One of the consistent themes the Hardware Dev Center team hears from the Partner Community is the need for an easy way to automate driver submissions for signing by Microsoft. This is especially true for partners with large volumes of driver submissions because they need a way to build, sign and package drivers inline with their existing build processes. To address this feedback, we have added APIs for driver submission in Hardware Dev Center. This is now available to all partners and allows you to submit drivers for signing by Microsoft.

How does it work?

Microsoft Hardware API are now available for Hardware Dev Center. You can use these REST APIs to submit drivers, download signed drivers, create / upload derived submissions and check status of an existing submission. The APIs can be accessed using your existing Azure AD account by associating an Azure AD application with your Windows Dev Center account. If you are already using Microsoft Store analytics API or Microsoft Store submission API, you could reuse the same credentials to access the Microsoft Hardware API as well.

How to onboard/start using it?

Read through the documentation to understand the methods available, request response types for each of these and how to call them. The documentation also contains sample code on how to use the API. Since these are REST APIs, you should be able to easily onboard to them without the need to change the technology you already use in-house.

What next?

We are looking forward for you to onboard and start using the APIs for driver submissions. However, this is only our first wave. In the coming months, we will be releasing APIs for publishing drivers, enhanced targeting, advanced driver search. Please watch this space for more updates.

I hope you are as excited as we are to start using the APIs to automate your processes and start saving your cycles and increasing your productivity!! Happy automating!

We are happy to announce the availability of the new Windows 10 Driver failure report in Hardware Dev Center! The new report will enable IHVs, OEMs, ISVs and IoT partners to easily view failure data for all submissions made through Hardware Dev Center. No more having to scroll through hundreds of submission ids to view failure analytics

Other key enhancements, include:

• Added late arriving failure data for 10 days. This will not only help IoT partners, but also improves overall failure data accuracy reported for all partners.
• Added Filter Driver Failure Counts in the Hardware Dev Center to assist numerous anti-virus partners access to their filter driver failure data.
• Added the ability to filter and sort by cab types to ensure Kernel cabs are more easily discoverable.
• Added Submission Failure Counts in the Hardware Dev Center Drivers Dashboard so partners can quickly identify and take action on submissions that need attention.

What's Next?

As part of our mission to solve some long running partner pain points, in the upcoming months, we will enable you to receive custom and scheduled reports seamlessly through asynchronous reporting API. In addition, we will report new metrics such as unique device count and dimensions as OS SKU, OS Release Version, CPU Name, etc. You will also see a new Driver Flighting report in the Hardware Dev Center that gives you complete visibility of driver performance during flighting.

We are super excited as we embark on this journey and hope you are as well. Stay tuned for more updates, soon!

Notice to all partners submitting applications for Windows software logo certification.

The Windows software logo certification program is being deprecated from the existing Sysdev portal. Partners requiring Microsoft attestation and distribution of your Win32 apps are recommended to use Desktop Bridge to distribute your app via the Store.

Partners can continue to ship and deploy applications without Microsoft logo certification.

FAQ

The Windows Hardware Lab Kit (HLK) has been updated to support Windows 10, version 1803 and is available via direct download, here: http://aka.ms/1803HLK. The 1803 version of the HLK enforces revisions to the Windows 10, version 1803 hardware compatibility requirements available from the Hardware Dev Center.

Note: Starting with the last release of HLK version 1709, the HLK will support testing a single version of Windows 10. (The version prior to HLK version 1703 can support testing multiple versions.)

The following support scenarios will be accepted:

When submitting a Windows 10, version 1803 HLK package for validation, you must use Windows 10, version 1803 build 17134 or newer on the test device. Otherwise, the submission will be rejected.

You must continue to use the Windows Hardware Certification Kit (HCK) version 2.1 to certify for following operating systems:

• Windows 7
• Windows 8
• Windows 8.1
• Windows Server 2012
• Windows Server 2012 R2

You must continue to use the Windows Logo Kit (WLK) version 1.6 to certify for following operating systems:

• Windows Server 2008 R2 (x64 and ia64)
• Windows Server 2008 (x86, x64 and ia64)

Certification for Windows Server 2016, Azure Stack and SDDC must:

• Meet the Windows Hardware Compatibility Requirements as stated in version 1607 of the documentation
• Use the 1607 version of the Windows Server 2016 operating system
• Use HLK version 1607 build 14393 with matching playlist and supplemental content to generate logs
• Follow the policies stated in the Windows Server Policy.

Questions about the Azure Stack or SDDC program or how to submit the results for solution validation should be directed to the appropriate Microsoft contact – your technical account manager or partner management contact.

Playlists to support the incremental Windows releases

With the change in the policy regarding which versions of Windows 10 the HLK will validate, it is important to note which tests are required with each kit. Playlists must match the HLK version used, not the Windows 10 version under test.

