Windows Driver Kit

Previously, the WDK was known as Device Development Kit (DDK)README.TXT from Windows 3.1 Device Development Kit (DDK) for Windows 3.x and Windows 9x. It supported the development of VxD drivers. Later versions for Windows NT and Windows 98SE and ME were called Driver Development Kit (DDK){{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VpeLJF0zdr8C&pg=PA142 |page=142 |title=The Rootkit Arsenal; Escape and Evasion |author=Bill Blunden |year=2009 |isbn=9781449661229 |publisher=Jones & Bartlett Learning}} and supported Windows Driver Model (WDM) development. It got its current name when Microsoft released Windows Vista and added the following previously separated tools to the kit: Installable File System Kit (IFS Kit), Driver Test Manager (DTM), though DTM was later renamed and removed from WDK again.

The DDK for Windows 2000 and earlier versions did not include a compiler; instead one had to install Visual C++ separately to compile drivers. From the version for Windows XP the DDK and later the WDK include a command-line compiler to compile drivers. One of the reasons Microsoft gave for including a compiler was that the quality of drivers would improve if they were compiled with the same version of the compiler that was used to compile Windows itself while Visual C++ is targeted to application development and has a different product cycle with more frequent changes. The WDK 8.x and later series goes back to require installing a matched version of Visual Studio separately, but this time the integration is more complete in that you can edit, build and debug the driver from within Visual Studio directly.

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| Windows 3.1 DDK || || {{start date|1992||}} || VxD

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| Windows NT 3.1 DDK || || {{start date|1993||}} || NTDM

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| Windows NT 3.5 DDK || || {{start date|1994||}} || NTDM

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| Windows NT 3.51 DDK || 1025.1 || {{start date|1995|07|}} || NTDM

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| Windows 95 DDK || || {{start date|1995|10|}} || VxD

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| Windows 95 DDK a || || {{start date|1996|06|}} || VxD

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| Windows 95 DDK b || || || VxD

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| Windows 95 DDK c (MSDN July 1998) || || {{start date|1998|06|}} || VxD

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| Windows NT DDK (for Windows NT Workstation 3.51) || || {{start date|1996|07|}} || NTDM

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| Windows NT DDK (for Windows NT Workstation 4.0) || 1381.1 || {{start date|1996|08|}} || NTDM

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| Windows 98 DDK || || {{start date|1998|07|}} || VxD, WDM?

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| Windows 98 SE DDK || || {{start date|1999|05|}} || VxD, WDM?

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| Windows 2000 DDK || 2195.1 || {{start date|2000|02|}} || WDM

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| Windows Me DDK || || {{start date|2000|08|07}} || VxD only

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| Windows XP Driver Development Kit (DDK) || 2600 || {{start date|2001|09|21}} || WDM

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| Windows XP SP1 Driver Development Kit (DDK) || 2600.1106 || {{start date|2002|11|14}} || WDM

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| Windows Server 2003 DDK || 3790 || {{start date|2003|04|09}} || WDM

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| Windows Server 2003 with Service Pack 1 DDK || 3790.1830 || {{start date|2005|04|06}} || WDM

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Note: Windows NT DDK, Windows 98 DDK and Windows 2000 DDK are no longer made available by Microsoft because of Java-related settlements made by Microsoft with Sun Microsystems.[http://msdn.microsoft.com/subscriptions/ff723773.aspx MSDN: Products Unavailable due to Java-related Settlement]

• Windows Driver Frameworks
• Windows Driver Model
• Windows Logo Kit

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Category:1992 software

Category:Products and services discontinued in 2015

Category:Device drivers

Category:Microsoft application programming interfaces

Category:Microsoft development tools

Category:Programming tools for Windows