Windows Driver Foundation

Windows Driver Foundation (WDF) is a set of Microsoft tools that aid in the creation of device drivers for Windows 2000 and later versions of Windows.

The primary tools that comprise WDF are the Kernel Mode Driver Framework (KMDF) and User Mode Driver Framework (UMDF). These tool kits provide a new object-oriented programming model for Windows driver development. The primary goal of the Frameworks is "conceptual scalability", that is the characteristics of only requiring a driver developer to learn a few simple concepts to be able to write a simple driver, and to be able to incrementally learn more when more complex driver features are required. This differs markedly from the Windows Driver Model (WDM) which requires driver developers to be fully familiar with many complex technical details before writing even a simple driver.

Part of the key to achieving conceptual scalability is that KMDF and UMDF use an "opt-in" model. This model allows the developer to extend and override the default behavior of a canonical "good driver". This is in contrast to the older Windows Driver Model that depends on the driver writer to implement all aspects of the driver's behavior.

Read more about Windows Driver Foundation:  Varieties, Tools, Versions

Famous quotes containing the words windows, driver and/or foundation:

    In winter we lead a more inward life. Our hearts are warm and cheery, like cottages under drifts, whose windows and doors are half concealed, but from whose chimneys the smoke cheerfully ascends.... We enjoy now, not an Oriental, but a Boreal leisure, around warm stoves and fireplaces, and watch the shadow of motes in the sunbeams.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    God help the horse, and the driver too!
    And the people and beasts who have never a friend!
    For the driver easily might have been you,
    And the horse be me by a different end!
    And nobody knows how their days will cease!
    And the poor, when they’re old, have little of peace!
    James Kenneth Stephens (1882–1950)

    If all political power be derived only from Adam, and be to descend only to his successive heirs, by the ordinance of God and divine institution, this is a right antecedent and paramount to all government; and therefore the positive laws of men cannot determine that, which is itself the foundation of all law and government, and is to receive its rule only from the law of God and nature.
    John Locke (1632–1704)