Kernel Driver Development

Toolchain

Use Visual Studio 2022 with matching Windows SDK and WDK build numbers.

msbuild driver\AcTelemetry.vcxproj `
  /p:Configuration=Release `
  /p:Platform=x64

Validate the INF and package before deployment:

InfVerif.exe /w driver\AcTelemetry.inf

Development packages must be test-signed and loaded only on isolated test systems. Production packages require an applicable Microsoft signing path.

Required review areas

Every driver change must review:

• callback registration and unload ordering;
• IRQL and pageable-code constraints;
• nonpaged allocation lifetime;
• queue synchronization and overflow behavior;
• integer conversion and structure layout;
• IOCTL input, output, and returned-byte validation;
• device ACL and handle exclusivity;
• target PID lifecycle and PID reuse;
• failure cleanup after partial initialization.

Prohibited implementation classes

The project does not accept:

• arbitrary kernel or process-memory read/write IOCTLs;
• SSDT, IDT, dispatch-table, or executable-code hooks;
• kernel or user code patching;
• process, module, driver, handle, file, or registry hiding;
• remote-thread creation;
• callback-based blocking or termination;
• METHOD_NEITHER user pointers;
• embedded production signing material.

Reliability qualification

Production readiness requires static driver analysis, Driver Verifier, concurrent I/O tests, queue saturation, repeated load/unload, crash-dump triage, HLK validation, and an explicit Windows support matrix.