for

HAL extensions
To work with HAL Extensions, prepare your development system, running Windows 10,
version 1709 or a later version of Windows 10. Also install the WDK or the EWDK, and
then install the updated version of the Windows OEM HAL Extension Test Cert 2017
(TEST ONLY), available for download as a ZIP file: HAL_Extension_Test_Cert_2017.zip .

For more information about using this updated certificate, see Update for "Windows
OEM HAL Extension Test Cert 2017 (TEST ONLY)" test certificate on Windows Support.

Optional: Install WinDbg

WinDbg is the latest version of WinDbg with more modern visuals, faster windows, a
full-fledged scripting experience, built with the extensible debugger data model front
and center. Formerly known as WinDbg Preview, it supports Windows 10 and Windows
11.
For download links and more information about WinDbg, see Download and install the
WinDbg Windows debugger and Debugging Tools for Windows.

Standalone tools for debugging Windows XP

and Windows Vista
If you're debugging Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, or
Windows
Server 2008 (or using one of these operating systems to run
Debugging Tools for
Windows), you need to use the Windows 7 release of
the debugging tools. It's included
in the SDK for Windows 7 and .NET
Framework 4.0.

） Important

Newer versions of the Visual C++ 2010 Redistributable can cause

issues when you
install the SDK for Windows 7.

Get the standalone debugging tools for Windows XP by first downloading

the Windows
7 SDK:
Microsoft Windows SDK for Windows 7 and .NET Framework 4 .

To install the Debugging Tools for Windows as a standalone component,

start the SDK
installer, and in the installation wizard, select
Debugging Tools for Windows, and clear
all other components.

Related downloads
Download the Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit (Windows ADK)
Download the Windows HLK, HCK, or Logo Kit
Download the debugging Tools for Windows (WinDbg)
Download Windows Symbol Packages
Download the WDK Insider Preview
Windows Driver Kit (WDK) known issues
Article • 12/06/2022

This topic details known issues concerning the WDK.

WDK for Windows 11, version 22H2

Service error at startup

If you installed the original Windows 11, version 22H2 WDK between May and August
2022 (version 10.0.22621.1), you may see the following error message when you start
Visual Studio with the WDK.

The Microsoft.Windows.Tools.WinIDE.Debugger.DebuggerPackage, DebuggerPackage,

Version=10.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null package did not load

correctly.

This issue is fixed in WDK version 10.0.22621.382. You can uninstall the WDK and then
reinstall the latest WDK using the instructions in Download the Windows Driver Kit.

Debugger within Visual Studio doesn't work

It is not possible to debug drivers within the Visual Studio interface when using Visual
Studio 2022 version 17.2.0 and 17.3 with the Windows 11, version 22H2 WDK (version
10.0.22621.382). To work around the problem, do one of the following: update Visual
Studio to 17.4.1 or later, debug with WinDbg, or use a version of Visual Studio earlier
than 17.2.0. The following error message is related to this issue:

QueryBuildManagerBusyEx must be called on the UI.

WDF redistributable co-installers don't work

Starting with this release, WDF redistributable co-installers are no longer supported.
Specifically, on a computer that has both the Windows 11, version 22H2 WDK and an
older WDK, when building a WDF 1.11 driver, msbuild fails because it cannot find the
WDF coinstaller.

To fix this problem, before installing Windows 11, version 22H2 WDK, back up the folder
\Program files (x86)\windows kit\10\redist\wdf and restore it afterwards.
Alternatively, if you have already installed the Windows 11, version 22H2 WDK, install
the MSI file at WDK 8 redistributable components on a separate computer and copy
the redist folder to the above folder. For more information, see Redistributable
Framework Components.

WDK for Windows 10, version 2004

Issue in ExAllocatePoolZero, ExAllocatePoolQuotaZero,

and ExAllocatePoolPriorityZero functions FIXED
In May 2020, OSR discovered that the new down-level support for automatic zeroing
of pool allocations had an issue that could lead to an allocation not getting zero-
initialized on systems running Windows 10, version 1909. This has now been fixed with a
security refresh of the WDK for Windows 10, version 2004 and the Enterprise WDK
(EWDK) for Windows 10, version 2004 on Dec 16th. Microsoft took advantage of the
security refresh and updated the EWDK to include the Visual Studio build tools 16.7.
Microsoft recommends all driver developers uninstall the original SDK and WDK (version
2004) and install the refresh SDK and WDK or EWDK.

To ensure there was a complete security solution in place, an OS fix was released for
Windows 10, version 1909 in November, so if there was a driver created with the
security issue the OS would be protected from it.

In addition to downloading the updated WDK/EWDK, Microsoft recommends that all

drivers switch all kernel allocations to use the new pool zeroing DDIs which return
zeroed memory by default. This will increase driver security and reliability. In order to
help with this transition, Microsoft has created a Static Driver Verifier rule which is
available in preview Windows 10 WDK versions 20236 and above. The rule will identify
all instances in a driver’s source code where the old pool allocation DDIs are being used
and will recommend replacing them with the new, safer equivalent DDI. The rule is
applicable to WDM, WDF and NDIS based drivers.

Installing WDK no longer enables Spectre mitigations for

all C++ projects as seen in WDK 1903
While the WDK install will enable Spectre mitigation by default for all drivers, it no
longer enables them for all C++ projects.

Error ‘A WDK corresponding to target ’10.0.19041.0’ was

not found.’
When selecting [Windows SDK Version] to '10.0 (latest installed version)' with WDK
10.0.19041.0 causes the "A WDK corresponding to target version '10.0.19041.0' was not
found" error even if the SDK version is installed.

Workaround: In the properties page for the driver project (Configuration Properties
>General) set Windows SDK Version to $(LatestTargetPlatformVersion). If this option is
not available to select then select the option inherit from parent or project default.

EWDK and SDV running on Server have .NET

requirements
Running Static Driver Verifier from the EWDK requires .Net Framework 4.7.2. Depending
on the version of Windows on your system, .NET may be installed, may be installed but
need to be enabled, or may not be installed. For more information about what version
of .NET is installed or the state of .NET installation please review .NET Framework
versions and dependencies.

DVL generation fails with

System.IO.FileNotFoundException
When attempting to create a Driver Verification Log (DVL), the following error will be
presented:

Console

Unhandled Exception: System.IO.FileNotFoundException:

Could not load file or assembly

'System.Runtime, Version=4.2.1.0, Culture=neutral,

PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a'
or one of its dependencies.

The system cannot find the file specified.

This can occur in both the command-line and GUI environments. This issue is resolved in
a future version of the WDK and can be seen in the Windows Insider Preview WDK .
Unfortunately, no workaround exists for the current version.

SDV fails in the EWDK if VS is not installed

SDV has a dependency on VCRUNTIME140D.dll as part of Visual Studio. As such,
running the EWDK on a machine without VS installed will fail. Install Visual Studio on the
machine to work around this issue.
Driver Verifier does not get enabled/disabled when using
WDK test explorer
Driver Verifier does not get enabled/disabled when Device Fundamental tests are run
using the WDK Test Explorer.

Workaround: On the client machine manually enable/disable driver verifier per these
instructions.

WDK Side by Side installations of Windows 10, version

2004 and WDK Windows 10, version 1903 or version 1803
With both versions of kits installed on the same PC the ‘Deploy driver’ feature won’t
work for older version.

Workaround: Use 1803 on a separate machine if Deploy driver feature is needed.

Windows Device Testing Framework (WDTF) tests now

only run on systems with matching Windows 10 versions
as the WDK
In WDK for Windows 10, version 1809, changes were made to WDTF in order to support
this version of Windows 10, version 1809. The effect of this is that WDTF will no longer
run on down-level OS. The change continues with WDK for Windows 10, version 2004.

Alterative for down-level testing

The WDTF tests in WDK for Windows 10, version 1803 can be run on previous Windows
versions.

APIValidator
On an x86 arch machine APIValidator is unable to run against x64 binaries. If building
x64 drivers on an x86 machine APIValidator should be turned off.

Workaround:

1. Go to the properties page of the driver solution.

2. Select APIValidator, then General, and then change Run ApiValidator from Yes to
No.
WDK running on Windows 7 systems requires KB
3033929
You must install Microsoft Security Advisory 3033929 (KB3033929) prior to installing the
WDK on systems running Windows 7. KB3033929 can be downloaded from the
Microsoft Download Center .

Installing the WDK generates an error from Visual Studio

that the add-in component is already installed
This error message can be seen if the WDK was uninstalled but the WDK drivers
extension for Visual Studio was not uninstalled.

Resolution: In Visual Studio, go to the Extension dropdown menu, choose Manage

Extensions, select the Windows Driver Kit, and then click Uninstall.

FAQ

How do I tell if the WDK or EWDK versions I have

contains the fix for the zeroing of pool allocations?
In System Settings go to Add or Remove programs, search for Windows Driver Kit and
note the version. The original WDK for Windows 10, version 2004 has a version of
10.0.19041.1, the refreshed WDK version is 10.0.19041.685
For the EWDK, once the
EWDK environment is launched, look at the title of the command window. The refreshed
version will contain vb_release_svc_prod1.19041.685. Additionally, when looking at the
environment variables, the BuildLab variable should show
vb_release_svc_prod1.19041.685.

The Windows Software Development Kit (SDK) was also

refreshed, is this needed as well?
No, however the refreshed Windows Software Development Kit (SDK) contains a fix for
onecore.lib that may be nice to have. Also, it’s generally a good idea to keep the SDK
and WDK aligned.

If I already have the WDK for Windows 10, version 2004

installed, do I need to uninstall it before installing the
refreshed version?
It is highly recommended that if you have the original 2004 SDK and WDK that these be
uninstalled and the security refresh SDK and WDK be installed. That said if the refreshed
WDK is installed on top of the original WDK the refreshed version will overwrite the
original. Note: In this scenario “Add or remove programs”, both versions will be listed.
Bring up guide
Article • 06/01/2022

This section of the partner documentation is designed for hardware engineers and
developers who need to understand how to get started with bringing up hardware on
Windows.

In this section
Topic Description

Firmware Provides information about how to achieve Secured-core PC compliance with

Attack Firmware Attack Surface Reduction (FASR).
Surface
Reduction
(FASR)

Boot and Provides guidance about the boot process and UEFI implementation requirements
UEFI for devices that run Windows 10 and Windows Server 2016.

Windows The Advanced Configuration and Power Interface Specification, Revision 5.0 (ACPI 5.0
ACPI specification , defines a new set of features to support low-power, mobile devices
design that are based on System on a Chip (SoC) integrated circuits and that implement the
guide for connected standby power model. Starting with Windows 8 and Windows 8.1, and
SoC Windows Server 2012 and 2012 R2, Windows supports the new ACPI 5.0 features for
platforms SoC-based platforms.

Security Use the topics in this section to learn more about security in Windows 10 Mobile and
Windows Server 2016.

Windows Learn how to configure storage partitions and partitions sizes on Windows 10 Mobile
10 Mobile devices.
partition
layout
Developing, Testing, and Deploying
Drivers
Article • 01/20/2022

The Windows driver development environment and the Windows debuggers are
integrated into Microsoft Visual Studio. In this integrated driver development
environment, most of the tools you need for coding, building, packaging, deploying,
and testing a driver are available in the Visual Studio user interface.

To set up the integrated development environment, first install Visual Studio and then
install the WDK. You can find information about how to get Visual Studio and the WDK
on the WDK setup and download page. The Debugging Tools for Windows are included
with the WDK installation.

The WDK uses MSBuild.exe, which is available both in the Visual Studio user interface
and as a command-line tool. Drivers created in the Visual Studio environment use
Project and Solution files to describe a project or group of projects. The Visual Studio
environment provides a tool for converting legacy Sources and Dirs files to Project and
Solution files.

