About Tools for Verifying and Testing Drivers

Thorough testing during all phases of development is essential to create robust, high-quality drivers for the Windows family of operating systems. Microsoft offers tools that can help developers and testers find bugs and tune driver performance during all phases of development. The WDK for Windows 8 provides a sophisticated driver test framework and a set of device fundamental tests that you can use to automatically build, deploy, and test and verify your driver on remote test systems. It also contains the tools to make testing and debugging drivers more convenient and effective than before.

Getting Started with Tools for Verifying and Testing Drivers

Testing a driver

Analyzing a Driver Using Code Analysis and Verification Tools

To get started with Microsoft driver verification and testing tools:

1. Install the Windows Driver Kit (WDK) and then review Tips for testing drivers during development and the Driver Development Tools documentation
2. Use Code Analysis for Drivers to find errors in functions that the compiler might miss.
3. Use Static Driver Verifier to test code paths for violations of WDM, KDMF, NDIS, and Storport driver usage rules.
4. Implement software event tracing in your driver to use for troubleshooting in the field.
5. Install the latest version of Debugging Tools for Windows and keep up to date with symbols.
6. Turn on Driver Verifier, and use it throughout the driver development cycle.