Windows Driver Frameworks (WDF)

Windows Driver Frameworks (WDF) includes both Kernel-Mode Driver Framework (KMDF) and User-Mode Driver Framework (UMDF). The frameworks are libraries that you can use to develop kernel-mode and user-mode drivers that support the Microsoft Windows Driver Model (WDM). WDF provides common driver functionality, which enables you to write a driver with significantly less code than in WDM. The frameworks are also backward compatible, so you can write a single driver that works on multiple versions of Windows. In conjunction with the release of Windows 8, WDF provides version 1.11 of KMDF and UMDF.

You can redistribute the framework libraries with your driver to ensure that target machines have the correct framework version to run your driver. To obtain these components, you must download the Windows Driver Kit (WDK) 8 and then download WDF in a separate package.