The Windows Driver Kit (WDK) is a software toolset from
Microsoft that enables the development of
device driver
In computing, a device driver is a computer program that operates or controls a particular type of device that is attached to a computer or automaton. A driver provides a software interface to hardware devices, enabling operating systems and ot ...
s for the
Microsoft Windows
Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...
platform. It includes documentation, samples, build environments, and tools for driver developers. A complete toolset for driver development also need the following: a compiler
Visual Studio,
Windows SDK
Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for ser ...
, and
Windows HLK
The Windows Hardware Lab Kit (Windows HLK) is a test automation framework provided by Microsoft to certify devices for Windows. Earlier similarly released frameworks were called ''Windows Hardware Certification Kit'' (Windows HCK) and ''Windows Lo ...
.
History
Previously, the WDK was known as the Driver Development Kit (DDK) and supported
Windows Driver Model (WDM) development. It got its current name when Microsoft released
Windows Vista and added the following previously separated tools to the kit:
Installable File System Kit (IFS Kit),
Driver Test Manager
The Windows Hardware Lab Kit (Windows HLK) is a test automation framework provided by Microsoft to certify devices for Windows. Earlier similarly released frameworks were called ''Windows Hardware Certification Kit'' (Windows HCK) and ''Windows Lo ...
(DTM), though DTM was later renamed and removed from WDK again.
The DDK for Windows 2000 and earlier versions did not include a compiler; instead one had to install
Visual C++ separately to compile drivers. From the version for Windows XP the DDK and later the WDK include a command-line compiler to compile drivers. One of the reasons Microsoft gave for including a compiler was that the quality of drivers would improve if they were compiled with the same version of the compiler that was used to compile Windows itself while Visual C++ is targeted to application development and has a different product cycle with more frequent changes. The WDK 8.x and later series goes back to require installing a matched version of
Visual Studio separately, but this time the integration is more complete in that you can edit, build and debug the driver from within Visual Studio directly.
DDK versions
Note: Windows NT DDK, Windows 98 DDK and Windows 2000 DDK are no longer made available by Microsoft because of Java-related settlements made by Microsoft with Sun Microsystems.
MSDN: Products Unavailable due to Java-related Settlement
/ref>
WDK versions
See also
* Windows Driver Frameworks
Windows Driver Frameworks (WDF, formerly Windows Driver Foundation), is a set of Microsoft tools and libraries that aid in the creation of device drivers for Windows 2000 and later versions of Windows. It complements Windows Driver Model, abstract ...
* Windows Driver Model
* Windows Logo Kit
The Windows Hardware Lab Kit (Windows HLK) is a test automation framework provided by Microsoft to certify devices for Windows. Earlier similarly released frameworks were called ''Windows Hardware Certification Kit'' (Windows HCK) and ''Windows Lo ...
References
{{MS DevTools
Device drivers
Microsoft application programming interfaces
Microsoft development tools
Programming tools for Windows
