Audio drivers are based on the Windows driver model (WDM).

To create a WDM audio driver, perform the following steps:

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.

2. Learn the fundamentals of WDM audio drivers.

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

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, and Choosing a Wave Port Driver. If you need help to decide the type of audio driver to learn about, see Custom Audio Driver Type Decision Tree.

4. Learn about WDM audio in Windows Vista and later operating systems.

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

5. 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.

6. Review audio driver samples in the WDK.

   To access and review the audio driver samples in the WDK, see Audio Samples.

7. Make design decisions about your WDM audio driver.

   See Audio Miniport Drivers and COM in the Kernel.

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.

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.

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 the Microsoft 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.