Windows Hardware Development

Download the Latest Hardware Development Kits and Tools

Get the latest pre-release versions of Visual Studio 11 Professional Beta, Windows Driver Kit 8 Consumer Preview, Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit for Windows 8 Consumer Preview, and Windows Hardware Certification Kit Consumer Preview. All of these kits and tools are available free and are designed to work together to help you develop, test, certify, and maintain quality hardware and drivers for Windows.

Download the Windows 8 Consumer Preview

Experience the newest version of Windows. See how apps are at the center of the Windows 8 experience and how Metro style Device Apps bring your hardware and devices into the Windows 8 app experience.

Discover Updated Documentation

We have updated our documentation and provided a host of code samples and white papers in support of the Windows 8 Consumer Preview release. Check out What’s New for Windows 8, what’s been Recently Published, and WDK code samples.

Read the Developer Guide

Windows 8 Consumer Preview introduces many powerful features for developers. Discover the new features for Desktop, Web, and Metro style app developers and consider how the app experience can benefit your hardware and device customers with Metro style Device Apps.

Winqual Reimagined: Check Out the New Hardware/Desktop Dashboard

If you already are registered with Winqual, you can now sign in to the new Windows Dev Center-Hardware Dashboard located at the Dashboard tab at the top of this page. Use the Hardware Dashboard to submit your hardware and drivers for Windows 7, distribute certified drivers by using Windows Update, get telemetric data reports about your products, submit metadata for your system or device, and use the remote debugging tool. The Hardware Dashboard replaces Windows Quality Online Services, or Winqual.