Power Management and ACPI
Windows Power and Battery Subsystem Requirements
Introduction to Connected Standby
Energy Smart Software
The Science of Sleep
Timers, Timer Resolution, and Development of Efficient Code
Developing Efficient Background Processes for Windows
Mobile Battery Life Solutions for Windows 7: A Guide for Mobile Platform Professionals
Power Availability Requests
Power Policy Configuration and Deployment in Windows
PPM in Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2
Reducing the Disk Footprint for Windows 7 Hibernation
Using PowerCfg to Evaluate System Energy Efficiency
Windows 7 Brightness Control for Integrated Displays
Windows On/Off Transitions Solutions Guide
Windows Timer Coalescing
Application Power Management Best Practices for Windows Vista
Designing Power-Friendly Devices
Increasing System Power Efficiency through Driver Support for Runtime Idle Detection
Mobile Battery Solutions Guide for Windows Vista
Optimizing Windows Vista Platforms for Energy Efficiency
Power In, Dollars Out: How to Stem the Flow in the Data Center
Processor Power Management in Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008
Recommendations for Power Budgeting with Windows Server
Windows Disk Idle Detection
Battery Life and Energy Efficiency
How to Enable Processor Power Management in Windows Server 2003
ACPI Driver Interface in Windows Vista
Extended PSS ACPI Method Specification
How to Identify the Windows Version in ACPI by Using _OSI
Microsoft Debug Port Table 2 (DBG2)
TPM 2.0 Hardware Interface Table (TPM2)
Microsoft Software Licensing Tables (SLIC and MSDM)
Windows Platform Binary Table (WPBT)
Expand Minimize
1 out of 2 rated this helpful - Rate this topic

Windows Platform Binary Table (WPBT)

Updated: November 29, 2011

File name: windows-platform-binary-table.docx
61.9 KB
Microsoft Word file
Get Office File Viewers

About This Download

A platform can be provisioned with the Windows operating system by entities including an enterprise, a system reseller, or an end-user customer. If the platform has drivers, system services, or executable files that are integral to the platform, the platform binaries must either be distributed as part of the Windows image or they must be injected into the Windows image by each of the possible provisioning entities. A rich set of tools exist to aid Windows provisioning, ranging from driver injection and offline registry management to sysprep imaging tools. However, there is a small set of software where the tools are not enough. The software is absolutely critical for the execution of Windows but for one reason or another, the vendor is unable to distribute the software to every provisioning entity. This paper describes a mechanism for a platform, via the boot firmware, to publish a binary to Windows for execution. The mechanism leverages a boot firmware component to publish a binary in physical memory described to Windows using a fixed ACPI table.


This information applies to the following operating systems:

  • Windows 8

Included in this paper:

  • Windows Platform Binary Table (WPBT) format
  • Execution status method
  • Code-signing policy
  • Detailed description of handoff mechanism
© 2013 Microsoft. All rights reserved.