How to create a workspace from DDK examples

Question

I am new to win32 programming as well as driver programming. I installed the Windows DDK on my system and got some examples with DDK but there is no dsw file in these examples,

I wanted to know how I can create a .dsw file so that I can open this workspace in VC6

please help me in this regard.

Thank you in advance

Answer 1

Most people who create DDK / WDK projects in Visual Studio do this with the makefile project, which calls the DDK build.exe utility. This works very well - you get the ability to navigate Visual Studio code when creating your DDK project using the standard supported DDK tools.

Note that DDK comes with its own set of compilers, and these compilers should be used to create DDK projects.

OSR has a small set of cmd scripts that should make it easier (many years have passed since I did something with them, I really can’t remember how well they work):

• http://www.osronline.com/article.cfm?article=43

Another similar tool is available at Hollis Technology:

• http://www.hollistech.com/Resources/ddkbuild/ddkbuild.htm

Regarding debugging, unfortunately, the VS debugger will not work to debug the kernel-mode driver. To do this, get a debugging package for Windows , which has a large set of debuggers. The GUI debugger, WinDbg, is pretty nice, even if it is not entirely suitable for the convenience of using Visual Studio. And the documentation with the debugging tools is great - you can learn a lot about the internal components of Windows by simply reading the WinDbg documents.

Answer 2

The last time I looked (it was many years ago), you do not create device drivers using the Visual Studio IDE: DDK has its own build.exe utility (a similar idea, but not the same as make files); and apparently this is still true from the beginning of 2008, see http://groups.google.com/group/microsoft.public.development.device.drivers/browse_thread/thread/4382c9b66f8611e9?pli=1

I expect "how to build" is described in the DDK documentation.

Answer 3

I think it's better to integrate with visual stdio 2005,2008 or 2010. using this tool

http://visualddk.sysprogs.org/versions/1.5.6

Hope this helps.

Answer 4

ChrisW is true, you cannot use Visual Studio (unless there is a way to install it).

In any case, you can use DebugView to print simple messages using DbgPrint to start debugging.

Answer 5

VC6 is very old these days, can't you use a newer version? In any case, as I recall, you can simply open the project file as a workspace, the IDE will create a .dsw file for you.