Purpose

This release of the Microsoft Windows Driver Kit (WDK) documentation provides information about driver development for Windows 7 and earlier versions of the Windows operating system.

The WDK contains preliminary information about the Windows 7 operating system and is subject to change. This kit should not be used to create drivers for public release.

To test your driver and device and earn a "Designed for Windows" logo, you must use the Microsoft Windows Logo Kit (WLK).

For information about how to obtain the latest WDK and WLK, see How to Get the Windows Driver Kit (WDK) and the Windows Logo Kit (WLK).

What's New

For information about what is new in the WDK documentation for the driver technologies that the WDK supports, see New Information.

Important  In conformance with Microsoft support policy, Microsoft is removing Microsoft Windows 2000 from its list of supported installation platforms for the Windows Driver Kit (WDK). The WDK continues to provide a Windows 2000 build environment for the development of drivers targeting Windows 2000.

Windows 2000 moved from Mainstream to Extended Support in June 2005 (as defined in the Microsoft Support Lifecycle policy). The Extended Support phase includes security updates and paid support only; it does not provide support for design changes or new product features. As a result, build tools and platform or library support is limited to Windows XP SP2 and later versions of Windows.

You can install this release of the WDK on the following platforms: Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 with Service Pack 1 (SP1), Windows Vista with Service Pack 1 (SP1), Windows Server 2003 SP2, and Windows XP SP3.

Customers that require Windows 2000 as an installation platform can download the Windows Server 2003 SP1 Driver Development Kit (DDK) at no cost from the Windows Hardware Developer Central Web site.

Target Operating Systems

You can use this release of the WDK to develop drivers that run on the following target operating systems:

Refer to the release notes on the WDK CD to determine the operating systems for which you can build, debug, and test drivers. The WDK CD provides different build environments for different operating systems. The release notes describe the supported build environments and identify the operating systems that a driver can support if it is built by using a particular build environment.

When you install the WDK, you can select which build environments to install, based on the devices and operating systems that you will be developing drivers for.

If you decide, after installing the WDK, that your driver should run on additional operating systems, use the Add or Remove Programs utility in Control Panel to add the build environments for those systems.

See Also