Programming the Microsoft Windows Driver Model

Chapter 2

Basic Structure of a WDM Driver

In the first chapter, I described the basic architecture of the MicrosoftWindows XP and Microsoft Windows 98/Me operating systems. I explained that the purpose of a device driver is to manage a piece of hardware on behalf of the system, and I discussed how to decide what kind of driver your hardware will need. In this chapter, I ll describe more specifically what program code goes in to a WDM driver and how different kinds of drivers work together to manage hardware. I ll also present an overview of how the system finds and loads drivers.