The Visual Studio environment provides templates for:

New drivers
Driver packages
New tests
Enhancement of existing tests
Custom driver deployment scripts

In the Visual Studio environment, you can configure the build process so that it
automatically creates and signs a driver package. Static and run-time analysis tools are
available in Visual Studio. You can configure a target computer for testing your driver
and automatically deploy your driver to the target computer each time you rebuild. You
can choose from an extensive set of run-time tests, and you can write your own tests.

The topics in this section show you how to use Visual Studio to perform several of the
tasks involved in driver development, deployment, and testing.

Additional Videos
You'll find videos on the following pages in the Windows driver docs:
Using the Windows Performance Toolkit (WPT) with WDF
Video: Accessing driver IFR logs without a debugger
Video: Debugging your driver with WDF source code
Videos: Debugging UMDF Drivers
Partner Center for Windows Hardware
Create and manage system and driver submissions. Info for hardware certification and
submission, shipping labels, hardware dashboard API, dashboard administration, and
driver distribution through Windows Update. Replaces the legacy (Sysdev) dashboard.

Get started with hardware dashboard

ｂ GET STARTED

Get started with the hardware submission process

Register for the Microsoft Windows Hardware Developer Program

Manage dashboard users

Hardware submissions

ｄ TRAINING

Create a new driver submission

Update your hardware submission

View your hardware submissions

Create a device metadata experience

Code and file signing

ｅ OVERVIEW

Manage code signing certificates

File sign an LSA plugin or UEFI firmware binary

Driver distribution

ｐ CONCEPT

Publish a driver to windows update

 p

Share a driver with a partner

Working with extension INF files

Driver flighting

ｐ CONCEPT

Overview of driver flighting

Overview of driver measures

hardware dashboard API

ｉ REFERENCE

Manage hardware submissions using APIs

Get product data

Manage product submissions

Manage preproduction signing submissions

Device and Driver Installation
Article • 01/20/2022

This section explains how devices and drivers are installed in Windows.

If you are unfamiliar with the device and driver installation process, we recommend that
you start by reviewing Roadmap for Device and Driver Installation. You may also want to
read Overview of Device and Driver Installation for a high-level overview of this process
and its components.
Kernel-Mode Driver Architecture Design
Guide
Article • 03/18/2022

７ Note

For information about programming interfaces that your driver can implement or
call, see the Kernel-Mode Driver Reference.

This section includes general concepts to help you understand kernel-mode

programming and describes specific techniques of kernel programming. For a general
overview of Windows Drivers, see Getting Started with Windows Drivers, which provides
a general overview of Windows components, lists the types of device drivers used in
Windows, discusses the goals of Windows device drivers, and discusses generic sample
device drivers included in the kit.

This section contains conceptual information that describes and helps you build kernel-
mode drivers.

An Overview containing:
An overview of Windows Components
Design Goals for Kernel-Mode Drivers
A catalogue of Sample Kernel-Mode Drivers
Kernel Driver Development Best Practices, as compiled by the Microsoft Surface
team

Kernel-Mode Components describes the primary kernel-mode managers and

components of the Windows operating system.

Component Description

Managers

Windows Manages objects: files, devices, synchronization mechanisms, registry keys,

Kernel-Mode and so on.
Object
Manager

Windows Manages physical memory for the operating system.

Kernel-Mode
Memory
Manager
Component Description

Windows Handles the execution of all threads in a process.

Kernel-Mode
Process and
Thread
Manager

Windows Manages the communication between applications and the interfaces

Kernel-Mode provided by device drivers.
I/O Manager

Windows A subsystem of the I/O manager, the Plug and Play (PnP) Manager
Kernel-Mode enables a PC to recognize when a device is added to the system.
Plug and Play
Manager

Windows Manages the orderly change in power status for all devices that support
Kernel-Mode power state changes.
Power
Manager

Windows Manages the registry, such as monitoring changes in the registry or

Kernel-Mode registering callbacks on specific registry data.
Configuration
Manager

Windows Implements transaction processing in kernel mode.

Kernel-Mode
Kernel
Transaction
Manager

Windows Provides routines for your driver to work with access control.
Kernel-Mode
Security
Reference
Monitor

Libraries

Windows Implements the core functionality that everything else in the operating
Kernel-Mode system depends upon. The Microsoft Windows kernel provides basic low-
Kernel Library level operations such as scheduling threads or routing hardware
interrupts.

Windows Refers to kernel-mode components that provide a variety of services to

Kernel-Mode device drivers, including: object management, memory management,
Executive process and thread management, input/output management, and
Support configuration management.
Library
 Component Description

Windows A set of common utility routines needed by various kernel-mode

Kernel-Mode components.
Run-Time
Library

Windows A safe string library to provide greater security in kernel-mode

Kernel-Mode development.
Safe String
Library

Windows A direct memory access (DMA) library for device driver developers.
Kernel-Mode
DMA Library

Windows A hardware abstraction layer (HAL) for kernel-mode driver development.

Kernel-Mode
HAL Library

Windows A transactional logging system, the Common Log File System (CLFS).
Kernel-Mode
CLFS Library

Windows A general mechanism for managing components, called Windows

Kernel-Mode Management Instrumentation (WMI).
WMI Library

Writing WDM Drivers and Introduction to WDM provide information needed to

write drivers using the Windows Driver Model (WDM).

Device Objects and the other topics in Device Objects and Device Stacks describe
how the operating system represents devices by device objects.

Memory Management for Windows Drivers illustrates how kernel-mode drivers

allocate memory for purposes such as storing internal data, buffering data during
I/O operations, and sharing memory with other kernel-mode and user-mode
components.

Security From Controlling Device Access and Privileges to SDDL for Device objects,
ensure that your drivers are as secure as possible.

Handling IRPs describes how kernel-mode drivers handle I/O request packets
(IRPs).

DMA Direct Memory Access (DMA) is a critical aspect of driver development, and
the topics in this node cover DMA from A to Z.
Controller Objects represent a physical device controller with attached devices.

Interrupt Service Routines (ISRs) handle interrupts for drivers of a physical device
that receives interrupts.

Message-Signaled Interrupts trigger an interrupt by writing a value to a particular

memory address.

Deferred Procedure Calls (DPC Objects) can be queued from ISRs and are
executed at a later time and at a lower IRQL than the ISR.

Plug and Play (PnP) focuses on the system software support for PnP and how
drivers use that support to implement PnP.

Power Management describes the architecture that provides a comprehensive

approach to system and device power management.

Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) are extensions to your kernel-

mode driver, which enable your driver to become a WMI provider. A WMI provider
makes measurement and instrumentation data available to WMI consumers, such
as user-mode applications.

Driver Programming Techniques Programming drivers in the kernel mode of

Windows requires techniques that sometimes differ significantly from those of
ordinary user-mode programming.
Windows Driver Frameworks
Article • 02/08/2023

Windows Driver Frameworks (WDF) is an abstraction layer that takes care of much of the
common code required to write a Windows driver. A lot of the required boilerplate is
provided, so when you use WDF you can opt in to providing driver-specific functionality.

WDF drivers include both Kernel-Mode Driver Framework (KMDF) and User-Mode Driver
Framework (UMDF).

For detailed change logs showing new functionality added in each framework release,
see KMDF Version History and UMDF Version History.

Windows 11 and Windows Server 2022 include KMDF version 1.33 and UMDF version
2.33.

You can use these framework versions to build drivers for:

Windows 10 and 11 (all SKUs)

Windows Server 2022
Driver Security Guidance
Article • 07/25/2022

This section contains information on enhancing driver security.

In this section
Topic Description

Driver security checklist This topic provides a driver security checklist

for driver developers.

Threat modeling for drivers Driver writers and architects should make
threat modeling an integral part of the design
process for any driver. This topic provides
guidelines for creating threat models for
drivers.

Windows security model for driver developers This topic describes how the Windows security
model applies to drivers and explains what
driver writers must do to improve the security
of their devices.

Evaluate HVCI driver compatibility This topic describes how to implement

Hypervisor-protected Code Integrity (HVCI)
compatible code.

Development security practices for Windows This topic describes how to write secure code
driver developers for Windows drivers to prevent abuse and
tampering by malicious actors.
Install the Windows debugger
Article • 04/13/2023

WinDbg is a debugger that can be used to analyze crash dumps, debug live user-mode
and kernel-mode code, and examine CPU registers and memory.

Install WinDbg
This latest version features a more modern user experience with an updated interface,
fully fledged scripting capabilities, an extensible debugging data model, built-in Time
Travel Debugging (TTD) support, and many additional features.

For more information, see WinDbg Overview.

Download WinDbg

Select Install and the debugger will download and install.

WinDbg will also periodically check for new versions in the background and autoupdate
if necessary.

７ Note

Formerly released as WinDbg Preview in the Microsoft Store, this version leverages
the same underlying engine as WinDbg (classic) and supports all the same
commands, extensions, and workflows.

To get and stay on the latest release, install WinDbg as described on this page.
WinDbg Preview will not receive further updates in the Microsoft Store.

Requirements
Supported Operating Systems:
Windows 11 (all versions)
Windows 10 Anniversary Update (version 1607) or newer
Processor architectures:
x64 and ARM64

Troubleshooting
If you encounter difficulties installing or keeping WinDbg updated, see Troubleshoot
installation issues with the App Installer file.

If you find any bugs or have a feature request, you can follow the feedback button in the
ribbon to go to the GitHub page where you can file a new issue.

Getting started with WinDbg

To get started with WinDbg, see Getting Started with Windows Debugging.

To get started with debugging kernel-mode drivers, see Debug Universal Drivers - Step
by Step Lab (Echo Kernel-Mode). This is a step-by-step lab that shows how to use
WinDbg to debug Echo, a sample driver that uses the Kernel-Mode Driver Framework
(KMDF).

Previous versions and related downloads

To debug older versions of Windows, use WinDbg (classic) available with Debugging
Tools for Windows.

Download the Windows Driver Kit (WDK)

Windows Symbol Packages

Windows Hardware Lab Kit

Download and install the Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit (Windows
ADK)

Windows Insider - Windows Preview builds

UWP device apps
Article • 03/03/2023

Device manufacturers can create a UWP device app that serves as a companion to their
device. UWP device apps have more capabilities than regular UWP apps and can
perform privileged operations, such as firmware updates. Also, UWP device apps can
start from AutoPlay (on more devices than other apps can), automatically install the first
time a device is connected, and extend the printer and camera experiences built into
Windows 8.1 and Windows 10.

This section describes what UWP device apps are and how device manufacturers can
create them. If you're new to UWP device apps, take a look at Getting started.

If you're looking for information about UWP mobile broadband apps, see Mobile
Broadband.

In this section
Topic Description

What's new This section provides a glimpse of what's new for UWP device apps.

Getting started Start here to begin building UWP device apps.

Build a UWP This step-by-step guide describes in detail how to build a UWP device app with
device app Microsoft Visual Studio and the Device Metadata Authoring Wizard.
step-by-step

AutoPlay for This topic describes how to use the Device Metadata Authoring Wizard to
UWP device enable AutoPlay. It also describes how to handle AutoPlay activations in your
apps app.

Device sync In Windows 8.1, your UWP app can use a device background task to synchronize
and update for data on your peripheral device. If your app is associated with device metadata,
UWP device that UWP device app can also use a device background agent to perform device
apps updates, such as firmware updates.

