What is a good resource to get started with Windows file system driver development? What is a good resource to get started with Windows file system driver development? windows windows

What is a good resource to get started with Windows file system driver development?


Windows NT File System Internals by Rajeev Nagar.

OSR Online's File System Resource page (and OSR Online in general):

The NTFSD mailing list/forum (also hosted by OSR):

And starting with Vista, the Windows Driver Kit (WDK), which used to be called the DDK, now includes the Installable File Systems (IFS) Kit:

Just a heads up - Windows file system development is extremely complex because the file system is tightly integrated with the Windows memory manager. It's the kind of thing that people dedicate careers to. Just so you have an idea what you may be getting into.


You might try Windows Hardware Developer Central, which has links to blogs, newsgroups, books, and other useful resources for driver authors.

I also recommend downloading and installing the Windows DDK and exploring some of the included samples. There should be various skeleton drivers that can be used as starting points for your custom work.


For Windows drivers also see this blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/doronh/

For Linux based development, two good books come to mind: Linux Device Drivers and Linux Kernel Development. The Linux Device Drivers book can be a bit daunting so a good introduction to the Kernel is a useful starting point.