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description: This page provides information on the operation schedule for driver ship room. In order to provide the best experience for Windows users, there are certain times where aspects of publication operations are suspended.
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ms.date: 11/11/2024
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description: This article provides information about the operation schedule for Windows driver ship room. In order to provide the best experience for Windows users, there are certain times where aspects of publication operations are suspended.
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ms.date: 11/25/2025
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ms.topic: release-notes
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---
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# Driver Ship Room Release Cadence Windows
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# Driver ship room release cadence
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Last Updated: November 11, 2024
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Last Updated: November 25, 2025
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This article provides information on the operation schedule for Windows driver ship room. In order to provide the best experience for Windows users, there are certain times where aspects of publication operations are suspended.
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This article provides information about the operation schedule for Windows driver ship room. In order to provide the best experience for Windows users, there are certain times where aspects of publication operations are suspended.
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We have a shared goal of keeping devices up to date while providing users a high quality experience. When a driver update is released alongside OS updates, it results in a poor experience and impacts end-users.
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Windows as a Service has a well-established OS update release cadence.
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-**Latest Cumulative Update (LCU)**: Monthly quality and security updates are released during the second week. The LCU is also known as the *B* release, and is offered to all eligible Windows 10 devices through Windows Update (WU) scans.
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-**Latest Cumulative Update (LCU)**: Monthly quality and security updates are released during the second week. The LCU is also known as the *B* release, and is offered to all eligible Windows 11 devices through Windows Update (WU) scans.
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-**Feature Updates**: Provide the latest feature experiences and quality fixes.
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There are changes for releasing drivers marked as needing *Microsoft approval*. These changes ensure we release quality drivers, reduce the risk of releasing drivers at the same time as OS changes, and provide ecosystem partners a predictable driver release cadence. The drivers affected by these changes include:
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- Flighted drivers: Drivers (shipping label) marked as **Automatic** = Critical Update (CU) or Dynamic Update (DU) or both
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- Optional driver classes which always go through ship room approval
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- Optional driver classes, which always go through ship room approval
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**Predictable driver release windows**: During OS update release time frames, we defer releasing drivers needing *Microsoft approval* to WU and will resume automatic publishing after the deferral window.
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**Predictable driver release windows**: During OS update release time frames, we defer releasing drivers needing *Microsoft approval* to Windows Update and will resume automatic publishing after the deferral window.
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1.**Monthly Quality Update *B* release**: Drivers needing *Microsoft approval* aren't released one day before and for one day after monthly security *B* release.
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| Monday | Second Tuesday of each month | Wednesday |
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|--|--|--|
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| One day before |*B* monthly security release day | One day after |
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1.**Feature update offer via Windows Update**: Driver needing *Microsoft approval* aren't released two days before, and for two days after the start of a feature OS update rollout.
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1.**Feature update offer via Windows Update**: Drivers needing *Microsoft approval* aren't released two days before, and for two days after the start of a feature OS update rollout.
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| Before | Day Of | After |
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|--|--|--|
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| Two days before | Feature OS Rollout | Two days after |
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If there are known issues for feature update and driver compatibility, you can request a *feature update offer block mitigation* while a compatible driver update is being validated and posted to WU.
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If there are known issues for feature update and driver compatibility, you can request a *feature update offer block mitigation* while a compatible driver update is being validated and posted to Windows Update.
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1.**Certain US holidays**: Drivers needing *Microsoft approval* aren't released on certain US Holidays and long weekends
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| US Holidays |2025|2024|
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| US Holidays |2026|2025|
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|--|--|--|
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| New Year's Day |Wednesday, January 01 |Monday, January 01 |
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| Martin Luther King Day | Monday, January 20| Monday, January 17|
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| Presidents Day | Monday, February 17| Monday, February 19|
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| Memorial Day | Monday May 26| Monday May 27|
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| Fourth of July | Friday, July 04|Tuesday, July 04 |
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| Labor Day | Monday, September 01| Monday, September 02|
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| Thanksgiving Day | Thursday, November 27| Thursday, November 28|
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| Day after Thanksgiving | Friday, November 28| Friday, November 29|
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| Christmas Eve |Wednesday, December 24 |Tuesday, December 24 |
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| Christmas Day |Thursday, December 25 |Wednesday, December 25 |
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| Day after Christmas |Friday, December 26 | Thursday, December 26 |
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1.**US Winter Holiday time frame release moratorium**: During the US winter holiday season, the driver ship room isn't releasing *any* drivers. For calendar year 2024, the time frame is December 14, 2024 through January 1, 2025. For calendar year 2025, the time frame is December 18, 2025 through January 1, 2026.