Print support Provides guidance and examples for printer OEMs and IHVs that are
app design implementing a print support app (PSA) for their device.
guide

Print support Provides guidance and examples for associating a print support app (PSA) with
app a printer.
association
Topic Description

UWP device This section introduces UWP device apps for printers.
apps for
printers

UWP device This section introduces UWP device apps for cameras.
apps for
cameras

UWP device This topic introduces the ways that UWP device apps can access internal
apps for devices.
internal
devices

Automatic This topic describes how automatic installation works and how the app,
installation for metadata, and drivers can be updated and uninstalled.
UWP device
apps

Hardware This topic provides steps for a driver developer to associate a driver with a
Support App Universal Windows Platform (UWP) app.
(HSA): Steps
for Driver
Developers

Hardware This topic provides steps for an app developer to associate a Universal Windows
Support App Platform (UWP) app with a Universal Windows driver.
(HSA): Steps
for App
Developers
Overview of Driver Technologies
Article • 02/23/2023

For general information about developing drivers see Getting started with Windows
drivers and Write your first driver.

The majority of the driver technology information is the same for all editions of
Windows 10. When you must make special considerations for a particular edition of
Windows, such as for Windows 10 Mobile, we explicitly called these out in each
technology area.

Windows drivers
You can create a Windows Driver—a driver that uses a subset of the available interfaces
—to run on all editions of Windows 10. Where possible, use a Windows Driver to enable
deployment of your drivers on multiple devices. For more information about how to
build, install, deploy, and debug a Windows Driver for Windows 10, see Getting Started
with Windows Drivers and Deploying a Driver to a Test Computer.

Device drivers and Windows 10 for desktop

computers
For information about the tools used to develop desktop drivers, see Driver
Development Tools and Tools for Verifying Drivers. For information about deploying
drivers to Windows 10 on a desktop, see Device and Driver Installation. For information
about troubleshooting driver installation, see Troubleshooting Configuration of Driver
Deployment, Testing and Debugging.

Driver technologies
3D print devices
ACPI
Audio
Battery Drivers
Biometric Drivers
Bluetooth Drivers
Component Firmware Update (CFU)
Display, graphics, and compute accelerator drivers
 File system drivers
Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) drivers
GPIO drivers
Hardware notifications
HID Drivers
IEEE Drivers
Imaging device drivers
Kernel-mode driver technology
Mobile broadband
Multifunction device drivers
NetAdapterCx
Network drivers
NFC device drivers
Parallel port drivers
Partner application development
PCI drivers
PCMCIA drivers
Point of Service device drivers
Power management technologies
Print device drivers
SD card bus drivers
Sensor drivers
Serial port drivers
Smartcard device drivers
Simple Peripheral Bus (SPB) drivers
Storage device drivers
Storage Firmware Update (SFU)
Streaming media device drivers
Test Authoring and Execution Framework (TAEF)
Universal Serial Bus (USB)
Windows Device Testing Framework (WDTF)
Windows Hardware Error Architecture (WHEA)
Windows portable device drivers

Related sections
Getting started with Windows drivers
Driver Development Tools
Partner Center for Windows Hardware
3D printer driver design guide
Article • 03/03/2023

This section provides information about 3D printer drivers in Windows 10.

3D printing in Windows 10 provides the following features:

Driver model for 3D manufacturing devices

Support for UWP apps and extensions for 3D devices

Job spooling and queuing support

Keywords for modeling device capabilities

API for apps to submit 3D manufacturing jobs to your 3D printer

For the latest information about 3D printing in Windows 10, see the following resources:

3D printing on Windows

3D hardware partners

3D Builder resources

3D Builder user's guide

Channel 9 3D printing blog

Download the Windows 3D Printing SDK to start developing drivers for printing to a
3D printer.

In this section
3D print partner onboarding guide

Microsoft Standard Driver for 3D Printers

MS3DPrint Standard G-Code driver

3D printer custom USB interface support

3D printing sample WSD app

Enable WSPrint 2.0 on a device

Print schema keywords for 3D manufacturing

3D hardware partners

Related sections
Print DDI reference
ACPI design guide
Article • 03/03/2023

This section describes how device drivers can interface with an Advanced Configuration
and Power Interface (ACPI) device.

ACPI devices are defined by the Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI)
Specification .

In this section
Section Description

Supporting ACPI Provides information about how to use a Windows Driver Model (WDM)
Devices function driver to enhance the functionality of an ACPI device.

Evaluating ACPI Provides information about how device drivers that comply with the
Control Methods requirements of Kernel-Mode Driver Framework (KMDF), User-Mode Driver
Framework (UMDF), or Windows Driver Model (WDM) can evaluate ACPI
control methods.

How to Identify Provides information about the ACPI Source Language (ASL) Operating
the Windows System Interface Level (_OSI) method used to identify the host operating
Version in ACPI system.
by Using _OSI

Related sections
ACPI DDI reference
Audio Devices Design Guide
Article • 01/20/2022

This section describes how to design Microsoft Windows Driver Model (WDM) audio
drivers. These drivers control audio adapters that render and capture streams containing
audio data in wave and MIDI formats.

The following topics are discussed:

Windows 10: What's New for Audio Drivers

Windows Audio Architecture

Roadmap for Developing WDM Audio Drivers

WDM Audio Drivers Overview

WDM Audio Architecture: Basic Concepts

WDM Audio Architecture: Advanced Topics

WDM Audio Support in Different Versions of Windows

Windows Audio Processing Objects

Audio Miniport Drivers

Legacy Audio Interfaces

Battery Devices Design Guide
Article • 01/20/2022

A battery typically has a pair of drivers: the generic battery class driver that Microsoft
provides, and a miniclass driver written specifically for that individual type of battery.

The class driver defines the overall functionality of the batteries in the system and
interacts with the power manager.

This design guide focuses on Writing Battery Miniclass Drivers.

In addition this section includes information on Writing UPS Minidrivers that were used
with older versions of Windows.
Biometric Devices Design Guide
Article • 03/14/2023

This section describes how to write user-mode drivers that work with the Windows
Biometric Driver Interface (WBDI). WBDI is the driver interface of the Windows Biometric
Framework (WBF). WBF ships with Windows 7 and later versions of the Windows
operating system.

In this section
Getting Started with Biometric Drivers
Roadmap for Developing Biometric Drivers
Sample Biometric Driver
Supporting Biometric IOCTL Calling Sequence
Using WinUSB in a WBDI Driver
Installing a Biometric Driver
Managing Queues in a WBDI Driver
Creating a Device Interface for a WBDI Driver
Supporting Secure Channels in WBDI Drivers
Using WBDI with Non-PnP Devices or Proprietary Stacks
Hardware Considerations for Biometric Drivers
Ranking a Biometric Driver on Windows Update
Testing Biometric Drivers
Signing WBDI Drivers
Windows Hello: Steps to Submit a Fingerprint Driver
Custom Control Codes
Bluetooth Profile Drivers
Article • 01/20/2022

This section describes Bluetooth profile drivers. The information in this section is divided
into the following topics:

Bluetooth Profile Drivers Overview

Bluetooth Low Energy Overview

Using the Bluetooth Driver Stack

Debugging Bluetooth Profile Drivers

Bluetooth FAQ

Transport Bus Driver for Bluetooth Power Control Handling Guidelines

Bluetooth LE Proximity Profile Devices and Apps

Component Firmware Update (CFU)
Article • 03/03/2023

Component Firmware Update (CFU) provides Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs)

and Independent Hardware Vendors (IHVs) a reliable and authenticated method for
updating firmware on devices that have shipped to customers. This release contains
reference firmware for receiving the firmware payload.

７ Note

CFU is available in Windows 10, version 2004 (Windows 10 May 2020 Update) and
later versions.

See the Introducing Component Firmware Update blog post and WinHEC 2018 -
Component Firmware Update video for an introduction to CFU concepts.

In this section
Topic Description

CFU firmware Provides detailed guidance on implementing the CFU firmware protocol and
implementation creating new firmware images to install on the target device.
guide

CFU INF file Provides information on configuring your custom device INF file for your
configuration firmware update.

CFU protocol Provides detailed information on the CFU protocol offer, content, and firmware
specification update command sequence.

CFU standalone Provides information on the CFU standalone tool that sends firmware update
tool image files to a device. It can be used to test your firmware update on your
device during development and before uploading it to Windows Update.

CFU virtual HID Simulates updating firmware on a virtual HID device.

device firmware
update
simulation
Driver design guides for display,
graphics, and compute accelerator
devices
Article • 02/23/2023

The following design guides are for developers of display, graphics, and compute
accelerator drivers on Windows. For information about available "Video driver samples",
see Windows driver samples.

Windows Display Driver Model (WDDM)

WDDM is the driver architecture available starting with Windows Vista. Drivers
that adhere to WDDM run on Windows Vista and later.
For compute accelerator drivers, use the Microsoft Computer Driver Model
(MCDM), which is a subset of WDDM 2.0+.

Legacy: Windows 2000 Display Driver Model (XDDM)

XDDM was the display and graphics driver architecture available for Windows 2000
through Windows Vista and Windows 7 only.
Driver Development Tools
Article • 01/20/2022

Purpose Resources

The Windows Driver Kit (WDK) provides a set of Getting Started with Universal Windows Drivers
tools that you can use to develop, analyze,
build, install, and test your driver. The WDK Universal Windows drivers allow developers to
includes powerful verification tools that are create a single driver that runs across multiple
designed to help you detect, analyze, and different device types, from embedded systems
correct errors in driver code during the to tablets and desktop PCs. Hardware
development process. Many of these tools can developers can use their existing components
be used very early in the development process and device drivers across different form factors.
where they are most critical and can save you
Converting WDK 8.1 Projects to WDK 10
the most time and effort.
You can convert projects and solutions that you
Overview
created with WDK 8 or Windows Driver Kit
The Windows Driver Kit (WDK) is fully (WDK) 8.1 to work with Windows Driver Kit
integrated with Microsoft Visual Studio 2015. (WDK) 10 and Visual Studio 2015. Before you
The WDK uses the same compiler and build open the projects or solutions, run the
tools that you use to build Visual Studio ProjectUpgradeTool. The ProjectUpgradeTool
projects. The code analysis and verification converts the projects and solutions so that they
tools can now be easily configured and can be built using WDK for Windows 10.
launched from the Visual Studio development
Validating Universal Windows drivers
environment, so that you can find and fix
problems in your driver source early in the You can use the ApiValidator.exe tool to verify
development cycle. that the APIs that your driver calls are valid for
a Universal Windows driver. The tool returns an
The WDK provides a sophisticated driver test
error if your driver calls an API that is outside
framework and a set of device fundamental
the set of valid APIs for Universal Windows
tests that you can use to automatically build,
drivers. This tool is part of the WDK for
deploy, and test your driver on remote test
Windows 10.
systems. The WDK provides the tools to make
WDK and Visual Studio build environment
testing and debugging drivers more convenient
and effective than before. More information and tips for driver developers
about using the WDK and the Visual Studio
Driver Development Tools Documentation
build environment.
This section describes the tools and techniques Developing, Testing, and Deploying Drivers
that can help you during development:
For specific information about building drivers,
Tools for INF Files and using the verification tools and tests in the
Visual Studio development environment.
Tools for Changing Boot Options for Driver
Testing and Debugging

Tools for Testing Drivers

Tools for Verifying Drivers

Tools for Software Tracing

Additional Driver Tools

File systems driver design guide
Article • 03/09/2022

This section of the WDK provides design guidelines related to file systems and filter
drivers. See the programming reference for reference pages.

File systems
File systems in Windows are implemented as file system drivers working above the
storage system.

Every system-supplied file system in Windows is designed to provide reliable data

storage with varying features to meet the user's requirements. Standard file systems
available in Windows include NTFS, ExFAT, UDF, and FAT32. A comparison of features for
each of these file systems is shown in File System Functionality Comparison.
Additionally, the Resilient File System (ReFS), available on Windows Server 2012 and
later versions, offers scalable large volume support and the ability to detect and correct
data corruption on disk.

