The author's command of the details of the new Windows Driver Model (WDM) standard is what makes this book such a clear success. (Because the WDM is rich in kernel and system services, the trick is often knowing how to use what's available rather than doing everything yourself.) The author presents a solid overview of the WDM architecture and breaks down the process of writing custom device drivers into manageable pieces, from the basics of loading device drivers to creating and processing I/O request packets. The book is very good at exposing kernel system calls, design principles, and programming techniques (such as managing synchronization and handling errors). There are also "nerd alerts" that point out extremely technical material.

This book shows you what you'll need to create WDM drivers that cooperate fully with Windows 2000 (and Windows 98). Features like Plug and Play (PnP), Windows power management, and the new Windows Management Instrumentation (WDM) standard get full attention here. There is plenty of sample code (plus a custom Visual C++ AppWizard that generates skeleton code for a default WDM driver) to get you started. Examples for working with the S5933 PCI chip set (and other simple hardware) let you see WDM drivers in action.

The process of writing device drivers certainly has changed from the early days of DOS. But armed with this handy and thorough book, C/C++ programmers can successfully create drivers for custom hardware that take full advantage of all the features of the powerful new WDM standard. --Richard Dragan