What is the difference between a WDM driver, a KMDF driver and a UMDF driver?

windows wdm kmdf wdf umdf
lesderid picture lesderid · May 15, 2013 · Viewed 12.1k times · Source

When creating a Windows Driver project in Visual Studio 2012, you have many different options to choose from.

There's a page on MSDN that helps you with choosing the correct driver model for your device. It however doesn't clearly explain the exact differences between the WDM, KMDF and UMDF driver types, and when to choose which model.

I'm looking for an explanation on the differences between the WDM, KMDF and UMDF driver models, so it's easy for beginning Windows driver developers to choose the correct model.

Answer

SomeWittyUsername picture SomeWittyUsername · May 15, 2013

In a nutshell:

  • WDM stands for Windows Driver Model. Every Kernel driver is essentially a WDM driver.
  • KMDF stands for Kernel Mode Driver Framework. This is a framework that encapsulates and hides many of the OS programming aspects that driver developer must relate to even if it has nothing to do with the business logic of his driver. Some functionality doesn't exist in KMDF framework and will require native Kernel calls without using the framework (but in most situations it's not the case).
  • UMDF stands for User Mode Driver Framework. It's a complementary framework to KMDF and together they comprise WDF (Windows Driver Frameworks). UMDF allows to create a driver in user mode, having all the benefits of User mode programming vs Kernel mode. Naturally, UMDF driver have limitations compared to KMDF/WDM drivers and in most situations it will require a Kernel counterpart with at least some functionality.

The page you've referenced is pretty comprehensive. You should dwell into it for deeper understanding.

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