Windows Hardware Dev Center Archive

Looking for content about earlier versions of Windows? Then check out these archived topics. But note that they haven't been validated or updated since they were first published.

For up-to-date content about our latest technologies and features, please use our site search or navigation.

This page contains the following sections:

64-bit System Archive

Best Practices for WOW64

Porting and Optimizing Multimedia Codecs for AMD64 Architecture on Windows [304 KB]

ACPI / Power Management Archive

How to Identify the Windows Version in ACPI by Using _OSI

Increase System Power Efficiency with Idle Detection

Power Availability Requests

Power In, Dollars Out: How to Stem the Flow in the Data Center

The Science of Sleep

Using PowerCfg to Evaluate System Energy Efficiency

Audio Archive

HD Audio UAA Class Driver 1.1 Overview

Plug and Play Guidelines for High Definition Audio Devices

Windows 7 Audio Logo Changes

Debugging Archive

Debug Port Specification

Display and Graphics Archive

Color Management Concepts

Evolution in the Microsoft Color Management Ecosystem

Graphics Guide for Windows 7

sRGB Color Management Case Studies

Transient Multimon Manager (TMM)

Windows Color System and API: An Overview

Driver Archive

Architecture of the User-Mode Driver Framework

Bitlocker Drive Encryption: Value-Add Extensibility Options

COM QuickStart for UMDF Developers

Creating Custom Device Icons

Designing Driver Packages for Corporate Deployment

Developing Efficient Background Processes for Windows

Driver Verifier in Windows 7

Getting Started with Software Tracing in Windows Drivers

Guidelines for Customizing Mobile Broadband in Windows 7

How to Build, Install, Test, and Debug KMDF Drivers

How to Develop a KMDF Driver [517 KB]

How to Develop a KMDF Driver: Part 1

How to Develop a KMDF Driver: Part 2

How to Port a WDM Driver to KMDF [749 KB]

How to Port a WDM Driver to KMDF: Part 1

How to Port a WDM Driver to KMDF: Part 2

I/O Flow and Dispatching in WDF Drivers

I/O Resource Usage Reduction

Implementing Parental Controls by Using PBDA

Implementing the SourceType XML Element in PBDA Devices

Installing and Configuring Away Mode

Interrupt-Affinity Policy Tool

Kernel-Mode Drivers: Fixing Common Driver Reliability Issues

KMDF Kernel-Mode Driver Framework Architecture for Driver Developers

KMDF: How to Develop Framework Drivers [1.9 MB]

Locked Operations on PCI Express

Performance Testing Guide for Windows

PREfast Step-by-Step 1.5

PREfast Step-by-Step 2.1

PREfast Step-by-Step 8.0

PREfast with Driver-Specific Rules

Sample Drivers for the Kernel Mode Driver Framework

Sample Drivers for the User-Mode Driver Framework

Scheduling, Thread Context, and IRQL

Secure Startup - Full Volume Encryption: Executive Overview

Secure Startup - Full Volume Encryption: Technical Overview

Setup API Log File Guidelines for Driver Developers and Testers

Specifications: Hardware and Firmware Standards

System State-to-Device State Mappings (SxD)

Timers, Timer Resolution, and Development of Efficient Code

User-Mode Interactions: Guidelines for Kernel-Mode Drivers

WDF UMDF User-Mode Driver Framework Introduction for Driver Developers

Architecture of the Windows Driver Foundation

WDF Windows Driver Foundation Versioning

Windows Driver Testing Best Practices

Windows Hardware Platform Lab Previews: Static Driver Verifier for WDM Drivers: WHDC Lab

Windows Native Processor Performance Control

Windows On/Off Transition Performance Analysis

Windows On/Off Transitions Solutions Guide

Windows Platform Binary Table (WPBT)

Windows Timer Coalescing

Windows Update Logic for Offering a Driver

Writing Drivers for Fault Tolerant Systems

File System Archive

Overview of Filter Manager and Minifilter Model from Driver DevCon 2003

Imaging Archive

Webcam Video Fidelity Tests

Input / HID Archive

Archive: Key Support, Keyboard Scan Codes, and Windows: Keyboard Scan Code Specification

Compelling Solutions for PC Gamers by Using Windows SideShow

Display Guidelines for KVM Switches in Windows 7

Enhancing the Television Experience by Using Windows SideShow

HID Sensors Usages

Using the Universal Driver for Windows SideShow

Windows SideShow Device SDK for .NET Micro Framework v1.4

Windows SideShow Use Guidelines

Networking / Wireless Archive

Building Windows Certified Network Media Devices

Connection Manager Integration with Mobile Broadband [1.6 MB]

How to Write Managed Code That Uses the Mobile Broadband API

Network Driver Compatibility with the Header-Data Split Feature

Network Explorer Extensibility

WiFi Protected Access Overview

Wireless Provisioning Services

PC Design Archive

Design and Deploy a Great Media Center PC

Guidelines for Bus and Device Specifications

Hardware Design for Surprise Removal

Requirements for TV Pipeline Formats and Media Streams

Windows Media Center Customized Product Requirements

Distributed Scan Device (WS-DSD)

Distributed Scan Processing (WS-DSP)

Scan Process

Smart Card Archive

Smart Card Minidriver Specification, v.5.07

Smart Card Minidriver Specification, v.6.02

Smart Card Minidriver Specification, v.7

Storage Archive

Bus Type and SCSI Address Reporting for ATA Devices

Designing RAID Adapters to Work with Windows

Disk Subsystem Performance Analysis for Windows

Firmware Allocation of PCI Device Resources in Windows

Firmware Support for PCI Express Hot-Plug and Windows

Internal and External SATA Port Configuration

Local File Systems for Windows

PCI Express and Windows

PCI, PCI-X, and PCI Express FAQ

Reducing the Disk Footprint for Windows 7 Hibernation

Registry Reflection in Windows

Supporting Subtractive PCI-to-PCI Bridges in Windows

Windows Disk Idle Detection

System Internals Archive

Firmware Corruption of Memory During Sleep Transitions

Kernel Enhancements for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008

Kernel WMI Object Security

Memory Sizing Guidance for Windows 7

Multiprocessor Considerations for Kernel-Mode Drivers

Windows Support for Hyper-Threading Technology

USB and 1394 Archive

Archive: Key Support, Keyboard Scan Codes, and Windows: Download USB HID to PS/2 Scan Code Translation Table in PDF format

Archive: Power Management of USB Host Controllers

Microsoft Proposed Extensions to the USB Video Class for H.264

USB Handset Peripherals and Windows

USB Migration Support for Windows 7 Upgrade Scenarios

Windows Hardware Error Architecture Archive

Windows Hardware Error Architecture ACPI Table Specification

Windows Rally Archive

Specifications and Tools: Windows Rally Component License

Specifications and Tools: Windows Rally Dev Kit License

Web Services on Devices and Windows Rally Technologies

Windows Server Platform

AppInit DLLs in Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2

Building Hardware and Firmware to Complement Headless Functionality in Windows [296 KB]

Emergency Management Services [159 KB]

Standardizing Out-of-Band Management Console Output and Terminal Emulation (VT-UTF8 and VT100+) [v.0.9; 69KB]

Receive-Side Scaling Enhancements in Windows Server 2008

Recommendations for Power Budgeting with Windows Server

Windows Server 2003 EMS SAC XML Encoding [1.16 MB]

Windows .NET Datacenter Driver Program for OEMs and IxVs