A device object, like all object manager objects, can be named or unnamed. When a user-mode application makes an I/O request, it specifies the target of the operation by name. The object manager resolves the name to determine the destination of the I/O request.

A driver can specify a name for a device object when it calls IoCreateDevice or IoCreateDeviceSecure to create the device object. For more information about when and how to name a device object, see NT Device Names.

A named device object can also have an MS-DOS device name, which is a symbolic link created by IoCreateSymbolicLink or IoCreateUnprotectedSymbolicLink. WDM drivers do not in general require an MS-DOS device name. For more information, see MS-DOS Device Names.

This section contains the following subsections.