The required playlists pairing are:

*Testing ARM64 Desktop requires two playlists. Please see HLK client setup and testing guidance here for additional information: http://aka.ms/InstallHLK.

All playlists are available at http://aka.ms/HLKPlaylist.

Windows 10, version 1803 may ship with drivers that achieved compatibility with Windows 10, version 1709 until July 30, 2018!

Partners looking to achieve compatibility for systems shipping Windows 10, version 1803 may factory-install drivers for components that achieved compatibility with Windows 10, version 1709 until July 30, 2018.

Errata 33064 filter is available to mask the failures seen when testing a system and the latest errata filter package can be found at http://aka.ms/hlkfilters. This policy is not applicable to partners certifying for Windows Server 2016, as all components within the system must be certified for Windows Server 2016 in order to be considered compatible.

Certification for Windows Server 2016, Azure Stack and SDDC must:

• Meet the Windows Hardware Compatibility Requirements as stated in version 1607 of the documentation.
• Use the 1607 version of the Windows Server 2016 operating system.
• Use HLK version 1607 build 14393 with matching playlist and supplemental content to generate logs.
• Follow the policies stated in the Windows Server Policy.

Questions about the Azure Stack or SDDC program or how to submit the results for solution validation should be directed to the appropriate Microsoft contact – technical account manager or partner management contact.

Submitting test results for Windows 10, version 1803

As previously mentioned, submissions for Windows 10, version 1803 must use HLK version 1803. Note that if you are submitting results for Windows 10 version 1803, the results must be packaged for submission using a controller with HLK version 1803 installed. If a controller with any older version of HLK (such as HLK 1709) is used to package and submit results for Windows 10, version 1803, the submission will fail because the data in the package will not be in the correct format.

Submissions affected by this will appear to be stuck in the Validating HCK/HLK Submission Package step. We will monitor for this scenario and reach out to partners with affected submissions. A controller with HLK version 1803 installed can be used to submit results from previous kits (HCK/HLK).

Driver Update Acceptable (DUA) Shell will be generated from the HLK 1803 Package Manager

Dev Center has adopted the HLK 1803 Package Manager to generate the DUA Shell for all DUA submission requests, including the submissions that are created from the previously released of HLK Studio. Since the DUA Shell is generated by the HLK 1803 Package Manager, it can only be repackaged by the same version of HLK. When an older version of HLK Studio is used, you will get an error message of “The package version 3.5.0.0 is not compatible with this version of the kit. Please update your kit version and try again.”

Please make sure the HLK 1803 Studio is used when repackaging a DUA submission.

We are pleased to announce that the Errata filter database, which was previously on Sysdev, has come to Hardware Dev Center.

Currently, access to this page does require you to be an authenticated Hardware Dashboard user. Over the next month we will be working on removing this authentication requirement.

Sign-in to Errata filter database.

One of the consistent themes the Hardware Dev Center team hears from the Partner Community is the need for an easy way to automate the lifecycle of submitting and publishing drivers. This is especially true for partners with large volumes, because they need a way to build, sign, package and publish drivers within their existing build and release management processes. To address this feedback, we had published APIs for submission in April. Continuing with that story, we have now added APIs for publishing drivers in Hardware Dev Center. This is now available to all partners and allows you to create Shipping Labels.

What can I do with APIs?

Microsoft Hardware API are now available for Hardware Dev Center. You can use these REST APIs to

• Submit drivers
• Download signed drivers
• Create/upload derived submissions
• Check status of an existing submission
• Check status of a shipping label
• Create a shipping label
• Edit a shipping label

How to onboard/start using it?

Read through the documentation to understand the methods available, request response types for each of these and how to call them. The documentation also contains sample code on how to use the API. Since these are REST APIs, you should be able to easily onboard to them without the need to change the technology you already use in-house.

How do I get access?

The APIs can be accessed using your existing Azure AD account by associating an Azure AD application with your Windows Dev Center account. If you are already using Microsoft Store analytics API or Microsoft Store submission API, you could reuse the same credentials to access the Microsoft Hardware API as well.

What are early adopters saying?

Early adopters of the APIs have been able to onboard, test and start using the APIs. They have been able to save time and increase productivity. Some snippets of feedback

“Prompt and superfast. Status poll is prompt. Able to publish multiple OSes with 2700 HWIDs in one shot. No timeouts or any other issues noticed in the perf”

“We were able to automatically upload and then download our signed package in just 10 mins, and everything was smooth and straightforward. This API will definitely save our Cert Engineers meaningful cycles pretty much every day now that we no longer have to do this manually.”

“The APIs have reduced the cycle time for our end to end signing process from days to 75 minutes.”

What's next?

In the coming months, we will be releasing APIs for advanced driver search. Stay tuned for more updates.

Happy automating!

We are excited to announce a powerful search experience in Hardware Partner Center with an advanced search feature that allows faster and deeper searches to discover your drivers easily.

