Announcing Preview WDK with VS2026

We're excited to announce a preview release of the Windows Driver Kit (WDK) that, for the first time, is compatible with Visual Studio 2026 (18.4 and later). This continues our ongoing effort to modernize the driver development experience while giving hardware partners and driver developers early access to the latest toolchains.

What's New in This Preview

Visual Studio 2026 Support

This preview WDK is the first release to support Visual Studio 2026. Developers can take advantage of the newest Visual Studio platform to build, test, and package Windows drivers using familiar WDK workflows. Visual Studio 2026 brings improvements across performance, C++ tooling, diagnostics, and overall IDE reliability—all of which directly benefit large driver solutions and complex build pipelines. For more on this, see Visual Studio 2026 Release Notes

WDK Delivery and Availability

The WDK ships in three packaging formats, all of which now support Visual Studio 2026 in this preview:

The NuGet-based WDK is the recommended approach for modern and automated workflows. For developers who need traditional layouts or offline/self-contained build environments, the WDK MSI and EWDK ISO are available through the Windows Insider Program.

Build Tools Support with WDK and SDK MSIs

A common request has been better alignment between Visual Studio Build Tools and driver builds. In this preview, that experience is improved.

What's Supported

• Visual Studio Build Tools can now be used alongside installed Windows SDK and Windows Driver Kit MSIs.
• Installing the "Windows Driver Kit" individual component via the Visual Studio Installer enables:
• Headless build machines
• CI agents without the full Visual Studio IDE
• Cleaner separation between development and build environments

Setup Guide 

1. Download and Install Visual Studio Build Tools for VS 2026. <Insert the download link here>
   • In the installer, select:
     • Individual Components → Windows Driver Kit
2. Open NuGet Package Manager and search for Microsoft.Windows.WDK and select 

   10.0.28000.1761-preview

3. Or if you wan to use MSIs proceed further.
4. Install the Windows SDK MSI. 
5. Install the Windows Driver Kit MSI (preview).
6. Proceed with building drivers using MSBuild as usual.

This setup works well for CI/CD pipelines and enterprise build environments where the full IDE is unnecessary.

Preview Notes

• This is a preview release intended for evaluation and early adoption.
• APIs, tooling behavior, and compatibility details may evolve.

We're looking forward to your feedback as you try this preview and bring your driver development workflows onto Visual Studio 2026.