Editing Windows Driver Model (section)

==Criticism==
The Windows Driver Model, while a significant improvement over the [[VxD]] and [[Windows NT Driver Model]] used before it, has been criticised by driver software developers,<ref>{{cite magazine |last1=Oney |first1=Walter |date=2003-05-06 |df=mdy |title=Introducing Windows Driver Framework |url=http://www.wd-3.com/archive/FrameworkIntro.htm |magazine=Windows Driver Developer's Digest |volume=1 |issue=3 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160125155441/http://www.wd-3.com/archive/FrameworkIntro.htm |archive-date=2016-01-25}}</ref> most significantly for the following:
* Interactions with [[power management]] events and [[plug and play]] are difficult. This can lead to situations where Windows machines cannot enter or exit [[sleep mode]]s correctly due to bugs in driver code.
* I/O cancellation is difficult to get right.<ref>{{cite web |title=I/O Completion/Cancellation Guidelines |url=https://msdn.microsoft.com/library/windows/hardware/dn613954 |date=2003-05-05 |df=mdy |work=[[Microsoft Developer Network|MSDN]] |publisher=[[Microsoft]] |access-date=2018-02-08 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180209182217/https://msdn.microsoft.com/library/windows/hardware/dn613954 |archive-date=February 9, 2018 |url-status=live}}</ref>
* Complex boilerplate support code is required for every driver.
* There is no support for writing pure [[user-mode]] drivers.

There were also a number of concerns about the quality of documentation and samples that Microsoft provided.

Because of these issues, Microsoft has released a new set of frameworks on top of WDM, called the [[Windows Driver Frameworks]] (WDF; formerly Windows Driver Foundation), which includes [[Kernel-Mode Driver Framework]] (KMDF) and [[User-Mode Driver Framework]] (UMDF). [[Windows Vista]] supports both pure WDM and the newer WDF. KMDF is also available for download for Windows XP and Windows 2000, while UMDF is available for Windows XP and above.