Why we are delivering this feature?

Until today, you as a driver developer or publisher may have experienced slow page-load of the driver dashboard based on the number of drivers you managed in Hardware Partner Center. Also, you could only search for your driver using limited options like search by product ID or product name. While we redesigned the way search works, we also made driver dashboard load faster. With advanced search, you should experience faster load times and should be able to search for a driver using a wider range of it’s various attributes. You don’t have to find the specific product ID for the given hardware ID or INF file name to search for a driver. For example you can search by Shared Product ID, Hardware ID, INF Name etc.

Using advanced search

You can directly type in product ID, submission ID, product name, submission name, hardware ID, INF name or OS code in search box on Drivers page to search for a driver. You can also use the new keyword search feature for more targeted and complex searches. Typing @ in search box displays the list of available attributes for keyword search (see below screen snippet for list of available attributes). Refer to our documentation to know more about how to use new advanced search.

What's next?

We know it is important to support the search and reporting feature to query publishing status. We are working to enable it in upcoming iterations along with other features like search API, apply filters etc.

Feedback

We would love to hear from you and plan to incorporate your feedback. Let us know whether this new search feature helps you or there’s something we could do to improve it.

The Windows Hardware Lab Kit (HLK) has been updated to support Windows 10, version 1809 and Windows Server 2019. You may download the 1809 version of the HLK from the Hardware Dev Center and begin your Windows Hardware Compatibility testing today.

The 1809 version of the HLK enforces the revisions to the hardware compatibility requirements for Windows 10, version 1809 and Windows Server 2019 and is for testing of those releases exclusively. Previous versions of the HLK for testing Windows releases other than Windows 10, version 1809 and Windows Server 2019 are available for download for at the Hardware Dev Center.

Windows 10, version 1809 and Server 2019 HLK Playlists

Updated playlists for this release are available for download from the Hardware Dev Center

*Testing of ARM64 requires two playlists. Please refer to the HLK ARM64 Getting Started Guide for details on ARM64 HLK client setup.

Virtual Hardware Lab Kit (VHLK)

This release also brings a new method for deploying your HLK test server (aka "controller") with the introduction of Virtual Hardware Lab Kit (VHLK). The VHLK is a complete pre-configured HLK test server on a Virtual Hard Disk (VHD). The VHLK VHD can be deployed and booted as a Virtual Machine (VM) with no installation or configuration required.

Download the Virtual Hardware Lab Kit (VHLK)

Windows 10, version 1809 based systems may ship with drivers that achieved compatibility with Windows 10, version 1803 until January 7, 2019

Partners looking to achieve compatibility for systems shipping Windows 10, version 1809 may factory-install drivers for components that achieved compatibility with Windows 10, version 1803 until January 7, 2019. Please note: This policy is not applicable to partners certifying for Windows Server 2019, as all components within the system must be certified for Windows Server 2019 in order to be considered compatible.

Errata 41043 filter is available to mask the failures seen when testing a Windows 10, version 1803 system and the latest errata filter package.

Using APIs to pull your driver failure details just got a lot easier. We are super excited to announce a new asynchronous API suite that will allow you to schedule custom reports for your driver failure data. You no longer need to make thousands of API calls every day to get this data.

All you need to do is to create your report template based on your business needs, set a schedule for your report, and you're done! You will be notified on a regular basis when new data is ready and can download all of it at once. You won’t need to handle things like row limits, paginations etc. while pulling the data ever again.

The new API suite also exposes additional dimensions such as CPU Name, OS SKU, OS Release Version, Hardware ID etc., along with newer metrics such as Unique device count per failure bucket. These APIs also support advanced aggregations and increased reliability when compared to the existing synchronous API suite.

The high-level API call flow is illustrated below and you can find more details and sample report templates here. The API documentation is also available in swagger. Code samples to integrate are here.

We are happy to announce today that the Windows Compatible Product List is now LIVE!

Features that are available in this release

• Search functionality across all “Certified” devices and systems for our entire catalog.
• Customers needing an OEM System report for RFPs can search for the product/marketing name and receive a downloadable Verification Report. *Systems do not support a D&U status. Therefore, that search dropdown must be left set to All for results to show.
• D & U status is displayed for all Device Classes.

How search works for Marketing/Product Name

• Searches should be limited to plain text without quotes or wildcards.
• Each space between a word is equivalent to an AND expression.
• No special search limiting terms should be used. I.E. do not use (OR, AND, ””, *, ?, etc.)
• Searches within this area will find matches in our product name , submission name, and marketing name fields.

How search works for Company Name

• Searches should be limited to plain text without quotes or wildcards (same as above)
• We will auto-complete found results after 5 letters are typed.Some companies are listed twice. This is a result of merging our Sysdev database accounts with Hardware Dev Center. Each entity is different, so it’s best to just search using the Marketing/Product Name field.