Windows Driver Kit

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Windows Driver Kit
Developer	Microsoft
Release	1992; 34 years ago (1992)
Stable release	10.1.26100.2454 / November 27, 2024; 21 months ago (2024-11-27)[1]
Operating system	Microsoft Windows
Available in	English
License	Proprietary commercial software
Website	docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/drivers/index

The Windows Driver Kit (WDK) is a software toolset from Microsoft that enables the development of device drivers for the Microsoft Windows platform.^[2] It includes documentation, samples, build environments, and tools for driver developers.^[3] A complete toolset for driver development also need the following: a compiler Visual Studio, Windows SDK, and Windows HLK.

Forms of distribution

The Windows Driver Kit is available in several forms, depending on development and build requirements:

• Windows Driver Kit (WDK)^[4] – the primary MSI based installation that integrates with Microsoft Visual Studio and includes headers, libraries, documentation, and driver development and testing tools.

• Enterprise Windows Driver Kit (EWDK)^[5] – a standalone, self-contained environment that includes the build tools, headers, and libraries needed to build Windows drivers without installing Visual Studio. The EWDK is commonly used in automated build systems or in environments that require an isolated toolchain.

• WDK NuGet packages^[6] – package-based distributions of WDK components that can be consumed through NuGet in Visual Studio. These packages allow developers to reference driver development headers and libraries on a per‑project basis without installing the full WDK. They can also be used in continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD) environments to automate driver builds and validation.^[7]

History

Previously, the WDK was known as Device Development Kit (DDK)^[8] for Windows 3.x and Windows 9x. It supported the development of VxD drivers. Later versions for Windows NT and Windows 98SE and ME were called Driver Development Kit (DDK)^[9] 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 (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.^[10]

WDK versions

See also

• Windows Driver Frameworks
• Windows Driver Model
• Windows Logo Kit

References