Should I start with WDF or WDM???

NTDEV
1

Dear All,

As per reading many stuff,I came to know,for Windows device driver development,WDF model is the latest.

And here I am going to write USB device driver for Win2k/XP/NT so whether it will be ok if I start with WDF concept,even I don’t know much internal of WDM model,I mean I am newbie and never worked before on windows technology.

Please suggest me correct way to follow.

Thanking you.

regds,

PVC

2

I’ve never used it yet, but I think that UMDF can be a good choice in your
case. UMDF is basically a framework to develop some kinds of drivers in user
mode (e.g. USB drivers). This means easier debugging and faster development,
especially if it’s the first time you work on Windows (and windows drivers).

You can find a lot of information here:

http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/driver/wdf/UMDF.mspx

Regarding the supported OSes, as far I as know UMDF does not support win2k.
And regarding NT (I suppose you mean NT4), just forget it. The USB bus is
*not* supported on NT4 (I don’t know if there are third party bus drivers
for USB on NT4), and in any case NT4 should be considered dead.

Have a nice day
GV

----- Original Message -----
From:
To: “Windows System Software Devs Interest List”
Sent: Tuesday, November 28, 2006 8:55 PM
Subject: [ntdev] Should I start with WDF or WDM???

> Dear All,
>
> As per reading many stuff,I came to know,for Windows device driver
> development,WDF model is the latest.
>
> And here I am going to write USB device driver for Win2k/XP/NT so whether
> it will be ok if I start with WDF concept,even I don’t know much internal
> of WDM model,I mean I am newbie and never worked before on windows
> technology.
>
> Please suggest me correct way to follow.
>
> Thanking you.
>
> regds,
>
> PVC
>
> —
> Questions? First check the Kernel Driver FAQ at
> http://www.osronline.com/article.cfm?id=256
>
> To unsubscribe, visit the List Server section of OSR Online at
> http://www.osronline.com/page.cfm?name=ListServer

3

My opinion is a bit biased, but I think you should use KMDF or UMDF for your driver. By NT, I hope you do not mean NT4.0 since it does not support USB at all. If you absolutely need win2k support KMDF is your only option since UMDF is supported on XP and later. If you decide to go the XP and later route, I would strongly suggest UMDF since it will be closer to what you know in user mode and less of a “shock” when changing environments to write a kernel mode driver

D