Earlier today, Microsoft announced its new checkpoint cumulative updates feature coming to Windows 11 24H2 and Server 2025. The idea behind such checkpoint files is to lower (feature) update sizes thus accelerating the speed of installation and delivery of such updates.
Speaking of streamlining sizes, Microsoft today has also announced that it is improving Windows driver packaging. The company is introducing WDK (Windows Driver Kit) NuGet packaging for Windows drivers.
So far, WDK has been available as MSI (Microsoft Installer) files or ISO files, but the tech giant has explained the benefits of NuGet. On its official Tech community blog post announcing the change, Microsoft has wrote:
The WDK NuGet offer some advantages over the traditional WDK offerings:
- It is smaller in size, which reduces the download and setup time.
- It is portable across different machines and environments.
- It can be integrated with large CI/CD pipelines and source control systems.
- It better support an agile WDK release model, it can be easily updated latest WDK features and fixes.
Alongside highlighting the advantages, Microsoft has also provided step by step guide on how to install WDK using NuGet. The company notes that Windows 11 and Visual Studio 2022 are needed.
Install the latest WDK using NuGet - Step by Step
Prerequisites
- X64/ARM64 PC with Windows 11 or newer.
Step 1: Install Visual Studio 2022
Download and install Visual Studio 2022 Community, Professional, or Enterprise edition.
During the installation, select and install Desktop development with C++.
Step 2: Prepare Visual Studio
The WDK requires Visual Studio 2022 with the VS 2022 C++ build tools and their corresponding VS 2022 C++ Spectre-mitigated libs (Latest) components for each architecture you intend to build drivers for.
Register and sign in with your credentials to Visual Studio.
Select and install the following VS individual components - MSVC V143 - VS2022 C++ x64/x86 Spectre-mitigated libs (Latest) and MSVC V143 - VS2022 C++ ARM64 Spectre-mitigated libs (Latest)
Step 3: Install WDK Visual Studio extension
Option 1: Visual Studio Marketplace
In Visual Studio, select Extensions, Manage Extensions and then Visual Studio Marketplace. Search for "Windows Driver Kit", select and install the Windows Drivers Kit Visual Studio extension.
Option 2: Download and install
Download and install the Windows Drivers Kit Visual Studio Extension using this link:
You can find more details about the release here on the official Tech community blog post.