It’s a mighty interesting time to be a driver writer who’s interested in Windows. Those of you who have been doing this for “a long time”, like I have, know that working with Microsoft is a lot like living on a ferris wheel: For a while you’re on the top — Microsoft showers you with interest, […]
WinHEC Returns!
In the latest concrete demonstration of Microsoft’s return to engagement with the hardware design and driver development community, the long awaited return of WinHEC was announced earlier today in a blog post by Microsoft’s Matt Perry. For those of you who don’t know Matt, he works in Microsoft’s SPiCE (Silicon, Peripheral and Component Enablement) team. It’s […]
What is Arbitrary Thread Context? (article + video)
The concept of “arbitrary thread context” or “arbitrary process and thread context” is often confusing to new Windows driver developers. OSR’s Peter Viscarola clarifies this concept in this video: Here’s what Peter had to say: I’m going to describe what we mean when we say that a particular callback or function is called in an “arbitrary […]
A Second Chance for WPP Tracing (article + video)
As many of you already know, OSR was responsible for introducing WPP Tracing to the world outside Microsoft. When we saw how it was being used internally at Microsoft, we knew it would be valuable to the driver development community. Fortunately, the powers that be agreed! But our love affair with WPP Tracing was to […]
UMDF V2: A Good or Bad Thing? (article + video)
With its unique C++ syntax and its “charming” COM programming pattern, UMDF has largely been ignored by the Windows driver development community. But the arrival of UMDF V2 could change all that. With a C Language interface that shares the same syntax as KMDF, UMDF V2 promises to be a useful option for developers. But […]
When is a WHILE Not a while?
I have a pretty good life. There are a lot of indicators of this, but one in particular is that I have the luxury of being annoyed by things like the issue that’s the topic of this blog post. I was reading some code from Microsoft the other day, and I noticed that a loop I […]
WDK Visual Studio Integration: A Good or Bad Thing? (Video)
The WDK being integrated into Visual Studio is certainly a big change, but is a good one? Peter and I are asked our opinions on WDK Visual Studio integration all the time, so we decided that it was time to get together and discuss it. Sure, we could have come to a consensus and published an article […]
MSFT Ready To Engage Again With The Broader Driver Dev Community?
There were several comments over on NTDEV about how there was only a single driver related presentation at the just-concluded //Build conference. Frankly, I was surprised there was even one! If you haven’t seen it, you can check out well-know MSFT lead Peter Wieland’s excellent presentation here. In the presentation Peter talks about the coming Shark’s […]
WDK 8.1Update: WDK Now Supported with Visual Studio Express
Starting with Windows Driver Kit 8.1 Update, the tools necessary to build Windows drivers are once again available to the community at no cost. Yay!!!
OSR Open Systems Resources, Inc.