Windows SDK

The Microsoft® Windows® SDK is a set of tools, code samples, documentation, compilers, headers, and libraries that developers can use to create applications that run on Microsoft Windows operating systems, including Windows Server 2008. The Windows SDK combines two formerly separate SDKs:  the Platform SDK and the .NET Framework SDK. You can use the Windows SDK to write applications using managed (.NET Framework) or native (Win32) programming models. The newest release of the SDK contains support for the x86, x64 and Itanium (IA64) platforms.

The Windows SDK is available on the Microsoft Download Center, in ISO and Web-download formats. You can install the entire SDK (the default option) or choose to install only some SDK components, such as code samples demonstrating native development or tools for managed development.  Windows SDK components are also included in Microsoft Visual Studio®.

Each version of the Windows SDK is named according to the latest version of Windows and the .NET Framework that it supports, such as “the Windows SDK for Windows Server 2008 and .NET Framework 3.5.” However, each SDK release also provides downlevel support:  you can use the SDK to build applications that target Windows 2000 or higher,  and you can install the SDK on Windows Server® 2003 or higher.

	Microsoft Windows SDK for Windows Server 2008 and .NET Framework 3.5 The Windows SDK for Windows Server® 2008 and .NET Framework 3.5 provides the documentation, samples, header files, libraries, and tools (including C++ compilers) that you need to develop applications to run on Windows Server 2008 and the .NET Framework 3.5. To build and run .NET Framework applications, you must have the corresponding version of the .NET Framework installed. This SDK is compatible with Visual Studio® 2008, including Visual Studio Express Editions, which are available free of charge.
	Microsoft Windows SDK Update for Windows Vista This release of the Windows SDK supplies compilers and documentation that were updated since the release of the Windows SDK for Vista and .NET Framework 3.0. The updated compiler files include support for ASLR, but with these compilers you cannot compile with the /analyze switch. If you want to use /analyze, you should download the Windows SDK for Windows Vista and .NET Framework 3.0 instead.
	.NET Framework 2.0 SDK The Microsoft .NET Framework Software Development Kit (SDK) v2.0 includes tools, documentation and samples developers need to write, build, test, and deploy .NET Framework 2.0 applications.
	Microsoft Windows Server 2003 R2 Platform SDK This Platform SDK targets development for the Windows Server 2003 platform. It also supports development for Windows 2000 and Windows XP.
	Previous SDKs Some released SDKs are available on media from our vendor, QMedia, for the cost of shipping.

Windows SDK Team Blog ESENT (Extensible Storage Engine) API in the Windows SDK I’m not sure how many people know that Windows comes with an embeddable, transactional database engine which is available to developers through the Wi... More... Wednesday, October 22, 2008 6:22:00 PM Using Windows SDK Vista Bridge Sample Library Many of you don’t know about the Vista Bridge sample library, what can it do or even where you can find it. Let’s start with the basics; i.e. definit... More... Friday, October 10, 2008 5:01:07 PM How to get the WinSDK Configuration Tool to work The Windows SDK Configuration Tool sets which version of Windows SDK headers, libraries and tools you want to build with in Visual Studio. The tool sh... More... Monday, October 06, 2008 12:10:33 PM WinSDK in VS2008 SP1: what changed? I'm often asked what changed in the Windows SDK components that shipped with Visual Studio 2008 between the RTM version and the SP1 version.  To... More... Thursday, September 25, 2008 2:43:00 PM How it works: Windows SDK Documentation Part 2 Many Windows SDK users have questions about the system behind the documentation provided with the SDK.  Part 1 of this series explained the basic... More... Tuesday, September 02, 2008 10:39:00 AM

Recent Windows SDK Forum Posts Can we use WMP SDK for WPF Media Element?   Hello,   As i researched about Getting Current Online Media Statistics on WPF Media Element Con... More... Element Education Tech. Co Inc Wednesday, October 22, 2008 5:14:01 AM Windows Performance Toolkit - Convert custom data into ETL file I searched the documentation, but i didn't found any answers regarding my question if there is a way... More... hellspawn_bg Wednesday, October 22, 2008 12:48:58 AM compatibility problem driver network card XP Does any one know if there is a possibility to find a driver for windows XP for the wireless network... More... Linda Quartier Tuesday, October 21, 2008 11:54:40 PM netsh advfirewall cmd not able to open ICMP Echo Request in Inbound direction   I am using netsh cmd to open ICMP Echo Request in Inbound direction, so my machine can respond to... More... tutor Tuesday, October 21, 2008 8:50:20 PM Using SSPI (NTLM) Api's With Windows AccessCheck() On Vista With UAC Enabled   Using SSPI (NTLM) Api's With Windows AccessCheck() On Vista With UAC Enabled SummaryClient (Wind... More... Ryan Ackerman Tuesday, October 21, 2008 1:56:44 AM