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Target platforms

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Set the target platform to the type of driver that you wish to develop. For more information, see Building a Driver with the WDK.

Here are the values for Target Platform, and what they mean:

Term Description
Universal A driver binary in a Windows Driver can call this device driver interface (DDI). For more info, see Get started developing Windows drivers.
Desktop A driver binary for Windows 10 for desktop editions or Windows Server 2016 can call this DDI.
Windows Driver A Windows Driver runs on the following Universal Windows Platform (UWP)-based editions of Windows:

Windows 11

Windows Server 2022

Windows Server 2019

Windows 10 for desktop editions (Home, Pro, and Enterprise)

Windows 10 in S-Mode

Windows 10 IoT Core

Windows Server 2016

Target platform on driver reference pages

In the Requirements block at the bottom of Microsoft driver reference documentation pages, you'll see an entry called Target Platform. This line lists editions of Windows to which the page applies.

Here's an example of such an entry:

target platform set to universal in requirements block.

Here are the values you might see for Target Platform, and what they mean:

Term Description
Universal A driver binary in a Universal, Desktop, or Windows Driver can call this device driver interface (DDI). For more info, see Get started developing Windows drivers or Using a Universal INF File.
Desktop A driver binary for a Desktop driver can call this DDI.

These two values that can appear on documentation pages map to three values that you can use in Visual Studio, in the Target Platform property under Configuration Properties->Driver Settings->General. All three classifications, Universal, Desktop, or Windows Driver can use any DDI that specifies Universal as the Target Platform on the documentation page.

A Universal driver runs on the following Universal Windows Platform (UWP)-based editions of Windows:

  • Windows 11
  • Windows Server 2022
  • Windows Server 2019
  • Windows 10 for desktop editions (Home, Pro, and Enterprise)
  • Windows 10 in S-Mode
  • Windows 10 IoT Core
  • Windows Server 2016