Developing a new file system driver is almost always unnecessary, and

requirements/specifications for new file system drivers are not predictable. To that end,
this design guide does not cover file system development. If you do need to develop a
new file system driver beyond those available in Windows, sample code is available as a
model (see below).

File system filter drivers

A file system filter driver, or minifilter, intercepts requests targeted at a file system or
another file system filter driver. By intercepting the request before it reaches its
intended target, a minifilter can extend or replace functionality provided by the original
target of the request. Examples of filter drivers include:

Anti-virus filters
Backup agents
Encryption products

Filter driver developers use the system-supplied Filter Manager, which provides a
framework for developing filter drivers without having to manage all the complexities of
file I/O. The Filter Manager simplifies the development of third-party filter drivers and
solves many of the problems with the legacy filter driver model, such as the ability to
control load order through an assigned altitude.

File system and filter sample code

A number of Windows driver samples are available, including samples for file system
development and file system filter driver development. See Windows driver samples for
a complete list.

File system filter driver certification

Certification information for File Systems and File System Filter Drivers is found in the
Windows Hardware Lab Kit (HLK) . Tests for File Systems and File System Filter Drivers
are found in the Filter.Driver category of the HCK.

Additional resources
Along with this documentation and the sample code mentioned above, OSR offers a
variety of resources for file system filter development, including seminars and
community discussion forums such as the NTFDS forum.
Getting started with drivers on
Windows
Article • 11/09/2022

Start here to learn fundamental concepts about drivers.

You should already be familiar with the C programming language, and you should
understand the ideas of function pointers, callback functions, and event handlers.

In this section
What is a driver?
Do you need to write a driver?
Choosing a driver model
Write your first driver
Windows compatible hardware development boards
Sharks Cove hardware development board
Provision a computer for driver deployment and testing (WDK 10)
Concepts for all driver developers

Related topics
Windows Driver Kit (WDK)

Driver Security Guidance

Global Navigation Satellite System
(GNSS) driver design guide
Article • 03/03/2023

This section contains design guidance for building Global Navigation Satellite System
(GNSS) device drivers.

In this section
Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) driver design guide for Windows 8.1

Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) driver design guide for Windows 10

Related sections
Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) DDI reference
General-Purpose I/O (GPIO) Driver
Design Guide
Article • 03/14/2023

This section describes how to write a driver for a general-purpose I/O (GPIO) controller
device. A GPIO controller configures GPIO pins to perform low-speed data I/O
operations, to act as device-selects, and to receive interrupt requests. Starting with
Windows 8, the GPIO framework extension (GpioClx) simplifies the task of writing a
driver for a GPIO controller. Additionally, GpioClx provides a uniform I/O request
interface to peripheral device drivers that communicate with devices that connect to
GPIO pins on a controller.

In this section
Topic Description

GPIO Driver Support Overview Starting with Windows 8, the GPIO framework
extension (GpioClx) simplifies the task of
writing a driver for a GPIO controller device.
Additionally, GpioClx provides driver support
for peripheral devices that connect to GPIO
pins. GpioClx, which is a system-supplied
extension to the kernel-mode driver framework
(KMDF), performs processing tasks that are
common to members of the GPIO device class.

GpioClx I/O and Interrupt Interfaces Typically, the clients of a GPIO controller are
drivers for peripheral devices that connect to
GPIO pins. These drivers use GPIO pins as low-
bandwidth data channels, device-select
outputs, and interrupt-request inputs.
Peripheral device drivers open logical
connections to GPIO pins that are configured
as data inputs or outputs. They use these
connections to send I/O requests to these pins.
In addition, peripheral device drivers can
logically connect their interrupt service routines
to GPIO pins that are configured as interrupt
request inputs.
Topic Description

GPIO-Based Hardware Resources Starting with Windows 8, the general-purpose

I/O (GPIO) pins that are controlled by a GPIO
controller driver are available to other drivers
as system-managed hardware resources. GPIO
I/O pins, which are pins that are configured as
data inputs or data outputs, are available as a
new Windows resource type, GPIO I/O
resources. In addition, GPIO interrupt pins,
which are pins that are configured as interrupt
request inputs, are available as ordinary
Windows interrupt resources.

GPIO Interrupts Some general-purpose I/O (GPIO) controller

devices can configure their GPIO pins to
function as interrupt request inputs. These
interrupt request inputs are driven by
peripheral devices that are physically
connected to the GPIO pins. The drivers for
these GPIO controllers can enable, disable,
mask, unmask, and clear interrupt requests on
individual GPIO pins.

GpioClx DDI The general-purpose I/O (GPIO) controller

driver communicates with the GPIO framework
extension (GpioClx) through the GpioClx
device-driver interface (DDI). This DDI is
defined in the Gpioclx.h header file and is
described in General-Purpose I/O (GPIO) Driver
Reference. As part of this DDI, GpioClx
implements several driver support methods,
which are called by the GPIO controller driver.
This driver implements a set of event callback
functions, which are called by GpioClx. GpioClx
uses these callbacks to manage interrupt
requests from GPIO pins that are configured as
interrupt inputs, and to transfer data to or from
GPIO pins that are configured as data inputs
and outputs.
Hardware notifications design guide
Article • 01/20/2022

Describes support for key buttons (Power, Windows, volume and rotation lock) and
other indicators in a standardized way, together with associated corresponding
Windows Engineering Guidance (WEG).

In this section
Topic Description

GPIO buttons Windows 8 introduced support for general-purpose I/O (GPIO) buttons and
and indicators indicators by using a HID miniport class driver. The goal was to provide support
implementation for key buttons (Power, Windows, volume and rotation lock) in a standardized
guide way, together with associated corresponding Windows Engineering Guidance
(WEG). Windows 8.1 is focused on enhancing the quality of the end-to-end user
experience and unifying the behavior across various innovative form factors.

GPIO buttons This topic describes Windows 8.1 test scenarios for hardware buttons and
and indicators indicators, to ensure an optimal user experience for various form factors.
supplemental
testing

Hardware Windows 10, version 1709 provides an infrastructure for the hardware-agnostic
notifications support of notification components such as LEDs and vibration mechanisms.
support This support is delivered through the introduction of a Kernel-Mode Driver
Framework (KMDF) class extension specifically for hardware notification
components that allows for the rapid development of client drivers. A KMDF
class extension is essentially a KMDF driver that provides a defined set of
functionality for a given class of devices, similar to a port driver in the Windows
Driver Model (WDM). This section provides an overview of the architecture of
the hardware notification class extension. For additional information about the
KMDF, see Using WDF to Develop a Driver.
Introduction to Human Interface
Devices (HID)
Article • 03/19/2022

Human Interface Devices (HID) is a device class definition to replace PS/2-style

connectors with a generic USB driver to support HID devices such as keyboards, mice,
game controllers, and so on. Prior to HID, devices could only utilize strictly-defined
protocols for mice and keyboards. Hardware innovation required either overloading
data in an existing protocol or creating non-standard hardware with its own specialized
driver. HID provided support for these "boot mode" devices while adding support for
hardware innovation through extensible, standardized and easily-programmable
interfaces.

HID devices today include a broad range of devices such as alphanumeric displays, bar
code readers, volume controls on speakers/headsets, auxiliary displays, sensors and
many others. Many hardware vendors also use HID for their proprietary devices.

HID began with USB but was designed to be bus-agnostic. It was designed for low
latency, low bandwidth devices but with flexibility to specify the rate in the underlying
transport. The specification for HID over USB was ratified by the USB-IF in 1996 and
support over additional transports followed soon after. Details on currently supported
transports can be found in HID Transports Supported in Windows. Third-party, vendor-
specific transports are also allowed via custom transport drivers.

HID concepts
HID consists of two fundamental concepts, a report descriptor, and reports. Reports are
the actual data that is exchanged between a device and a software client. The report
descriptor describes the format and meaning the data that the device supports.

Reports
Applications and HID devices exchange data through reports. There are three report
types:

Report Description
type

Input Data sent from the HID device to the application, typically when the state of a
report control changes.
 Report Description
type

Output Data sent from the application to the HID device, for example to the LEDs on a
report keyboard.

Feature Data that can be manually read and written, and are typically related to
report configuration information.

Each top level collection defined in a report descriptor can contain zero or more reports
of each type.

Usage tables
The USB-IF working group publishes HID usage tables that are part of the report
descriptors that describe what HID devices are allowed to do. These HID usage tables
contain a list with descriptions of Usages, which describe the intended meaning and use
of a particular item described in the report descriptor. For example, a usage is defined
for the left button of a mouse. The report descriptor can define where in a report an
application can find the current state of the mouse's left button. The usage tables are
broken up into several name spaces, called usage pages. Each usage page describes a
set of related usages to help organize the document. The combination of a usage page
and usage define the usage ID that uniquely identifies a specific usage in the usage
tables.

See also
USB-IF HID Specifications
IEEE 1394 bus driver design guide
Article • 03/14/2023

This section includes:

The IEEE 1394 Driver Stack

Installing IEEE 1394 Device Drivers

Asynchronous I/O for IEEE 1394 Devices

Isochronous I/O for IEEE 1394 Devices

Modifying the 1394 Configuration ROM

IEEE 1394 Hardware Emulation Drivers

1394 Samples and Diagnostic Tools

IEC-61883 Client Drivers

Imaging device driver design guide
Article • 03/03/2023

This section contains information about Windows Image Acquisition (WIA) drivers, Still
Image (STI) drivers, and Web Services on Devices (WSD).

７ Note

The WIA programming interface is used to develop imaging drivers for modern
Windows operating systems.
The STI programming interface was used to develop
imaging drivers in legacy Windows operating systems.
The STI programming
interface documentation will be archived in a future release.

In this section
Device Interface Classes for Imaging Devices

Windows Image Acquisition Drivers

WIA Properties

64-Bit and WIA

WIA Compatibility Layer

WIA Driver Filters

WIA Item Trees

WIA with Web Services for Devices

Developing a WIA Driver

Developing a WIA Camera Driver

WIA Minidriver Best Practices

WIA Microdriver Commands

Building, Troubleshooting and Debugging WIA Minidrivers

WIA Samples and Tools

Still Image Drivers

Web Services on Devices

Web Services on Devices Reference

WIA and STI Driver Reference

The following table contains reference information for Windows Image Acquisition
(WIA) drivers and for Still Imaging (STI) drivers. These drivers control devices, including
scanners and cameras, that capture still images. For more information about these
drivers, see Windows Image Acquisition Drivers and Still Image Drivers.

The following sections describe the interfaces, functions, structures, and properties used
by WIA and STI drivers.

Section Description

Device Interface Classes for Device class GUID for imaging devices.
Imaging Devices

IWiaMiniDrv Interface Interface for managing all communications between a WIA

minidriver and the WIA service.

WIA Driver Services Library Helper functions used by a WIA minidriver to manage device items
Functions and data transfers.

WIA Properties Properties of WIA devices, including status, capabilities, and device
identification information.

WIA Utility Library Functions Utility functions and classes used by a WIA minidriver to support
and Classes debugging and to perform common tasks.

IWiaMiniDrvCallBack Callback interface for transferring status and image data between
Interface the WIA service and a WIA minidriver.

IWiaDrvItem Interface Interface used by a WIA minidriver to manage a tree of WIA driver
items.

IWiaErrorHandler Interface Interface used by a WIA minidriver to provide error status and to
support error recovery.

IWiaImageFilter Interface Interface implemented by an image processing filter and called by

the WIA service to communicate with the filter.

