Announcing Windows Driver Kit (WDK) with full support for Visual Studio 2026

We're excited to announce the general availability of the Windows Driver Kit (WDK) with full support for Visual Studio 2026. Following our preview release earlier this year, this release brings production-ready Visual Studio 2026 compatibility to driver developers and hardware partners worldwide.

What's New in This Release

Visual Studio 2026 Support

The WDK now fully supports Visual Studio 2026 for building, testing, and packaging Windows drivers. With this release, developers can confidently adopt Visual Studio 2026 in production workflows, taking advantage of its improvements in performance, C++ tooling, diagnostics, and overall IDE reliability—all of which directly benefit large driver solutions and complex build pipelines. For more on Visual Studio 2026, see Visual Studio 2026 Release Notes.

WDK Delivery and Availability

The WDK ships in three packaging formats, all of which now fully support Visual Studio 2026:


The NuGet-based WDK remains the recommended approach for modern and automated workflows. For developers who need traditional layouts or offline/self-contained build environments, the WDK MSI and EWDK ISO continue to be available.

Build Tools Support with WDK and SDK MSIs

Visual Studio Build Tools now fully integrates with WDK and Windows SDK MSIs for production use.

What's Supported:

• Visual Studio Build Tools can be used alongside installed Windows SDK and Windows Driver Kit MSIs.
• Installing the "Windows Driver Kit" individual component via the Visual Studio Installer enables:
  • Headless build machines
  • CI agents without the full Visual Studio IDE
  • Cleaner separation between development and build environments

Getting Started

Option 1: NuGet Package (Recommended)

1. Download and install Visual Studio 2026.
   1. In the installer, select: Individual Components → Windows Driver Kit
   2. Select Spectre mitigated tools. more info in Download Visual Studio 2026 section here.
2. Open NuGet Package Manager and search for Microsoft.Windows.WDK and select version 10.0.28000.1839.
3. Build drivers using MSBuild as usual.

Option 2: MSI Installation

1. Download and install Visual Studio 2026 or Visual Studio Build Tools for VS 2026. Support for Build Tools SKU is brand new for 2026.
   1. In the installer, select: Individual Components → Windows Driver Kit
   2. For detailed list of component please refer WDK download
2. Install the Windows SDK MSI.
3. Install the Windows Driver Kit MSI.
4. Build drivers using MSBuild as usual.

Setup with Build Tools SKU works well for CI/CD pipelines and enterprise build environments where the full IDE is unnecessary.

Changes Since Preview

Production-ready: This release is fully supported for production use—no longer a preview.

Version update: WDK version is now 10.0.28000.1839 (previously 10.0.28000.1761-preview).

Stability improvements: APIs, tooling behavior, and compatibility have been finalized based on feedback received during the preview period.
Feedback

We welcome your feedback as you adopt the WDK with Visual Studio 2026 for your production driver development workflows.