What's new in driver development for Windows 11, version 24H2
This section describes new features and updates for driver development in Windows 11, version 24H2. To target this version of Windows, you can use WDK 10.0.26100.1 (released May 22, 2024).
Audio
Updates to the ACX audio class extensions overview and the Windows 11 APIs for Audio Processing Objects topics including new information on the following:
- ACX multi circuit composition
- ACX multi stack cross driver communications
- ACX audio data formats and data format lists
- ACX power management
- ACX WDF driver lifetime management
Camera and streaming media
Three new camera articles for Windows 11, version 24H2 (also applies to Windows 11, version 23H2):
Camera settings page - Describes the features and operation of the camera settings page in Windows 11, and the default values framework that allows configuration of the camera configuration applied when an application starts the camera.
Camera companion apps - Describes companion apps, an extensibility feature for manufacturers of cameras to build custom applications that can configure the camera and adjust default image settings.
Network cameras - Describes compatibility with ONVIF network cameras in Windows.
New camera KS Properties and DDIs:
Updated UVC MSXUs for framerate throttle and FoV2 additions. For more information, see Microsoft extensions to USB Video Class 1.5 specification.
Display and graphics drivers
GPUs are increasingly used in artificial intelligence and machine learning scenarios due to their computational power, parallel processing capabilities, and efficient handling of large datasets. Several new features are added to Windows Display Driver Model (WDDM) version 3.2 as optimizations to GPU/NPU usage, especially in cloud-based scenarios.
Dirty bit tracking enhances the performance of VRAM data transfer between physical hosts during the live migration of virtual machines.
Live migration of heterogeneous GPU-P compute devices has been added. Significant content can now be transferred while virtualized resources are still active, reducing the pause time needed to complete a migration.
A GPU native fence synchronization object is added as an extension to the monitored fence object, supporting the following additional features:
- GPU wait on monitored fence value, which allows for high performance engine-to-engine synchronization without requiring CPU round trips.
- Conditional interrupt notification only for GPU fence signals that have CPU waiters, enabling substantial power savings.
- Fence value storage in the GPU's local memory.
User-mode work submission is an in-progress feature that is not yet enabled for final use. This feature allows user-mode drivers to submit work directly to the GPU without kernel-mode intervention.
Other added WDDM 3.2 features:
The D3D12 video encoding DDI has been extended to support AV1 encoding.
The method that a user-mode or kernel-mode graphics driver uses to determine whether a particular WDDM feature is supported and enabled
TDR (timeout detection and recovery) debugging has been enhanced to provide more information about the cause of a TDR event.
File system and filter drivers
Starting in Windows 11, version 24H2, bind links can be used to bind a file system namespace to a local "virtual path" through the Bind Filter (bindflt.sys). Minifilters can choose to veto such bind links on the system's boot partition. For more information, see Vetoing a bind link.
FltMgr now provides Query on Create support for USN and file security information.
Network drivers
Starting in Windows 11, version 24H2, you can write a User-Mode Driver Framework (UMDF) NetAdapterCx driver. The UMDF APIs in NetAdapterCx align with the KMDF versions, so you can convert your KMDF-based client driver to UMDF with little to no code changes.
UDP Receive Segment Coalescing Offload (URO) is a new hardware offload feature that enables network interface cards (NICs) to coalesce UDP receive segments. For more information, see UDP Receive Segment Coalescing Offload (URO) and NetAdapterCx URO.
WiFiCx Wi-Fi 7 introduces support for Wi-Fi 7 features, providing faster connectivity speeds, lower latency, and improved security. WiFiCx Wi-Fi 7 enables:
- Multi-Link Operation (MLO) with roaming differentiation to leverage multiple simultaneous channels to the Wi-Fi access point (AP).
- Enhanced capabilities for WPA3-SAE authentication and Opportunistic Wireless Encryption (OWE) with GCMP-256 cipher.
WiFiCx WPA3 SoftAP enables devices to set up a Soft Access Point (SoftAP) using the Wi-Fi Protected Access 3 - Simultaneous Authentication of Equals (WPA3-SAE) security protocol.
WiFiCx QoS R1 introduces advanced traffic management capabilities for WiFiCx devices. QoS R1 enables prioritization of Wi-Fi data packets through Mirrored Stream Classification Service (MSCS) and QoS Mapping (DSCP-to-UP Mapping).
Kernel
Four new wdm.h power management DDIs for Windows 11, version 24H2:
PO_EFFECTIVE_POWER_MODE_CALLBACK callback function - Invoked with the current value of the power setting immediately after registration.
PO_EFFECTIVE_POWER_MODE enumeration - Enumerates the effective power modes.
PoRegisterForEffectivePowerModeNotifications function - Registers a callback to receive effective power mode change notifications.
PoUnregisterFromEffectivePowerModeNotifications function - Unregisters from effective power mode change notifications.
Storage drivers
A storport miniport driver can now read configuration data from more locations within the registry. For more information, see StorPortReadRegistryKey and StorPortReadDriverRegistry.
Stornvme supports more vendor-specific NVMe features and log pages. For more information, see the StorageAdapterProtocolSpecificPropertyEx, StorageDeviceProtocolSpecificPropertyEx, NVMeDataTypeLogPageEx, and NVMeDataTypeFeatureEx enum values. The ntddstor.h header file contains usage guidance for these new property identifiers and data types as well as their associated input and output structures.
Install
- INF AddComClass directive: An AddComClass directive is used within a
com-server-install-section
and registers a COM class. - INF AddComServer directive: An AddComServer directive is used within a
DDInstall.COM
section and registers a COM server. - INF DDInstall.COM section: The
DDInstall.COM
section contains one or more INF AddComServer directives that reference other INF-writer-defined sections in an INF file. - The driver package INF registry conversion tool (
reg2inf.exe
) converts a registry key and its values or a COM .dll implementing a DllRegisterServer routine into a set of INF AddReg directives or INF DDInstall.COM section for in-proc COM servers for inclusion into a driver package INF file.
USB
- Support for USB superspeed information through IOCTL_USB_GET_NODE_CONNECTION_SUPERSPEEDPLUS_INFORMATION and USB_NODE_CONNECTION_SUPERSPEEDPLUS_INFORMATION.
Sensors
- Support for new human presence fields in proximity sensors through HUMAN_PRESENCE_DETECTION_TYPE and PROXIMITY_SENSOR_CAPABILITIES.
- Humans presence updates include support for tracking multiple humans.
Driver security
Updates to the Windows CodeQL rules and updates to the Driver security checklist.
Windows debugging tools - WinDbg
Major new WinDbg features are listed here. For full details on the updates to WinDbg see WinDbg Release Notes. For general information about the debugging tools, see What is WinDbg?.
Live Linux debugging
You can now live debug a Linux process. For more information, see these topics:
Linux live remote process debugging
Other WinDbg updates and new features
- Source Code Extended Access
- Open Enclave debugging
- Ambiguous breakpoint resolution
- WinDbg - Restricted Mode
- Improved JavaScript Debugger Scripting - JavaScript Debugging
- Accessibility improvements
- Time Travel Debugging on ARM64
- Smart number selection and search
- New disassembly window
- Updates to Supported Ethernet NICs for Network Kernel Debugging in Windows 11
- Expanded bug check information including new bug checks described in Bug Check Code Reference
Related Topics
For information on what was new for drivers in past Windows releases, see the following pages:
Feedback
https://aka.ms/ContentUserFeedback.
Coming soon: Throughout 2024 we will be phasing out GitHub Issues as the feedback mechanism for content and replacing it with a new feedback system. For more information see:Submit and view feedback for