IWiaLog Interface and Interface and macros used by a WIA minidriver to record trace,
Diagnostic Log Macros error, and warning messages to a diagnostic log file.

IWiaSegmentationFilter Interface used by a WIA minidriver to detect regions in a

Interface segmented image.
 Section Description

IWiaTransferCallback Interface implemented by an image processing filter and called by

Interface the WIA service to initiate the processing of image streams.

WIA Microdriver Functions, Functions, structures, and commands used by WIA microdrivers.
Structures, and Commands

WIA User Interface Interface used by device vendors to provide custom user interfaces
Extensions for their devices.

WIA Structures Structures used by driver-level WIA methods and functions.

Still Image Interfaces Interfaces, structures, data types, and control codes used by STI
drivers.

Web Services on Devices Web Services on Devices information, including Scan Service (WS-
Reference SCAN)

Related sections
Imaging DDI reference
Kernel-Mode Driver Architecture Design
Guide
Article • 03/18/2022

７ Note

For information about programming interfaces that your driver can implement or
call, see the Kernel-Mode Driver Reference.

This section includes general concepts to help you understand kernel-mode

programming and describes specific techniques of kernel programming. For a general
overview of Windows Drivers, see Getting Started with Windows Drivers, which provides
a general overview of Windows components, lists the types of device drivers used in
Windows, discusses the goals of Windows device drivers, and discusses generic sample
device drivers included in the kit.

This section contains conceptual information that describes and helps you build kernel-
mode drivers.

An Overview containing:
An overview of Windows Components
Design Goals for Kernel-Mode Drivers
A catalogue of Sample Kernel-Mode Drivers
Kernel Driver Development Best Practices, as compiled by the Microsoft Surface
team

Kernel-Mode Components describes the primary kernel-mode managers and

components of the Windows operating system.

Component Description

Managers

Windows Manages objects: files, devices, synchronization mechanisms, registry keys,

Kernel-Mode and so on.
Object
Manager

Windows Manages physical memory for the operating system.

Kernel-Mode
Memory
Manager
Component Description

Windows Handles the execution of all threads in a process.

Kernel-Mode
Process and
Thread
Manager

Windows Manages the communication between applications and the interfaces

Kernel-Mode provided by device drivers.
I/O Manager

Windows A subsystem of the I/O manager, the Plug and Play (PnP) Manager
Kernel-Mode enables a PC to recognize when a device is added to the system.
Plug and Play
Manager

Windows Manages the orderly change in power status for all devices that support
Kernel-Mode power state changes.
Power
Manager

Windows Manages the registry, such as monitoring changes in the registry or

Kernel-Mode registering callbacks on specific registry data.
Configuration
Manager

Windows Implements transaction processing in kernel mode.

Kernel-Mode
Kernel
Transaction
Manager

Windows Provides routines for your driver to work with access control.
Kernel-Mode
Security
Reference
Monitor

Libraries

Windows Implements the core functionality that everything else in the operating
Kernel-Mode system depends upon. The Microsoft Windows kernel provides basic low-
Kernel Library level operations such as scheduling threads or routing hardware
interrupts.

Windows Refers to kernel-mode components that provide a variety of services to

Kernel-Mode device drivers, including: object management, memory management,
Executive process and thread management, input/output management, and
Support configuration management.
Library
 Component Description

Windows A set of common utility routines needed by various kernel-mode

Kernel-Mode components.
Run-Time
Library

Windows A safe string library to provide greater security in kernel-mode

Kernel-Mode development.
Safe String
Library

Windows A direct memory access (DMA) library for device driver developers.
Kernel-Mode
DMA Library

Windows A hardware abstraction layer (HAL) for kernel-mode driver development.

Kernel-Mode
HAL Library

Windows A transactional logging system, the Common Log File System (CLFS).
Kernel-Mode
CLFS Library

Windows A general mechanism for managing components, called Windows

Kernel-Mode Management Instrumentation (WMI).
WMI Library

Writing WDM Drivers and Introduction to WDM provide information needed to

write drivers using the Windows Driver Model (WDM).

Device Objects and the other topics in Device Objects and Device Stacks describe
how the operating system represents devices by device objects.

Memory Management for Windows Drivers illustrates how kernel-mode drivers

allocate memory for purposes such as storing internal data, buffering data during
I/O operations, and sharing memory with other kernel-mode and user-mode
components.

Security From Controlling Device Access and Privileges to SDDL for Device objects,
ensure that your drivers are as secure as possible.

Handling IRPs describes how kernel-mode drivers handle I/O request packets
(IRPs).

DMA Direct Memory Access (DMA) is a critical aspect of driver development, and
the topics in this node cover DMA from A to Z.
Controller Objects represent a physical device controller with attached devices.

Interrupt Service Routines (ISRs) handle interrupts for drivers of a physical device
that receives interrupts.

Message-Signaled Interrupts trigger an interrupt by writing a value to a particular

memory address.

Deferred Procedure Calls (DPC Objects) can be queued from ISRs and are
executed at a later time and at a lower IRQL than the ISR.

Plug and Play (PnP) focuses on the system software support for PnP and how
drivers use that support to implement PnP.

Power Management describes the architecture that provides a comprehensive

approach to system and device power management.

Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) are extensions to your kernel-

mode driver, which enable your driver to become a WMI provider. A WMI provider
makes measurement and instrumentation data available to WMI consumers, such
as user-mode applications.

Driver Programming Techniques Programming drivers in the kernel mode of

Windows requires techniques that sometimes differ significantly from those of
ordinary user-mode programming.
Mobile broadband
Article • 01/20/2022

Use the docs in this section to learn more about mobile broadband and how to
configure mobile broadband experiences for your customers.

Overview

Using metadata to configure mobile broadband experiences

Mobile operator scenarios

Multifunction device driver design
guide
Article • 03/03/2023

A multifunction device occupies one location on its parent bus but contains more than
one function. Combination printer/scanner/fax devices and modem/network cards are
common multifunction devices.

In a multifunction device, the individual functions are independent. This means the
functions must have the following characteristics:

The functions cannot have start-order dependencies.

The resource requirements for one function cannot be expressed in terms of the
resources of another function (for example, function1 uses I/O port x and function2
uses port x + 200).

Each function must be able to operate as a separate device, even if it is serviced by

the same drivers as another function.

Each function on the device must be enumerated.

Resource requirements for each function must be communicated to the PnP

manager.

There must be INF files and drivers for each function.

The component responsible for each of these tasks depends on the multifunction
standard for the device's parent bus, the extent to which the device conforms to the
standard, and the capabilities of the parent bus driver.

If the device complies with the multifunction standards for its bus, your driver
requirements are significantly reduced. Industry-wide multifunction standards have been
defined for the PC Card and PCI buses.

If you are working with a multifunction DVD/CD-ROM device used for data storage (not
for audio/video playback), you should use the system-supplied WDM DVD class driver,
which treats the device as a single logical unit.

For a multifunction device that combines other functionality, you can use a system-
supplied driver and INF file if the device complies with the multifunction standards for
its bus. The system supplied multifunction driver (mf.sys) can handle the bus-level
enumeration and resource allocation requirements for the device, and the system-
supplied INF (mf.sys) can install the multifunction device. You need to supply only a
function driver and INF file for each of the individual device functions.

If the device does not comply with the standard for its bus, you might need to supply a
driver equivalent to mf.sys in functionality, in addition to function drivers and INF files
for the device functions.

To install a multifunction device, you typically provide a base INF file for the device and
an additional INF file for each of the device's functions. The base INF file typically copies
the INF files for the device's individual functions. For information about how to
accomplish this, see Copying INFs.

The following sections describe driver and installation requirements for various types of
multifunction devices:

Supporting Multifunction PC Card Devices

Supporting Multifunction PCI Devices

Supporting Multifunction Devices On Other Buses

Using the System-Supplied Multifunction Bus Driver

Creating Resource Maps for a Multifunction Device

See INF File Sections and INF File Directives for information about INF file syntax.

The Windows Driver Kit (WDK) includes a separate section that describes how to support
multifunction audio devices.
Network Adapter WDF Class Extension
(NetAdapterCx)
Article • 12/09/2022

Overview
Starting in Windows 10, version 2004, the Windows Driver Kit (WDK) includes a Network
Adapter WDF Class Extension module (NetAdapterCx) that enables you to write a
KMDF-based client driver for a Network Interface Controller (NIC). NetAdapterCx gives
you the power and flexibility of WDF and the networking performance of NDIS, and
makes it easy to write a driver for your NIC.

In previous versions of Windows, WDF and NDIS had individual advantages, but did not
interoperate well. The only way to write a NIC driver was to write an NDIS miniport
driver. To use WDF in an NDIS miniport driver, you had to write extra code in your driver,
and even then, you only had access to a small subset of WDF functionality.

With the NetAdapterCx model, conversely, you write a real WDF driver for your NIC. This
means that your NetAdapterCx driver has access to full WDF functionality, as well as
networking-specific APIs and I/O support from the NetAdapter class extension. As
shown in the block diagram below, NetAdapterCx still works behind the scenes with
NDIS, but it handles all the interaction with NDIS on your behalf.
Additional info
The following video Network Adapter Class Extension: Overview discusses the benefits
of using NetAdapterCx.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/videoplayer/embed/RE5daTH?postJsllMsg=true

To learn how to port an NDIS 6.x miniport driver to the NetAdapterCx NIC driver model,
see Porting NDIS miniport drivers to NetAdapterCx.

To start working right away with driver samples on GitHub, clone our NetAdapter-Cx-
Driver-Samples repo.

To see the source code for NetAdapterCx itself, or perform step-through debugging, see
our Network-Adapter-Class-Extension repo on GitHub.
If you would like to work with Microsoft as you develop a NetAdapterCx client driver, or
have feedback on the class extension, please send us an email.

The following video Network Adapter Class Extension: Roadmap and Collaboration
discusses future roadmap and collaboration opportunities.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/videoplayer/embed/RE5ddHE?postJsllMsg=true

Topics
This section contains the following topics:

Porting NDIS miniport drivers to NetAdapterCx

Building a NetAdapterCx client driver
INF files for NetAdapterCx client drivers
Managing the lifetime of objects in NetAdapterCx
Accessing configuration information
Debugging a NetAdapterCx client driver
Transferring network data
NetAdapterCx receive side scaling (RSS)
Configuring power management
NDIS-WDF function equivalents
NetAdapterCx limitations
Mobile Broadband (MBB) WDF class extension (MBBCx)
Wi-Fi WDF class extension (WiFiCx)
Network Driver Design Guide
Article • 02/17/2023

This Network Driver Design Guide describes how to design and create network device
drivers for Windows operating systems beginning with Windows Vista.

This guide includes the following sections:

Introduction to Network Drivers

NDIS version guide

NDIS Core Functionality

Scalable Networking

Virtualized Networking

Wireless Networking

Network Module Registrar

Winsock Kernel

IP Helper

Windows Filtering Platform Callout Drivers

System Area Networks

Remote NDIS (RNDIS)

Kernel Mode SDK Topics for Network Drivers

Previous Versions of Network Drivers

Near field communications (NFC) design
guide
Article • 11/15/2022

Windows exposes a rich set of experiences using NFC technology including:

Wi-Fi Direct pairing - Peripheral devices can participate in Tap and Setup and Tap
and Reconnect use cases.
Near field proximity – Provides a common surface for Windows to use NFP
capabilities.
Smart card support – Allows callers to the NFC device driver to perform low level
smart card operations on NFC contactless smart cards.
NFC power management - NFC drivers intelligently manage the power state of the
device.

