[IMPORTANT — Before you update to VS 2015 Update 1, check out this article] Now that TH2 has been out for a couple of weeks, the Version 1511 update of the Windows Driver Kit 10 has been released. Note that this new WDK requires you to use Visual Studio 2015 Update 1, which was also […]
Right Click Your DML!
You all know and love DML, those hyperlinks that show up in WinDbg output and allow you to click around aimlessly while you ponder what the crash code means (“PC LOAD LETTER??”). But, did you know that DML is even better in the Windows 10 build of WinDbg? Support has been added for a game changing feature: […]
Questions and Answers: Windows 10 Driver Signing
Update (2 June 2016): Traditional cross-signing works for all Windows versions prior to Windows 10 Anniversary Update and Windows Server 2016. Whether you need a SHA1 or SHA2 certificate depends on the version of Windows. All versions of Windows from Windows 7 onward, when properly updated, will accept SHA2 certificates. You do not need to SIGN with an EV certificate, but you’ll need an […]
Windows 10 Preview WDK and HLK Now Available for Download
As promised at WinHEC, Microsoft has made available the first generally available pre-releases of the Windows 10 WDK and Hardware Lab Kit (WLK). The kits are available here: http://dev.windows.com/en-US/featured/hardware/windows-10-hardware-preview-tools Also available (from the same page) are VS 2015 CTP 6 and the pre-release of the Win10 SDK (both of which you’ll need for the Win 10 […]
Updates to Driver Testing — Not Just for Certification
Long ago, Microsoft created the Windows Hardware Quality Labs (WHQL, pronounced “wickle”) program. The goal of this program was to certify that a particular device and its associated driver met a set of WHQL defined requirements. The requirements could include anything from how the driver was developed (e.g. which driver model it used) to whether […]
New Tools Introduced at WinHEC 2015
Across various presentations at WinHEC, several new tools have been introduced for use by Windows driver writers. There’s no real overarching theme to these tools, they touch different parts of the driver development process and don’t necessarily all target the same audience. However, they’re new and potentially useful, so I thought it worth summarizing them […]
Another Tiny SBC that Runs Windows
If you follow the goings-on in the world of little single board computers (SBCs), you surely noticed last week’s announcement by Qualcomm of the DragonBoard 410C. This ARM-based board includes a 64-bit capable Snapdragon 410 processor, 1GB LPDDR3, and 4GB of eMMC memory. There’s an onb-ard MicroSD slot. It has Bluetooth LE, GPS, and WiFi […]
Windows Everywhere… and Your Driver Too: Universal Drivers
Windows 8 ushered-in a new era of Windows mobile devices, including phones and tablets. Windows 10 promises to converge these systems further, and to extend Windows to even more resource and cost constrained devices and the Internet of Things (IoT). Support for x86 and ARM will span all these categories. It seems we really are on the […]
Microsoft Signatures to be REQUIRED for Windows 10 Kernel-Mode Drivers
[25 July 2015: For an update on this topic, with many additional details, please refer to this blog post.] Nobody likes having to sign their 64-bit Windows kernel-mode drivers. But after you’ve done it a few times, you get used to it. And after all, you tell yourself, it’s probably worth it in terms of […]
SAL Annotations: Don’t Hate Me Because I’m Beautiful
OK, well, I don’t think anyone is going argue for the beauty of SAL annotations. However, just because they’re hideous to look at doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t bother with them. In fact, here at OSR one might say we’ve become obsessed with SAL annotations. We find ourselves annotating functions more and more, especially when […]
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