Question about WHQL certification

NTDEV
1

Hello All,

I would like to know the price for validate the .cpk WHQL. and steps for submit this certification.

What are all prices, or if it’s necessary to buy some softwares (solution, tools, subscription, and so on…)

Because I have a smartcardreader USB, and my customers asked me the global price for realize this certification.

Thanks a lot for your help,

Best regards,

2

> -----Original Message-----

From: xxxxx@lists.osr.com
[mailto:xxxxx@lists.osr.com] On Behalf Of
xxxxx@hotmail.com
Sent: 29 September 2008 14:15
To: Windows System Software Devs Interest List
Subject: [ntdev] Question about WHQL certification

Hello All,

I would like to know the price for validate the .cpk WHQL.
and steps for submit this certification.

See “DTM Global WHQL POLICY.doc”
http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/whql/policies/default.mspx
On p28 it says “$250”. Per Operating System.

If you already have the .cpk, then no further software needs to be
purchased, but you will need to install the WINQual Submission Tool and
the Client Assembly MSI (both require the .Net Framework installed) from
https://winqual.microsoft.com/

And you need an account on Winqual, which does have some costs
associated. See the NTDEV archives!

Hope this helps,
Tim Green
Development Engineer
DisplayLink (UK) Limited
Registered in England No. 04811048

3

  1. You need to open a WinQual account. Per se this is free from
    Microsoft but as a prerequisite you need a Code 3 Signing certificate
    from VeriSign. This costs in the region of $500 though there are
    discounts for multi-year certificates.

  2. Run the DTM for your device/hardware category. Always check you
    have the latest DSM, applied patches and errata. This is ostensibly
    free, though the hardware resources required and the time required to
    setup and run the tests can work out as very expensive.

  3. Using the submission tools downloaded from WinQual you create a
    submission. This is usually when you find the big gotcha - you’ve
    happily run and completed the x86 tests and then find that the
    submission tool won’t let you proceed with the submission unless you
    also include an x64 set of the tests.

  4. Run the tests for all flavours of Windows you want WHQL signed in
    order to submit in one go. If you do this then follow-up submissions
    can be classed as updates rather than whole new submissions. The big
    gotcha here is for Win2K8 x64 - the hardware required for tests on
    this O/S jumps up to a machine that is multi-cpu and multi-core.

  5. Using the WinQual website and tools you can submit your
    package. This will cost $250 billed to the cost centre created when
    you joined WinQual.

That is the main process. No doubt you’ve seen the recent debate
here about the relative technical merits of the process. But the
bottom line is that if you want to sell in to the Windows market,
especially the x64 segment (and remember more and more machines now
ship with x64 Windows pre-installed) then this is a process and cost
you just have to suck up.

Mark.

At 06:15 29/09/2008, xxxxx@hotmail.com wrote:

Hello All,

I would like to know the price for validate the .cpk WHQL. and steps
for submit this certification.

What are all prices, or if it’s necessary to buy some softwares
(solution, tools, subscription, and so on…)

Because I have a smartcardreader USB, and my customers asked me the
global price for realize this certification.

Thanks a lot for your help,

Best regards,

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4

thanks, Tim and Mark for your reply.
If i understand you the price contains :
_ the subscription to winqual : 500$
_ the submission : 250$ by OS

It’s juste that ??

Thanks a lot for your help

5

At 06:46 29/09/2008, xxxxx@hotmail.com wrote:

thanks, Tim and Mark for your reply.
If i understand you the price contains :
_ the subscription to winqual : 500$
_ the submission : 250$ by OS

It’s juste that ??

Yes, but when costing properly don’t forget to tell management about
the time and resources that a full test run occupies. Usually to get
the DTM working first time around is a month’s worth of
time. Subsequently it should only be a day or so required to have
the DTM setup correctly. To get a full range across x86 and x64 from
XP to Win2K8 adds 2 weeks to the release cycle and also at the top
end requires some relatively expensive hardware.

I know that there’s complaints that $500 for a certificate raises the
bar too high for the casual developer but for even a small company
it’s a negligible cost. The really significant costs of the process
are hidden in running and managing the process.

Mark.

6

Thanks Mark for your help.
Yes I have already submitted a .cpk certification for a customer, i have realized only the step of debugging.
The different step about the contact with microsoft and the payment have been realized directely by the customer.

But now it’s different because all the process of certification must be realized by our office