To enable NFC support, Microsoft relies on IHVs to provide device drivers that
implement the device driver interface (DDI) defined in these topics. Use the User-Mode
Driver Framework (UMDF) 2.0 to write NFC drivers for Windows.

Related topics
Getting Started with UMDF
NFC device driver interface (DDI) reference
Parallel Device Driver Design Guide
Article • 03/14/2023

This section includes:

Introduction to Parallel Ports and Devices

System-Supplied Parallel Drivers

Vendor-Supplied Parallel Drivers

Parallel Devices Reference

Partner app development
Article • 03/03/2023

Partners have the ability to create special use applications for things like the Windows
10 settings app. Some partner-specific app development scenarios require functionality,
such as access to system APIs, that isn't available to APIs with General capabilities.
Instead these apps require Restricted or special use capabilities, allowing for
functionality available for partner development in a controlled fashion.

In this section
Topic Description

Background tasks and custom Learn how to use tasks and triggers in conjunction with your
triggers for device drivers device drivers and apps.

Create a partner settings app Learn how to create an OEM settings apps for custom hardware
components to help differentiate your brand.

Mobile Broadband Learn more about mobile broadband and how to configure
mobile broadband experiences for your customers.

Wi-fi Direct Learn more about Wi-Fi Direct and the Wi-Fi Direct Services API
in Windows.
PCI driver programming guide
Article • 03/14/2023

The following table summarizes the PCIe features that are supported by different
versions of Windows. For details, see the specified sections in the official PCIe
specification .

Feature Minimum
Windows
version

Resizable BAR capability

Windows 10
See section 7.22.

Atomic Operations
Windows 10
See section 6.15.

ACPI additions for FW latency optimizations

Windows 10
See ACPI Additions for FW Latency Optimizations

ATS/PRI
Windows 10
- ATS specification

- Errata for the PCI Express® Base Specification Revision 3.1, Single Root I/O
Virtualization and Sharing Revision 1.1, Address Translation and Sharing Revision
1.1, and M.2 Specification Revision 1.0

Optimized Buffer Flush/Fill (OBFF)

- Windows 8

See section 6.19. - Windows

Server 2012

Latency Tolerance Reporting (LTR) Capability

- Windows 8

See section 7.25. - Windows

Server 2012

Alternative Routing-ID Interpretation (ARI)

- Windows 8

See section 6.13. - Windows

Server 2012

Message Signaled Interrupt (MSI/MSI-X) Support

-
See section 6.1.4. Windows Vista

- Windows
Server 2008 R2

TLP Processing Hints (TPH)

- Windows 8

See section 6.17. - Windows

Server 2012
 Feature Minimum
Windows
version

Single Root I/O Virtualization (SR-IOV)

- Windows 8

See Single Root I/O Virtualization (SR-IOV). - Windows

Server 2012

In this section
PCI Power Management and Device Drivers
Accessing PCI Device Configuration Space
I/O Resource Usage Reduction
Order of Resources in Start-Device IRP
PCI Express FAQ for Graphics
PCI Sample
Obtaining PCI Segment Values

See Also
Official PCIe specification
PCMCIA Bus Driver Design Guide
Article • 03/14/2023

This section includes:

Access Attribute Memory of a PCMCIA Device

PCMCIA_INTERFACE_STANDARD Interface for Memory Cards

PCMCIA IRQ Routing on Windows XP

POS device driver design guide
Article • 03/03/2023

This section provides driver design guidance for point-of-service (POS) devices.

In this section
Topic Description

POS driver samples Provides samples that demonstrate how to create universal drivers
for point-of-service (POS) devices.

Barcode scanner Bluetooth Describes UUIDs for use with the Bluetooth Service Discovery
service UUIDs Protocol (SDP) for barcode scanners.

Barcode scanner events Describes events that are specific to barcode scanners.

Magnetic stripe reader Describes events that are specific to magnetic stripe readers (MSRs).
events

POS events Describes general POS events that are passed from the device driver
to the POS API layer.

Related sections
POS DDI reference
Power Metering and Budgeting Design
Guide
Article • 01/20/2022

This section describes the Power Metering and Budgeting (PMB) infrastructure and the
Power Meter Interface (PMI).

This section contains the following topics:

Overview of the Power Metering and Budgeting Infrastructure

User-Mode Power Service

Power Meter Interface

Software Defined Batteries

ACPI Power Meter Interface

Energy Meter Interface

EMI naming convention

Printer driver design guide
Article • 03/03/2023

） Important

We recommend that you use Microsoft's IPP inbox class driver, along with Print
Support Apps (PSA), to customize the print experience in Windows 10 and 11 for
printer device development.

For more information, see the Print support app design guide.

This section provides information on designing, testing, and debugging printer drivers.

In this section
V4 Printer Drivers

Microsoft Printer Drivers

Printer Driver Overview

Microsoft Universal Printer Driver

Microsoft PostScript Printer Driver

Microsoft Plotter Driver

GDI Printer Drivers

Print Ticket and Print Capabilities Technologies

Writing 64-Bit Printer Drivers

Installing and Configuring Printer Drivers

Printer Configuration

Generic Description Language (GDL)

GDL Reference

GDL Examples

Printer Autoconfiguration
Autoconfiguration Details

Autoconfiguration Implementation Options

Bidirectional Communication

Bidirectional Communication Schema Reference

Bidi Interfaces and Enumerations

Asynchronous User Notification Schema

Web Services for Devices Print Service Schema

Printer Driver Isolation

Customizing Microsoft Printer Drivers

COM Interfaces for Printer Web Pages

Print Pipeline Property Bag

Additional Printer Topics

Print Spooler Components

Printer Driver Testing and Debugging

Related sections
Print DDI reference
SD Bus Driver Design Guide
Article • 03/14/2023

SD Card Driver Stack

Opening, Initializing and Closing an SD Card Bus Interface

Handling SD Card Interrupts

SD Card Requests

SD Card I/O Requests

Secure Digital Requests That Use Direct I/O

Secure Digital Requests That Use Extended I/O

Managing SD Cards in User-Mode Applications

Restrictions on SD Card Drivers

SD Card Hardware Identifiers

For information about Secure Digital (SD) device identification strings, see Identifiers for
Secure Digital (SD) Devices.

Restrictions on SD Card Drivers

Certain restrictions apply to Secure Digital (SD) card device drivers that manage a
function on an SD combo or multifunction card. The driver stacks for the various card
functions on a multifunction card must operate independently of one another. To ensure
this independence, the bus driver rejects the following operations:

SD commands that change the device state, such as SELECT_CARD.

SD I/O commands that specify function zero but are outside the range of the
address specified in the function basic register (FBR).

SD I/O commands that specify a function number of a different device stack.

SD device drivers can manage the host controller's common register set and the state of
the device by calling SdBusSubmitRequest with function requests of type
SDRF_GET_PROPERTY and SDRF_SET_PROPERTY. For a description of these function
request types, see SD_REQUEST_FUNCTION.

SD Bus Sample (Windows 8.1)

This sample (no longer supported) is a functional Secure Digital (SD) IO driver. The
driver is written using the Kernel Mode Driver Framework. It is a driver for a generic
mars development board that implements the SDIO protocol without additional
functionality.

Download the Storage SDIO driver sample from GitHub.

Introduction to the Sensor and Location
Platform in Windows
Article • 01/20/2022

The Windows operating system provides native support for sensor devices. This support
includes location sensors such as GPS devices. As part of this support, the platform
provides a standard way for device manufacturers to expose sensor devices to software
developers and consumers. At the same time, the platform gives developers a
standardized API and device driver interface (DDI) to work with sensors and sensor data.
This section summarizes the Windows sensor and location platform, discusses the
various parts of the platform, and describes how the pieces work together to provide a
comprehensive system for working with sensors.

Sensor Device Overview

Sensors come in many configurations and, from a certain perspective, almost anything
that provides data about physical phenomena can be called a sensor. Although we
typically think of sensors as hardware devices, logical sensors can also provide
information through emulation of sensor functionality in software or firmware. Also, a
single hardware device can contain multiple sensors.

The sensor and location platform organizes sensors into categories, which represent
broad classes of sensor devices, and types, which represent specific kinds of sensors. For
example, a sensor in a video game controller that detects the position and movement of
a player's hand (perhaps for a video bowling game) would be categorized as an
Orientation sensor, but its type would be 3-D Accelerometer. In code, Windows
represents categories and types by using globally unique identifiers (GUIDs), many of
which are predefined. Device manufacturers can create new categories and types by
defining and publishing new GUIDs, when it is required.

Location devices comprise one especially interesting category. By now, most people are
familiar with global positioning systems (GPS). In Windows, a GPS is a kind of sensor
that is part of the Location category. The Location category could include other sensor
types. Some of these sensor types are software based, such as an IP resolver that
provides location information based on an Internet address, a cellular phone tower
triangulator that determines location based on nearby towers, or a sensor that
determines location from the presence of Wi-Fi networks.
About the Platform
The Windows sensor and location platform consists of the following developer and user
components:

The DDI. Windows provides a standard way for sensor devices to connect to the
computer and to provide data to other subsystems.

The Windows Sensor API provides a set of methods, properties, and events to work
with connected sensors and sensor data.

The Windows Location API, which is built on the Windows Sensor API, provides a
set of programming objects. These objects include scripting objects, for working
with location information.

The Control Panel gives computer users control over location settings.

The following sections describe each of these components.

Device Driver Interface

Sensor manufacturers can create device drivers to connect sensors with Windows.
Sensor device drivers are implemented by using the Windows Portable Devices (WPD)
driver model, which is based on the Windows User Mode Driver Framework
(UMDF).Many device drivers have been written by using these frameworks. Because
these technologies are established, experienced device driver programmers will find
writing a sensor driver to be a familiar task. The sensor DDI uses specific UMDF and
WPD data types and interfaces, and also defines sensor-specific WPD commands and
parameters, where it is required.

To help make it easier to write a device driver that exposes a sensor to Windows (and to
the sensor and location platform in particular), the operating system includes a driver
class extension. A required component for sensor device drivers, this COM object
provides a simple set of interfaces that enable programmers to implement a sensor
driver without writing lots of boilerplate code. The class extension can also reduce, or
even eliminate, the need to manage WPD calls. This documentation contains detailed
information about the sensor DDI and class extension object.

Sensor API
The Windows Sensor API enables C++ developers to create sensor-based programs by
using a set of COM interfaces. The API defines interfaces to perform common sensor
programming tasks that include managing sensors by category, type, or ID, managing
sensor events, working with individual sensors and sensor collections, and working with
sensor data. The Windows SDK includes header files, documentation, samples, and tools
to help guide software developers on how to use sensors in Windows programs.

Location API
Built on the sensor platform, the Location API provides an easy way to retrieve data
about geographic location while protecting user privacy. The Location API provides its
functionality through a set of COM interfaces that represent objects. These objects can
be used by programmers who understand how to use COM through the C++
programming language, or in scripting languages, such as JScript. Scripting support
gives easy access to location data for projects that run in the Local Computer zone, such
as gadgets. The Windows SDK includes header files, documentation (including scripting
reference documentation), samples, and tools to help guide Web and software
developers on how to use location information in their programs.

User Control Panel

Windows includes a control panel that allows computer users to enable or disable
location settings. Because thesesettings can expose sensitive data, this user interface
gives users control over whether programs have access to their location.

Whitepapers
Title Description

HID Sensors Usages This paper provides information about the HID Sensor Class
Driver for Windows 8 and later operating systems.

Integrating Ambient Light This paper provides information about ambient light sensor
Sensors with Computers (ALS) features in the Windows 10 operating system.
Running Windows 10 Creators
Update

Integrating Motion and This paper is intended to help OEMs, ODMs, and IHVs
Orientation Sensors understand motion and orientation sensor capabilities and
requirements for Windows 10 and earlier operating systems.

