14 DAY TRIAL // With the next iteration of the Windows client having hit the Release Candidate stage, Microsoft has introduced an update to the resources designed to streamline development and testing of drivers for the successor of Windows Vista. Developers will be able to take advantage of refreshed documentation for the Windows Driver Kit via MSDN. The update to the Windows Driver Kit was introduced to keep up the pace with the evolution of Windows 7, which is available for public download as Release Candidate Build 7100 since May 5th, 2009.
“The WDKUA team is pleased to announce that we have refreshed the WDK documentation for Windows 7 RC on MSDN,” revealed Kevin Shirley, WDK programming writer. “We have also provided an improved feedback mechanism with this documentation refresh. Near the bottom of each WDK documentation topic is a “Send feedback on this topic” link. You can use the link to provide targeted topic feedback to the WDK documentation team. Please note that while we attempt to address relevant submissions in a timely manner, it may take awhile for us to update any given topic.”
The Windows Driver Kit is set up to offer developers the information needed to develop drivers designed to integrate seamlessly with Windows 7 and previous releases of Windows. Microsoft stressed that the kit featured preliminary resources for the next version of Windows, with the documentation opened to change.
In this regard, the software giant has warned developers not to rely on the Windows Driver Kit to build drivers for the public release of Windows 7. Microsoft is looking to start offering Windows 7 to customers on October 22, 2009. In mid-July Windows 7 will be released to manufacturing, the software giant has confirmed. For the time being, users looking to have a taste of what Windows 7 will bring to the table can download Windows 7 RC for free.
32-bit and 64-bit Windows 7 (Release Candidate) RC Build 7100.0.090421-1700 is available for download here.