Windows Driver Kit (WDK) 8.1 features added to Visual Studio

Question

I have installed Windows Driver Kit (WDK) 8.1 and according to this link, in Visual Studio, in the Project Properties frame, at Platform Toolset, I should have WindowsKernelModeDriver8.1, but it doesn't appear there and according to this link, at New Project window, I should have Windows Driver at installed templates, but, on my Visual Studio, it doens't appear in that list.

I am using Visual Studio Ultimate 2012.

What should I do to add WDK features to Visual Studio?

In addition, if I am checking the macros, more exactly $(WindowsSDK_IncludePath), it included only ...\include\um, ...\include\shared, ...\include\winrt, without ...\include\km which has all the headers which a device driver needs.

Answer 1

I had the same error, but with Visual Studio 2013. Re-installing WDK 8.1 fixed the issue, for whatever unknown reason.

Answer 2

I have installed WDK 8 (not 8.1) and now I have all the features I wanted in Visual Studio 2012.

Answer 3

WDK 8.1 is tied to Visual Studio 2013: you will not be able to leverage its features from Visual Studio 2012. If you don't have Visual Studio 2013 Professional or Ultimate, you can also use WDK 8.1 with Visual Studio Express 2013 for Windows Desktop.

As for your other question: WindowsSDK_IncludePath is used for user mode components. There are other properties that are used for kernel mode drivers (DDK_INC_PATH, if memory serves well). When you create a kernel mode driver project, those paths will be automatically set for you by the WDK WindowsKernelModeDriver8.1 MSBuild toolset.