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   DriverStudio          SOURCES to Project Utility
   DriverBundle
   Previews              The standard tool for building NT/WDM kernel mode
   Compatibility         drivers is Microsoft's BUILD utility, a command line
 [Downloads]             tool that works in conjunction with makefiles in the
                          DDK. Developers who are accustomed to working in the
 Wizards                  Microsoft Visual Developer Studio environment are
   Utilities             uncomfortable when forced to use command line tools
   NT source             for building drivers. While the DDK's build system is
 examples                 robust and sophisticated, it lacks the productivity
   VxD source            features of the integrated graphical environment. To
 examples                 date, Microsoft has not provided any support for
   WDM source            developing drivers in DevStudio.
 examples
 [Resources]             A major impediment to using DevStudio for developing
 Technical papers         drivers has been the difficulty of creating a project
   Useful links          file that contains the correct switch settings for
   Technical tips        the compiler, linker, and other tools. With the
 [Support]               introduction of our new utility, SRCTODSP, a
                          developer can instantly create a workspace and roject
 Support                  file for a kernel mode driver, using an existing
   Knowledge base        SOURCES file as input.
   Problem
 submission               SRCTODSP generates a workspace (.dsw) and a project
   Product               (.dsp) for Microsoft Visual C++ 5.0. The tool lets
 registration             you select project settings that are compatible with
   Release notes         either the Windows NT 4.0 DDK or the Windows 98 DDK.
 [Shop NuMega]           The project that the tool creates contains two
 Buy it!                  configurations for the driver, namely Free and
   Price list            Checked. The output files are created in the same
   How to buy            directory as the input SOURCES file. Any include
   Sales offices         files in the directory are added to the project. If
                          the tool finds a message compiler input file (.mc),
                          it generates the appropriate rules to process it.
 [Y2K Compliance]
                          The program does have some limitations:

 [More information]          * Intel only.
                             * Only NT 4.0 and Windows 98 DDKs are supported.
                             * Only TARGETTYPE=DRIVER is supported.
                             * NMAKE directives (lines beginning with !) are
                               ignored.
                             * Some SOURCES keywords are not supported.

                          Unlike BUILD, projects generated by SRCTODSP use
                          separate directories to store the object files for
                          the free and checked builds.

                          Once you start developing drivers in DevStudio, you
                          won't want to go back to the command line tools.
                          However, it's still a good idea to do final
                          production builds with the procedures endorsed by
                          Microsoft.

                          Please proceed to our Utilities page to download
                          SRCTODSP.

                          Back to technical tip start page.

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