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| New Year's Day |Tuesday, January 01 |Wednesday, January 01 |
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| Martin Luther King Day | Monday, January 19| Monday, January 20|
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| Presidents Day | Monday, February 16| Monday, February 17|
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| Memorial Day | Monday, May 25| Monday, May 26|
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| Fourth of July | Friday, July 03|Friday, July 04 |
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| Labor Day | Monday, September 07| Monday, September 01|
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| Thanksgiving Day | Thursday, November 26| Thursday, November 27|
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| Day after Thanksgiving | Friday, November 27| Friday, November 28|
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| Christmas Eve |Thursday, December 24 |Wednesday, December 24 |
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| Christmas Day |Friday, December 25 |Thursday, December 25 |
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| Day after Christmas |- | Friday, December 26 |
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1.**US Winter Holiday time frame release moratorium**: During the US winter holiday season, the driver ship room isn't releasing *any* drivers. For calendar year 2025, the time frame is December 18, 2025 through January 1, 2026. For calendar year 2026, the time frame is December 18, 2026 through January 1, 2027.
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See the calendars in the [Appendix](#appendix) for more dates.
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@@ -67,14 +67,14 @@ There are changes for releasing drivers marked as needing *Microsoft approval*.
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### FAQ
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1. What does this deferral mean for newly submitted drivers or drivers currently In-Flight?
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1. What does this deferral mean for newly submitted drivers or drivers currently in-flight?
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This deferral is for the release of a driver needing *Microsoft approval* (marked as Automatic or Dynamic Update) to WU. Newly submitted drivers, and drivers currently in-flight, proceed as they normally do.
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This deferral is for the release of a driver needing *Microsoft approval* (marked as Automatic or Dynamic Update) to Windows Update. Newly submitted drivers, and drivers currently in-flight, proceed as they normally do.
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1. What is the latest deferral calendar?
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**These calendars are subject to change based on OS release timelines.**
description: This topic describes how to build an Arm64 driver with the Windows Driver Kit (WDK).
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ms.date: 10/04/2024
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ms.date: 11/21/2025
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ai-usage: ai-assisted
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ms.topic: how-to
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---
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# Building Arm64 Drivers with the WDK
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# Building Arm64 drivers with the WDK
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Starting with WDK version 10.0.26100.1 (released May 22, 2024), the WDK now supports development, testing, and deployment of drivers on Arm64 machines. The WDK can be installed and run natively on Arm64 hardware, in addition to the previously supported emulation of x86 KMDF/UMDF2 drivers on Arm64 hardware. There is also support for debugging and deployment of drivers to an Arm64 target machine from both Arm64 and x64 host machines. The process of installing the WDK on Arm64 machines will automatically identify and install all the necessary dependencies including build tools, binaries, and libraries.
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Starting with WDK version 10.0.26100.1 (released May 22, 2024), the WDK now supports development, testing, and deployment of drivers on Arm64 machines. The WDK can be installed and run natively on Arm64 hardware, in addition to the previously supported emulation of x86 KMDF/UMDF2 drivers on Arm64 hardware. There is also support for debugging and deployment of drivers to an Arm64 target machine from both Arm64 and x64 host machines. The process of installing the WDK on Arm64 machines will automatically identify and install all the necessary dependencies including build tools, binaries, and libraries.
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This page describes how to build an Arm64 driver with the WDK.
