# Windows Driver Kit

The Windows Driver Kit (WDK) is a software toolset from Microsoft that enables the development of device drivers for the Microsoft Windows platform. It includes documentation, samples, build environments, and tools for driver developers. A complete toolset for driver development also need the following: a compiler Visual Studio, Windows SDK, and Windows HLK.

## History

Previously, the WDK was known as the Driver Development Kit (DDK) 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.

## DDK versions

| Version | Build number | Release date |
| Windows 3.0 DDK | | 1990 (1990) |
| Windows 3.1 DDK | | 1992 (1992) |
| Windows NT 3.1 DDK | | 1993 (1993) |
| Windows NT 3.5 DDK | | 1994 (1994) |
| Windows NT 3.51 DDK | 1025.1 | July 1995 (1995-07) |
| Windows 95 DDK | | October 1995 (1995-10) |
| Windows 95 DDK a | | June 1996 (1996-06) |
| Windows 95 DDK b | | |
| Windows 95 DDK c (MSDN July 1998) | | June 1998 (1998-06) |
| Windows NT DDK (for Windows NT Workstation 3.51) | | July 1996 (1996-07) |
| Windows NT DDK (for Windows NT Workstation 4.0) | 1381.1 | August 1996 (1996-08) |
| Windows 98 DDK | | July 1998 (1998-07) |
| Windows 98 SE DDK | | May 1999 (1999-05) |
| Windows 2000 DDK | 2195.1 | February 2000 (2000-02) |
| Windows XP Driver Development Kit (DDK) | 2600 | September 21, 2001 (2001-09-21) |
| Windows XP SP1 Driver Development Kit (DDK) | 2600.1106 | November 14, 2002 (2002-11-14) |
| Windows Server 2003 DDK | 3790 | April 9, 2003 (2003-04-09) |
| Windows Server 2003 with Service Pack 1 DDK | 3790.1830 | April 6, 2005 (2005-04-06) |
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.

## WDK versions

| Version | Build number | Release date | Develops drivers for | Visual Studio integration | Notes |
| Windows Driver Kit for Windows Vista | 6000 | November 29, 2006 (2006-11-29) | Windows Vista | - | - |
| Windows Driver Kit – Server 2008 (x86, x64, ia64) | 6001.18000 | January 1, 2008 (2008-01-01) | Windows XP SP1 – Vista SP1, Windows Server 2000 SP4 – 2008 | - | - |
| Windows Driver Kit – Server 2008 (x86, x64, ia64) | 6001.18001 | April 1, 2008 (2008-04-01) | - | - | - |
| Windows Driver Kit – Server 2008 Release SP1 (x86, x64, i64) | 6001.18002 | December 8, 2008 (2008-12-08) | Windows XP SP1 – Vista SP1, Windows Server 2000 SP4 – 2008 SP1 | - | - |
| Windows Driver Kit 7.0.0 | 7600.16385.0 | August 6, 2009 (2009-08-06) | Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2 | - | - |
| Windows Driver Kit 7.1.0 | 7600.16385.1 | February 26, 2010 (2010-02-26) | Windows XP SP3 – 7, Windows Server 2003 SP1 – 2008 R2 | - | |
| Windows Driver Kit 8.0 | 8.59.25584 | August 15, 2012 (2012-08-15) | Windows 7 – 8, Windows Server 2008 R2 – 2012 | Visual Studio 2012 | Downloads before 8/17/2012 had a bug in WDF co-installer |
| Windows Driver Kit 8.1 | 8.100.26638 | September 16, 2013 (2013-09-16) | Windows 7 – 8.1, Windows Server 2008 R2 – 2012 R2 | Visual Studio 2013 | - |
| Windows Driver Kit 8.1 Update | 8.100.26846 | August 20, 2014 (2014-08-20) | Windows 7 – 8.1 Update, Windows Server 2008 R2 – 2012 R2 | Visual Studio 2013 | - |
| Windows Driver Kit 10, Version 1507 | 10.0.26639 | July 2015 | Windows 7 SP1 – 10 | Visual Studio 2015 RTM – Update 3 | - |
| Windows Driver Kit 10, Version 1511 | 10.0.10586 | November 2015 | Windows 7 SP1 – 10 Version 1511 | Visual Studio 2015 Update 1 – 3 | Windows 10 November Update |
| Windows Driver Kit 10, Version 1607 | 10.0.14393 | August 2016 | Windows 7 SP1 – 10 Version 1607 (Excludes Win10 Version 1507 & 1511) | Visual Studio 2015 Update 3 | Windows 10 Anniversary Update |
| Windows Driver Kit 10, Version 1703 | 10.0.15063 | April 2017 | Windows 7 SP1 – 10 (Version 1607 & 1703 only), Windows Server 2008 R2 – 2016 | Visual Studio 2017 Ver.15.1 | Windows 10 Creators Update |
| Windows Driver Kit 10, Version 1709 | 10.0.16299 | October 2017 | | Visual Studio 2017 Ver.15.4 | Windows 10 Fall Creators Update |
| Windows Driver Kit 10, Version 1803 | 10.0.17134 | April 2018 | | | Windows 10 April 2018 Update |
| Windows Driver Kit 10, Version 1809 | 10.0.17763 | October 2018 | | | Windows 10 October 2018 Update |
| Windows Driver Kit 10, Version 1903 | 10.0.18362.1 | April 2019 | Windows 7 SP1 – 10 (Version 1607 to 1903), Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 – 2019 | Visual Studio 2019 Ver.16 | Windows 10 May 2019 Update |