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Install the WDK using WinGet

You can use the Windows Package Manager (WinGet) to install the Windows Driver Kit (WDK) and all of its dependencies from the command line. This article describes two approaches: using a WinGet configuration file to set up everything at once, or installing each component individually.

Note

WinGet must be installed before you begin. See Install WinGet for setup instructions.

Install a full driver development environment using a WinGet configuration file

Run the following command in PowerShell to install the WDK and all of its dependencies at once:

winget configure -f 'https://raw.githubusercontent.com/microsoft/Windows-driver-samples/main/_wdk_utils/winget/configs/wdk-vscommunity.dsc.yaml'

This configuration file sets up the following components:

  • Visual Studio Community
  • Visual Studio workloads and components required for driver development
  • Windows 11, version 26H1 SDK
  • Windows 11, version 26H1 WDK

Configuration files work best when setting up a new machine. However, you can also use this on machines that already have some components installed — WinGet detects what's already there and only installs the missing ones.

Tip

The provided configuration file installs the Community edition of Visual Studio. If you need a different edition, use the corresponding configuration file: wdk-vsprofessional.dsc.yaml for Professional or wdk-vsenterprise.dsc.yaml for Enterprise.

Install each component individually

If you prefer to install components one at a time, follow the steps in this section. For the WDK to work properly, you need the following components:

  • Visual Studio
  • Visual Studio workloads and components required for driver development
  • Windows 11, version 26H1 SDK
  • Windows 11, version 26H1 WDK

Visual Studio

Run the following commands in PowerShell to download a .vsconfig file and install Visual Studio Community with the required workloads and components for driver development:

$cfg = "$PWD\wdk-desktop.vsconfig"
Invoke-WebRequest -Uri 'https://raw.githubusercontent.com/microsoft/Windows-driver-samples/main/_wdk_utils/winget/configs/wdk-desktop.vsconfig' -OutFile $cfg
winget install Microsoft.VisualStudio.Community --override "--passive --config $cfg"

Note

To install a different edition, change the --id value to Microsoft.VisualStudio.Professional or Microsoft.VisualStudio.Enterprise.

Windows SDK

Run the following command in PowerShell to install the latest Windows SDK:

winget install Microsoft.WindowsSDK.10.0.28000

Windows WDK

Run the following command in PowerShell to install the latest WDK:

winget install Microsoft.WindowsWDK.10.0.28000

Use Dev Home to install the WDK configuration file

If you have Dev Home installed, you can use it to configure your machine instead of the command line. First, download the configuration file.

Then, in Dev Home, select Machine configuration from the sidebar, then select Set up development environment > Configuration file on the main screen. After you confirm that you want to use the file to configure your machine, installation proceeds automatically. When it completes, your environment is ready for driver development.

See also

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