Related sections
Sensors DDI reference
Sensors Blogs
Serial Controller Driver Design Guide
Article • 07/01/2022

You can design a driver or application that uses the serial I/O request interface to
communicate with a peripheral device connected to a serial port. A serial port is a
hardware communication interface on a serial controller, which is a 16550 UART or
compatible device. To control a serial port to which a peripheral device is permanently
connected, you can design a custom serial controller driver that works with version 2 of
the serial framework extension (SerCx2), which replaces version 1 (SerCx).

In older versions of Windows, a named serial COM port located on the case of a PC, the
inbox Serial.sys and Serenum.sys drivers were used.

７ Note

This topic describes programming traditional COM ports. For information on USB
attached serial ports, see USB serial driver (Usbser.sys).

SerCx2
You can write a serial controller driver that works together with version 2 of the serial
framework extension (SerCx2) to manage a serial controller. You can also write a
peripheral driver for a peripheral device that is connected to a port on a serial controller
that is jointly managed by SerCx2 and a serial controller driver. This peripheral driver
uses the serial I/O request interface to transfer data to and from the device. An
extension-based serial controller driver handles all hardware-specific tasks for the serial
controller, but uses SerCx2 to perform many system tasks that are common to all serial
controllers. SerCx2 is a system-supplied component starting with Windows 8.1.

SerCx2 relieves the serial controller driver of the processing work required to manage
time-outs, and to coordinate I/O transactions that compete for access to the serial
controller. As a result, the serial controller driver is smaller and simpler. The hardware
vendor for the serial controller supplies an extension-based serial controller driver that
manages the hardware-specific functions in the serial controller, and that relies on
SerCx2 to perform generic serial-controller tasks. This driver communicates with SerCx2
through the SerCx2 device driver interface.

For more information about SerCx2, see Using Version 2 of the Serial Framework
Extension (SerCx2).
In this section
Using Version 2 of the Serial Framework Extension (SerCx2)
Previous Versions of Windows - Serial Controller Drivers
Serial IRP major function codes
Serial Port Console Redirection Table (SPCR)
Smart Card Reader Devices Design
Guide
Article • 01/20/2022

Design guide for developing drivers for smart card reader devices.

In this section
Topic Description

Smart Card Describes the standard environment for the smart card reader driver.
Driver
Environment

Management Explains how reader drivers manage IOCTL requests, how the callback routine
of IOCTL mechanism works, and what a reader driver must do to initialize its callback
Requests in a routines.
Smart Card
Reader Driver

WDM Reader Lists the routines that are required by a WDM reader driver.
Driver

Smart Card The smart card minidriver provides a simpler alternative to developing a legacy
Minidrivers cryptographic service provider (CSP) by encapsulating most of the complex
cryptographic operations from the card minidriver developer.

Smart Card A table listing the Smart Card reader states and their meanings.
Reader States

Installing Smart Provides installation information that is specific to smart card reader drivers for
Card Reader Windows.
Drivers

Registering a Provides required registry values and their descriptions for registering a WDM
WDM Smart Smard Card Reader driver.
Card Reader
Driver

Enabling Smart Registry value name and contents of the registry value for event logging.
Card Event
Logging in the
Registry
Topic Description

WDM Device Instructions for complying with the naming conventions for device names in
Names for Windows operating systems.
Smart Card
Readers

Smart Card Describes the smart card driver libraries support of debugging features.
Driver
Debugging

Specifications To work with the smart card support in Microsoft Windows operating systems,
and Resources smart card readers and cards should be compatible with Interoperability
Specification for ICCs and Personal Computer Systems. Smart card readers and
device drivers should also be Plug and Play compliant.
Simple Peripheral Bus (SPB) Driver
Design Guide
Article • 01/20/2022

This section describes how to write a driver for a simple peripheral bus (SPB) controller
device or for a peripheral device that is connected to an SPB. The SPB category includes
buses such as I²C and SPI. The hardware vendor for an SPB controller device provides an
SPB controller driver to manage the hardware functions in the controller. This driver
might support a family of similar controller devices. The hardware vendor for an SPB-
connected peripheral device provides an SPB peripheral driver to manage the hardware
functions in the peripheral device. This driver might support a family of peripheral
devices across a variety of hardware platforms that provide compatible SPBs.

In versions of Windows before Windows 8, the operating system obtained information

from SPB-connected devices on a PC motherboard only indirectly through the platform
firmware. Starting with Windows 8, hardware vendors can supply Windows drivers to
directly control their SPB controllers and their SPB-connected peripheral devices, and to
make these devices available for use by the operating system and by applications. For
more information, see SPB Controller Drivers and SPB Peripheral Device Drivers.

SPBs are frequently used to connect low-speed peripheral devices to motherboard

chipsets and System on a Chip (SoC) modules. An integrated circuit requires fewer pins
to connect to a serial bus than to a parallel bus, which transmits multiple bits of data per
clock cycle. Typically, SPBs are used in cost-sensitive applications in which low pin
counts and simple connections are more important than data transmission speed.
Because SPBs run at low speeds and require few electrical connections, they are
frequently used in applications in which battery power must be conserved.

For example, the PC motherboard in a laptop computer might use an I²C bus to
communicate with a low-speed device that monitors the battery level. Similarly, the SoC
module in a smart phone or other mobile device might use an I²C bus to connect to a
sensor device, such as an accelerometer, a GPS device, or a temperature sensor.

An SPB is not a Plug and Play bus. Peripheral devices typically have fixed connections to
an SPB and cannot be removed. Even if a peripheral device can be unplugged from a
slot on an SPB, the slot is typically dedicated to this device. During system startup, the
ACPI firmware in the hardware platform enumerates the SPB-connected peripheral
devices for the Plug and Play manager, and specifies the hardware resources that are
dedicated to each device.
Included in these resources is a connection ID that identifies the device's connection to
the SPB. The connection ID encapsulates the information (for example, a bus address
and a bus clock frequency) that an SPB controller requires to establish a connection to
the device. Other hardware resources might include an interrupt to which the driver
connects its ISR. However, the hardware resources for the device do not include memory
for device registers. An SPB-connected peripheral device is not memory mapped and
can be accessed only through the SPB. For more information, see Connection IDs for
SPB-Connected Peripheral Devices.

An SPB provides no bus-specific means to convey interrupt requests from peripheral

devices to the processor. Instead, an SPB-connected peripheral device signals an
interrupt through a separate hardware path that lies outside of both the SPB and the
SPB controller. The interrupt service routine (ISR) for an SPB-connected peripheral
device must run at IRQL = PASSIVE_LEVEL so that it can synchronously send I/O requests
to serially access the hardware registers of the device over the SPB. For more
information, see Interrupts from SPB-Connected Peripheral Devices.
Storage driver design guide
Article • 01/20/2022

Storage drivers include class, port, miniport, and filter drivers. Typically, a device vendor
will implement a miniport driver for a specific adapter or adapter type. Although not
common, a new storage class can be defined and a new class driver developed for it.
Storage classes in Windows include the Disk, CDROM, USB storage, and encrypted drive
classes. Storage driver development is usually limited to writing a miniport driver to
work with the StorPort port driver.

Other types of storage drivers are secure silo drivers and Device Specific Modules
(_DSM) for multipath I/O. For storage management, WMI providers are developed as a
control interface to a driver.

The storage driver design guide includes the following sections:

Roadmap for Developing Windows Storage Drivers

Roadmap for Developing Storport Miniport Drivers
Storage Drivers
Storage Class Drivers
Storage Port Drivers
Storage Miniport Drivers
Storage Virtual Miniport Drivers
Storage Filter Drivers
Crash Dump Filter Drivers
Storage Silo Drivers
CD-ROM Drivers
Tape Drivers
Changer Drivers
Storage Scenarios

Samples
Studying samples is a practical way to see how working storage drivers are developed.
Sample storage drivers are available on GitHub.

Driver Verification for StorPort

Using code analysis tools during driver development and testing helps to catch
performance problems and defects in a storage driver. The Static Driver Verifier (SDV)
tool is available to discover defects in storage driver code. Included with SDV are
compliance rules for verifying proper usage of StorPort routines by miniport drivers.
Storage Firmware Update (SFU)
Article • 03/03/2023

Storage Firmware Update (SFU) provides a reliable and authenticated method for
updating firmware on NVMe storage drives that have shipped to customers.

In this section
Topic Description

Storage Firmware Provides detailed guidance on implementing SFU and the process of creating
Update (SFU) new firmware images to be installed on the target NVMe storage drives.
driver
Streaming media device driver design
guide
Article • 06/19/2023

Use the guidance in this section to design and implement drivers for devices that stream
video and audio (for example, webcams and digital camcorders).

New and updated content for Windows 11,

version 22H2
Background segmentation portrait mode and eye gaze stare mode driver sample

KSPROPERTY_CAMERACONTROL_EXTENDED_BACKGROUNDSEGMENTATION

KSPROPERTY_CAMERACONTROL_EXTENDED_EYEGAZECORRECTION

USB Video Class (UVC) camera implementation guide

New and updated content for Windows 11

Camera privacy shutters and kill switches

Privacy shutter/switch notification

Digital Window overview

Microsoft extensions to USB Video Class 1.5 specification

Create device property keys from the MS OS descriptor in USB Video Class (UVC)
camera firmware

Network camera design guide

In this section
Camera Profile V2 developer specification

USB Video Class (UVC) camera implementation guide

USB Video Class (UVC) driver implementation checklist

Frame Server Custom Media Source

Universal camera driver design guide for Windows 10

Device firmware update for USB devices without using a co-installer

360 camera video capture

Camera intrinsics

DShow Bridge implementation guidance for UVC devices

Camera class INF file setting for Universal camera drivers

OEM guidance on settings for the Windows 10 in-box camera app

Video stabilization registry settings

Extended camera controls

Camera driver bring up guide

Camera Device Orientation

Streaming Media Samples

AVStream Minidrivers

AVStream Property Sets

Encoder Property Sets

Encoder Events

AV/C Protocol Driver Function Codes

AV/C Streaming Protocol Driver Function Codes

AV/C Streaming Constants

Video Capture Minidriver Property Sets

Video Capture Minidriver Event Sets

Device transform manager events

Windows 2000 Kernel Streaming Model Design Guide

Kernel Streaming Proxy Plug-ins

Kernel Streaming Topology Nodes

Kernel Streaming Interface Sets

Kernel Streaming Event Sets

Kernel Streaming Method Sets

Stream Class SRB Reference

DVD Decoder Minidriver Property Sets

DVD Decoder Minidriver Event Sets

COM Interfaces

Broadcast Driver Architecture Property, Event, and Method Sets

Broadcast Driver Architecture Constants

Related sections
Streaming media DDI reference
Test Authoring and Execution
Framework (TAEF)
Article • 01/20/2022

The Test Authoring and Execution Framework (TAEF) provides a consistent mechanism
for developers and testers to write and run automation. The framework provides a single
infrastructure that allows them to share tests across disciplines and teams.
Universal Serial Bus (USB)
Article • 11/18/2022

Universal Serial Bus (USB) provides an expandable, hot-pluggable Plug and Play serial
interface that ensures a standard, low-cost connection for peripheral devices such as
keyboards, mice, joysticks, printers, scanners, storage devices, modems, and video
conferencing cameras. Migration to USB is recommended for all peripheral devices that
use legacy ports such as PS/2, serial, and parallel ports.

The USB-IF is a Special Interest Groups (SIGs) that maintains the Official USB
Specification , test specifications and tools.

Windows operating systems include native support for USB host controllers, hubs, and
devices and systems that comply with the official USB specification. Windows also
provides programming interfaces that you can use to develop device drivers and
applications that communicate with a USB device.

