Windows DDK introduction, selection and installation

Windows documentation works very well. All the information can be obtained from the Windows DDK homepage and the help document provided by DDK. This article is just a summary.

We started to officially contact DDK today and first came to the DDK homepage. The following information is useful:

1. Select the DDK version to install. The recommended DDK version is Windows 2003 Server SP1 DDK, which can be used in DDK, Windows XP, Windows XP SP1, Win2000, and Windows 2003. Windows XP SP2 can also be used. For details, see the article "which DDK and test kit to use" on the Microsoft DDK homepage.

2. Read the ddk faq. This article mentions that all DDK versions do not have the function of automatically uninstalling the old version. In other words, to install the new version of DDK, you must manually uninstall the original DDK.

3. prefast: This is a code analysis and debug tool. It can analyze some problems in the Code and give suggestions. For more information, see the prefast documentation.

4. Install DDK. After mounting the ddk iso, the CD automatically runs and a webpage is displayed. Installation is simple. Double-click setup. It is worth noting that there is a debugger tool that won't be installed during setup and needs to be installed manually. View the debugger section on the webpage.

5. It takes 47 minutes to install DDK on my laptop (full installation ). The installer installs Win2000, WINXP, win2003, IA64, x86, and x64 versions. This is also Microsoft's style. Full installation takes 7 xxmb of space.

 

An important issue is also mentioned in the installation of Getting Started:

Symbol

The new linker strips all debug information from the Sys File and moves the data into a PDB file. the PDB file shoshould be copied to the symbols directory for debugging. copying the SYS file will not provide debugging information.

That is to say, the linker of this version of DDK will put all symbols information (used as debug) into the PDB file, rather than directly put it. the sys file is in, so when debugging, You need to copy the PDB file to the symbols directory instead of the Sys File.