The Windows Vista display driver model (WDDM) requires that a graphics hardware vendor supply a paired user-mode display driver and kernel-mode display driver (or display miniport driver).
To create these display drivers, perform the following steps:
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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 Concepts for all driver developers.
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Step 2: Learn the fundamentals of display drivers for the Windows Vista display driver model.
To learn display driver fundamentals, see Introduction to the Windows Vista Display Driver Model (WDDM), Video Memory Management and GPU Scheduling, and Threading and Synchronization Model of Display Miniport Driver.
For a description of many of the major new features introduced with Windows 8, see:
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Step 3: Learn about user-mode display drivers and issues with display miniport drivers from the User-Mode Display Drivers and Multiple Monitors and Video Present Networks sections.
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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 Developing, Testing, and Deploying 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.
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Step 5: Make additional display driver design decisions.
For information about making design decisions, see Implementation Tips and Requirements for the Windows Vista Display Driver Model and Tasks in the Windows Vista Display Driver Model.
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Step 6: Access and review the display driver samples in the WDK at Display Samples.
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Step 7: Develop, build, test, and debug your display drivers.
For information about how to develop display drivers for your graphics adapter, see Initializing Display Miniport and User-Mode Display Drivers and Windows Vista Display Driver Model Operation Flow. See Developing, Testing, and Deploying Drivers for information about iterative building, testing, and debugging. For debugging tips that are specific to display drivers, see Debugging Tips for the Windows Vista Display Driver Model. This process will help ensure that you build a driver that works.
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Step 8: Create a driver package for your display drivers.
For more information, see Distributing a driver package. For information about how to install display drivers for a graphics adapter, see Installing Display Miniport and User-Mode Display Drivers.
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Step 9: Sign and distribute your display drivers.
The final step is to sign (optional) and distribute the driver. If your driver meets the quality standards that are defined in the Windows Hardware Certification Kit (formerly Windows Logo Kit or WLK), you can distribute it through the Microsoft Windows Update program. For more information, see Distributing a driver package.
These are the basic steps. Additional steps might be necessary based on the needs of your individual driver.
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Build date: 11/29/2012
