Key Information Sources

In addition to the WDK samples and documentation, you can find numerous additional resources on the Microsoft Web site and through other Web-based community discussion sites.

WHDC-Windows Hardware Developer Central

The WHDC Web site hosts a diverse collection of resources for driver developers and hardware manufacturers including white papers, tutorials, tips, and samples.

WHDC also hosts various publications that do not fit into the WDK or MSDN framework, including blogs by experts on the development team that address driver development issues.

 Info  You can subscribe to the Microsoft Hardware Newsletter to receive notice of new papers and kits, along with other information of interest to driver developers. See the WHDC Web site- online at http://www.microsoft.com/whdc.

Blogs

Several members of the WDF development team maintain online blogs and write about various aspects of driver development. The WDF bloggers often respond to issues that developers are discussing on newsgroups and list servers. To view a list of blogs by Microsoft driver development experts, go to http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=79579.

Microsoft Newsgroups for Driver Developers

If you cannot find an answer in the WDK documentation, you can ask questions and share information through one of the MSDN newsgroups. Newgroups often provide information on issues that cannot be readily answered otherwise. The following newsgroups are dedicated to driver development:

• Microsoft.public.development.device.drivers

• Microsoft.public.windowsxp.device_driver.dev

• Microsoft.public.win32.programmer.kernel

To participate in these groups, you can access the newsgroups with Internet Explorer or another browser. Also, you can connect a newsgroup reader such as Outlook Express to the newsgroup server. The newsgroup server is at msnews.microsoft.com.

 Info  See the Microsoft newsgroup home page at http://msdn.microsoft.com/newsgroups/. The groups dedicated to driver developers are located under Windows Development \Windows DDK.

As part of the beta programs for WDF, Microsoft also moderates several news groups for KMDF, UMDF, and tools.

 Info  See "Hardware and Driver Developer Community" on the WHDC Web site for information about participating in WDF newsgroups and for information about WDF beta programs-online at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=79580.

OSR Online

Open Systems Resources hosts three important list servers on the OSR Online Web site:

• NTDEV- Windows System Software Developers List Dedicated to the development of drivers for the Windows family of operating systems.

• NTFSD-Windows File System Developers List Dedicated to topics related to developing file systems or file system filter drivers.

• WINDBG-Windows Debugger Users List Dedicated to issues and changes related to use of WinDbg and debugger updates.

 Info  See the OSR Online Web site for information about how to subscribe-online at http://www.osronline.com/.

Channel 9

The Channel 9 Web site sponsored by MSDN contains a wide variety of information for developers including videos, podcasts, wikis, and forums. Although much of the site is devoted to application developers, the site provides some content that addresses driver development, Windows internals, and hardware issues-online at http://channel9.msdn.com/.

Conferences

Microsoft hosts conferences that are dedicated to the interests of driver developers and hardware manufacturers, and several industry organizations and private companies provide training for driver developers. See the list at "Hardware and Driver Developer Community" on the WHDC Web site-online at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=79580.

WinHEC and Other Microsoft-Sponsored Events

WinHEC is the Microsoft premier event for hardware engineers and designers, driver developers and testers, and business decision-makers and product planners. The conference is typically held every year in the spring.

 Info  See the WinHEC Web site at http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/winhec/.

Classes and Seminars

Microsoft and several other companies present a variety of classes and seminars on topics that are of interest to driver developers.

 Info  See "Conferences and Training for Developers" on the WHDC Web site-online at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=79334.

Key References

WDF on WHDC	http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=79335
WDK on WHDC	http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=79337
Driver developer blogs	http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=79579
Newsgroups	http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=79580

Staying Up to Date with WDF

We continuously publish new information about WDF and the frameworks on the WHDC Web site. Check the "Developing Drivers with WDF: News and Updates" page on WHDC regularly for new code samples, white papers, news about the frameworks and the WDK, and any updates to this book. You'll find links to blogs for Windows driver developers. We've also posted hotlinks for all the references in this book, so you can quickly display cross-references without typing-online at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=80911.
-The WHDC Web Team, Microsoft