USB in Windows
Windows 10: What's new for USB: Overview of new features and improvements in
USB in Windows 10.

USB FAQ: Frequently asked questions from driver developers about the USB stack
and features that are supported in USB.

Microsoft OS Descriptors for USB Devices: Windows defines MS OS descriptors

that allows better enumeration when connected to system running Windows
operating system.

Development tools
Download the Windows Driver Kit (WDK)
USB samples
UWP app samples for USB
Windows driver samples for USB

Create a USB driver or app for Windows

Introduces you to USB driver development. Provides information about choosing the
most appropriate model for providing a USB driver for your device.

Write a USB client driver (KMDF, UMDF)

This section includes tutorials about writing your first user-mode and kernel-mode USB
drivers by using the USB templates included with Microsoft Visual Studio.

Getting started with USB client driver development

USB device driver programming reference

Write a USB host controller driver

If you're developing an xHCI host controller that isn't compliant with the specification or
developing a custom non-xHCI hardware (such as a virtual host controller), you can
write a host controller driver that communicates with UCX. For example, consider a
wireless dock that supports USB devices. The PC communicates with USB devices
through the wireless dock by using USB over TCP as a transport.

Developing Windows drivers for USB host controllers

USB host controller (UCX) reference

Ucxclass.h
Ucxcontroller.h
Ucxroothub.h
Ucxusbdevice.h
Ucxendpoint.h
Ucxsstreams.h

Write a function controller driver for a USB device

You can develop a controller driver that handles all USB data transfers and commands
sent by the host to the device. This driver communicates with the Microsoft-provided
USB function controller extension (UFX).
Developing Windows drivers for USB function controllers

USB function class extension (UFX) reference

Ufxbase.h
Ufxclient.h
Ufxproprietarycharger.h

Write a USB Type-C connector driver

Windows 10 introduces support for the new USB connector: USB Type-C. You can write a
driver for the connector that communicates with the Microsoft-provided class extension
module: UcmCx to handle scenarios related to Type-C connectors such as, which ports
support Type-C, which ports support power delivery.

Developing Windows drivers for USB Type-C connectors

USB connector manager class extension (UcmCx) reference

Ucmmanager.h

Write a USB dual-role controller driver

USB Dual Role controllers are now supported in Windows 10. Windows includes in-box
client drivers for ChipIdea and Synopsis controllers. For other controllers, Microsoft
provides a set of programming interfaces that allow the dual-role class extension
(UrsCx) and its client driver to communicate with each other to handle the role-
switching capability of a dual-role controller.

For more information about this feature, see:

USB Dual Role Driver Stack Architecture

USB dual-role controller driver programming reference

Ursdevice.h

Write a USB driver for emulated devices

You can develop an emulated Universal Serial Bus (USB) host controller driver and a
connected virtual USB device. Both components are combined into a single KMDF driver
that communicates with the Microsoft-provided USB device emulation class extension
(UdeCx).
Developing Windows drivers for emulated USB devices (UDE)

Emulated USB host controller driver programming reference

Udecxusbdevice.h
Udecxusbendpoint.h
Udecxwdfdevice.h
Udecxurb.h

WDF extension for developing USB drivers

USB connector manager class extension (UcmCx) reference
Ucmmanager.h
USB host controller (UCX) reference
Ucxclass.h
Ucxcontroller.h
Ucxroothub.h
Ucxusbdevice.h
Ucxendpoint.h
Ucxsstreams.h
USB function class extension (UFX) reference
Ufxbase.h
Ufxclient.h
Ufxproprietarycharger.h

Write a UWP app

Talk to USB devices, start to finish: Provides step-by-step instructions about
implementing USB features in a UWP app. To write such an app for a USB device,
you need Visual Studio and Microsoft Windows Software Development Kit (SDK).

Windows.Devices.Usb: UWP namespace programming reference.

Write a Windows desktop app

Write a WinUSB application: Describes how an application can call WinUSB
Functions to communicate with a USB device.

WinUSB functions
Winusb.h
Usbioctl.h
 Common programming scenarios: List of common tasks that a driver or an app
performs in order to communicate with a USB device. Get quick info about the
programming interfaces you need for each task.

Testing USB devices with Windows

Overview of Microsoft USB Test Tool (MUTT) devices

Get information about the tools that you can use to test your USB hardware or software,
capture traces of operations and other system events, and observe how the USB driver
stack responds to a request sent by a client driver or an application.

Read an overview of tests in the Hardware Certification Kit that enable hardware vendors
and device manufacturers to prepare their USB devices and host controllers for
Windows Hardware Certification submission.

Other Resources for USB

Official USB Specification : Provides complete technical details for the USB
protocol.

Microsoft Windows USB Core Team Blog : Check out posts written by the
Microsoft USB Team. The blog focuses on the Windows USB driver stack that works
with various USB Host controllers and USB hubs found in Windows PC. A useful
resource for USB client driver developers and USB hardware designers to
understand the driver stack implementation, resolve common issues, and explain
how to use tools for gathering traces and log files.

OSR Online Lists - ntdev : Discussion list managed by OSR Online for kernel-
mode driver developers.

Windows Hardware Dev Center: Miscellaneous resources based on frequently

asked questions from developers who are new to developing USB devices and
drivers that work with Windows operating systems.

USB-related videos
Understanding USB 3.0 in Windows 8
Building great USB 3.0 devices
USB Debugging Innovations in Windows 8 (Part I, II, & III)
USB hardware for learning
MUTT devices: MUTT and SuperMUTT devices and the accompanying software
package are integrated into the HCK suite of USB tests. They provide automated
testing that can be used during the development cycle of USB controllers, devices
and systems, especially stress testing.

OSR USB FX2 Learning Kit : If you're new to USB driver development. The kit is
the most suitable to study USB samples included in this documentation set. You
can get the learning kit from OSR Online Store.

Learn about Microsoft-provided USB drivers

USB device-side drivers in Windows: Describes the architecture of the USB function
stack.

USB host-side drivers in Windows: Provides an overview of the Universal Serial Bus
(USB) driver stack architecture. Microsoft provides a core stack of drivers that
interoperate with devices that are connected to EHCI and xHCI controllers.

USB-IF device class drivers: Lists the Microsoft-provided drivers for the supported
USB device classes. Windows provides in-box device class drivers for many USB-IF
approved device classes, audio, mass storage, and so on.

USB generic function driver–WinUSB: WinUSB is a generic driver for USB devices
that is included with all versions of Windows since Windows Vista. Windows
provides Winusb.sys that can be loaded as a function driver for a custom device
and a function of a composite device.

USB generic parent driver for composite devices–Usbccgp: Parent driver for USB
devices with multiple functions. Usbccgp creates physical device objects (PDOs) for
each of those functions. Those individual PDOs are managed by their respective
USB function drivers, which could be the Winusb.sys driver or a USB device class
driver.
Windows Device Testing Framework
(WDTF) design guide
Article • 01/20/2022

The Microsoft Windows Device Testing Framework (WDTF) enables you to create,
manage, reuse, and extend device-centric, scenario-based automated tests.

In this section
Topic Description

Writing a To get the most benefit from the Device Fundamental tests, your device should
WDTF have a Simple I/O plug-in that can perform simple I/O to your device. This can be
SimpleIO one of the default Simple I/O plugs that come with WDTF or one that you wrote. To
plug-in for see if your device type is supported and to determine if there are specific
your device requirements for testing, refer to Provided WDTF Simple I/O plug-ins.

Writing Whether you start writing driver tests with the templates provided in the Windows
tests with Driver Kit (WDK), or whether you create the tests on your own, the Microsoft
WDTF Windows Device Testing Framework (WDTF) enables you to create and extend
device-centric, scenario-based automated tests.

Triaging To help you better understand what is going on in your WDTF-based tests, you can
WDTF- use the built-in support for WDTF Object Logging and WPP Software Tracing.
based tests

WDTF The Microsoft Windows Device Testing Framework (WDTF) enables you to create,
Architecture manage, reuse, and extend device-centric, scenario-based automated tests.
and
Overview
Windows Hardware Error Architecture
(WHEA) design guide
Article • 03/14/2023

This section describes the Windows Hardware Error Architecture (WHEA), which provides
support for hardware error reporting and recovery. In this section, the following
information is provided:

An overview of WHEA and its components. For more information, see Windows
Hardware Error Architecture Overview.

How to develop and distribute platform-specific hardware error driver (PSHED)

plug-ins. For more information, see Platform-Specific Hardware Error Driver Plug-
Ins.

How user-mode applications can communicate with the WHEA platform. For more
information, see Windows Hardware Error Architecture-Aware User-Mode
Applications.

In this section
Introduction to the Windows Hardware Error Architecture

New Information for Windows Hardware Error Architecture

Windows Hardware Error Architecture Definitions

Windows Hardware Error Architecture Overview

Platform-Specific Hardware Error Driver Plug-Ins

Windows Hardware Error Architecture-Aware User-Mode Applications

Windows Hardware Error Architecture Debugger Extensions

Related topics
Windows Hardware Error Architecture ACPI Table Specification

Hardware Management and Security

Bug Check 0x124: WHEA_UNCORRECTABLE_ERROR (Windows Debuggers)

Windows Portable Devices
Article • 03/14/2023

In This Section
WPD Design Guide
WPD Programming Guide
WPD Reference
API reference docs for Windows Driver
Kit (WDK)
The Windows driver API reference documentation is presented in two different views. In
the table of contents, select a technology to see the subset of APIs and headers
pertaining to that driver technology. Or, select a header to see all APIs in that header.
When you select an API, the table of contents switches to the technology-scoped view
for that API.

Buses and ports

ｉ REFERENCE

General-purpose I/O (GPIO)

Simple Peripheral Bus (SPB)

Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI)

Universal Serial Bus (USB)

Connectivity

ｉ REFERENCE

Bluetooth

Network

Smart Card Readers

Devices

ｉ REFERENCE

Human Interface Device (HID)

Image and Scan

Print

Sensors
Driver Model

ｉ REFERENCE

Kernel

WDF

Streaming

ｉ REFERENCE

Audio

Camera

System

ｉ REFERENCE

Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI)

Display

File system

Hardware notifications

Storage
Windows driver samples
Article • 03/03/2023

You can browse and download individual Windows 10 driver samples on the Microsoft
Samples portal. You can also clone, fork, or download the Windows-driver-samples
repo on GitHub.

Earlier versions of Windows driver samples are archived at Microsoft Archive on GitHub:

Windows 8.1 driver samples

Windows 8 driver samples

For Windows 7, samples were included in the Windows Driver Kit (WDK).

Driver samples for specific technologies

For more information about the Windows 10 driver samples available for a specific
technology area, see the following topics:

Audio driver samples

AVStream driver samples

Battery driver samples

Biometrics driver samples

Bluetooth driver samples

File system driver samples

General driver samples

General-purpose input/output (GPIO) driver samples

Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) driver samples

Human interface devices (HID) driver samples

Input driver samples

Networking driver samples

Near field communication (NFC) driver samples

Near field proximity (NFP) driver samples

Power framework (PoFx) driver samples

Point of service (POS) driver samples

Print driver samples

Secure Digital (SD) driver samples

Security driver samples

Sensor driver samples

Serial driver samples

Setup samples

Smart card driver samples

Simple peripheral bus (SPB) driver samples

Storage driver samples

Thermal driver samples

Tools samples

Trusted Execution Environment (TrEE) driver samples

Universal Serial Bus (USB) driver samples

Video driver samples

Windows Image Acquisition (WIA) driver samples

Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) driver samples

Windows Portable Device (WPD) driver samples