Windows Driver Kit (WDK) Documentation Blog : roadmap

Have You Followed a Roadmap Lately?

wdkblog — Wed, 06 May 2009 05:37:00 GMT

For the past year we have been posting “developer roadmaps” for many driver technologies. Like any map, they are intended to help you get from a starting point to a destination. We’ve tried to focus roadmaps on helping you, if you are new to a technology, to learn about the available driver models, architectural considerations, and nuts-and-bolts of installation and testing to finally complete a working driver that can be provided to customers.

So, we’re wondering how these roadmaps have been working. We’re looking for ways to improve procedures, links, and information in the roadmaps so that you can most efficiently complete typical development tasks.

Can you take a few minutes to help us improve the roadmaps? Just add a comment to this blog post, or send us an email at ddksurv1@microsoft.com. This is what we're looking for:

1. Name any roadmap(s) that you have used—see the list below.

2. Rate the usefulness of the roadmap, from 1 (poor) to 5 (excellent).

3. What was your level of driver development knowledge before you read the roadmap--beginning, intermediate, or expert?

4. Explain how the roadmap helped you (or not) to complete a driver development project or to learn about a technology.

5. Provide any real-world examples of what caused you difficulty, or what worked well.

6. Add any other thoughts about the roadmap, or about topics that it links to, or suggest other types of roadmaps that you’d like to see.

If you can suggest better ways to get developers up to speed and pointed in the right direction, we’d love to hear your opinions!

Here are the WDK roadmap topics currently available on MSDN:

Roadmap for Developing WDM Audio Drivers

Roadmap for Developing Biometric Drivers

Roadmap for Developing Drivers for the Windows Vista Display Driver Model

Roadmap for Developing Drivers for the Windows 2000 Display Driver Model

Roadmap for Developing Native 802.11 Wireless LAN Drivers

Roadmap to Develop MB Miniport drivers

Roadmap for Developing WFP Callout Drivers

Roadmap for Developing Network Drivers with Winsock Kernel

Roadmap for Developing Streaming Minidrivers

－ Mark Lawler [MSFT], WDK Programming Writer

Published Driver Developer Roadmaps in the WDK

wdkblog — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 00:26:00 GMT

The Windows Driver Kit (WDK) writing team is proud to announce the publication of the following driver developer roadmap topics in the WDK documentation set:

These topics, previously referred to as “roadmaps” and published as prototypes in this blog (WFP and Audio), are now part of the WDK documentation set on MSDN and are included in the monthly update available on the WHDC Web site.

Driver developer roadmaps are designed to help driver developers navigate the sections of the WDK documentation set to more quickly learn the basic set of steps in the end-to-end driver development process for a specific type of driver.

These two driver developer roadmap topics are part of a larger set that will be published in the future.

Joe Davies [MSFT], WDK Writing Lead

http://blogs.msdn.com/wdkdocs

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Additional "Roadmap" prototype topic for the Windows Driver Kit for your review

wdkblog — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 18:57:00 GMT

Here is an additional roadmap prototype topic for Windows Driver Model (WDM) audio drivers, written by Eric Bortei-Doku of the WDK writing team. Please review this prototype topic for accuracy, completeness, and general usefulness to new driver developers and experienced driver developers who are new to WDM audio drivers. Please add your comments and let us know what you think.

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Roadmap for Developing WDM Audio Drivers

To create a Windows Driver Model (WDM) audio driver, perform the following steps:

· Step 1: Learn about Windows architecture and drivers.

You must understand the fundamentals of how drivers work in Windows operating systems. Knowing the fundamentals will help you make appropriate design decisions and allow you to streamline your development process. See Understanding Driver and Operating System Basics.

· Step 2: Learn the fundamentals of WDM audio drivers.

Audio drivers in the Windows operating system versions from Windows 98 to Windows Vista conform to WDM and make use of kernel streaming components. To understand the driver design decisions you must make, see Kernel Streaming, Getting Started with WDM Audio Drivers and Introduction to WDM Audio Drivers.

· Step 3: Determine additional WDM audio driver design decisions.

For information about how to make design decisions, see Custom Audio Drivers, Audio Data Formats and Data Ranges, Choosing a Wave Port Driver, and WaveRT.

· Step 4: Learn about the Windows driver build, test, and debug processes and tools.

Building a driver is not the same as building a user-mode application. See Building, Debugging, and Testing Drivers for information about Windows driver build, debug, and test processes, driver signing, and Windows Logo testing. See Driver Development Tools for information about building, testing, verifying, and debugging tools.

· Step 5: Learn about WDM audio in Windows Vista.

The WDM audio driver for Windows Vista does not perform any digital signal processing. Signal processing in Windows Vista is performed by audio processing objects. See System Effects Audio Processing Objects in the Windows Driver Kit (WDK).

· Step 6: Review audio driver samples in the WDK.

To access and review the audio driver samples in the WDK, see How to Get the Windows Driver Kit and the Windows Logo Kit.

· Step 7: Make design decisions about your WDM audio driver.

See Audio Miniport Drivers and COM in the Kernel.

· Step 8: Develop, build, test, and debug your WDM audio driver.

For information about how to develop an audio driver for your specific audio adapter, see Adapter Driver Construction. See Overview of Build, Debug, and Test Process for information about iterative building, testing, and debugging. This process will help ensure that you build a driver that works.

· Step 9: Create a driver package for your WDM audio driver.

For more information, see Providing a Driver Package. For information about how to install an audio adapter, see Installing a Port Class Audio Adapter.

· Step 10: Sign and distribute your WDM audio driver.

The final step is to sign (optional) and distribute the driver. If your driver meets the quality standards that are defined for the Microsoft Windows Logo program, you can distribute it through Microsoft's Windows Update program. For more information, see Distributing a Driver.

These are the basic steps. Additional steps might be necessary based on the needs of your individual driver.

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Thanks for helping us improve the documentation for driver developers in the WDK.

Joe Davies [MSFT], WDK Writing Lead
http://blogs.msdn.com/wdkdocs

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.