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## Setup
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1. Download [Visual Studio 2022](https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/downloads/). You'll need at minimum version 17.0.0 or later. Ensure that you have the following components installed:
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1. Download [Visual Studio 2022](https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/vs/older-downloads/#visual-studio-2022-and-other-products). You'll need at minimum version 17.0.0 or later. Ensure that you have the following components installed:
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* MSVC v143 - VS 2022 C++ ARM64/ARM64EC Spectre-mitigated libs (Latest)
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* MSVC v143 - VS 2022 C++ x64/x86 Spectre-mitigated libs (Latest)
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* C++ ATL for latest v143 build tools with Spectre Mitigations (ARM64/ARM64EC)
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* C++ ATL for latest v143 build tools with Spectre Mitigations (x86 & x64)
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* C++ MFC for latest v143 build tools with Spectre Mitigations (ARM64/ARM64EC)
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* C++ MFC for latest v143 build tools with Spectre Mitigations (x86 & x64)
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* Windows Driver Kit
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- MSVC v143 - VS 2022 C++ ARM64/ARM64EC Spectre-mitigated libs (Latest)
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- MSVC v143 - VS 2022 C++ x64/x86 Spectre-mitigated libs (Latest)
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- C++ ATL for latest v143 build tools with Spectre Mitigations (ARM64/ARM64EC)
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- C++ ATL for latest v143 build tools with Spectre Mitigations (x86 & x64)
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- C++ MFC for latest v143 build tools with Spectre Mitigations (ARM64/ARM64EC)
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- C++ MFC for latest v143 build tools with Spectre Mitigations (x86 & x64)
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- Windows Driver Kit
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1.Install and restart Visual Studio.
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1.Download the [Windows SDK](https://developer.microsoft.com/windows/downloads/windows-sdk). Ensure that you have SDK version 26100 (Windows 11, version 24H2) or later.
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1.Download the [WDK](../download-the-wdk.md). Ensure that you have WDK version 26100 or later.
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1.Install and restart Visual Studio.
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1. Download the [Windows SDK](https://developer.microsoft.com/windows/downloads/windows-sdk). Ensure that you have SDK version 26100 (Windows 11, version 24H2) or later.
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1.Download the [WDK](../download-the-wdk.md). Ensure that you have WDK version 26100 or later.
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## Building an Arm64 Driver with the WDK
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## Building an Arm64 driver with the WDK
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1. In Visual Studio, open a driver solution. You can use your own, or one from the [Windows-driver-samples](https://github.com/Microsoft/Windows-driver-samples) repo.
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2. Select Solutions platform and select **Configuration Manager**.
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3. Under **Active Solution Platform**, select **New**.
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1. In Visual Studio, open a driver solution. You can use your own, or one from the [Windows-driver-samples](https://github.com/Microsoft/Windows-driver-samples) repo.
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1. Select Solutions platform and select **Configuration Manager**.
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4. From **Type or Select new Platform**, select **Arm64**. Copy settings from **Win32**. Select **OK** and **Close**.
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:::image type="content" source="images/VS-config-mgr.png" alt-text="Screenshot of Visual Studio toolbar showing the Configuration Manager option in the solution platform dropdown menu.":::
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5. Select **Arm64** as the target platform and rebuild.
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1. Under **Active Solution Platform**, select **New**.
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## Known Issues
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:::image type="content" source="images/VS-active-solution-platform.png" alt-text="Screenshot of the Configuration Manager dialog with the New option highlighted under the Active Solution Platform dropdown.":::
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1.**Integration**:
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1. From **Type or Select new Platform**, select **Arm64**. Copy settings from **Win32**. Select **OK** and **Close**.
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:::image type="content" source="images/VS-build-Arm64.png" alt-text="Screenshot of the New Solution Platform dialog with Arm64 selected as the target platform.":::
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1. Select **Arm64** as the target platform and rebuild.
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## Known issues
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-**Integration**:
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- When both the Windows 11, version 24H2 kit and the Windows 11, version 22H2 kit are installed, building a KMDF driver for ARM64 with `TargetPlatformVersion` set to Windows 11, version 22H2 fails due to unresolved external symbols.
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- Debugging drivers within Visual Studio 2022 versions 17.2.0 and 17.3 with the Windows 11, version 22H2 WDK is not possible.
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2.**Workarounds**:
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-**Workarounds**:
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- Update Visual Studio to version 17.4.1 or later to resolve debugging issues.
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- Use WinDbg for debugging if updating Visual Studio is not an option.
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- Consider using an earlier version of Visual Studio if compatibility issues persist.
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## Using the Enterprise Windows Driver Kit (EWDK)
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1.**EWDK Overview**:
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-**EWDK Overview**:
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- The EWDK includes all necessary dependencies and can be used to build drivers without requiring Visual Studio installation.
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