WHQL costs

NTDEV
1

Hello,

It seems like I need to pass WHQL tests for my NDIS IM Filter driver. I am trying to calculate costs for this, and I am a little bit confused as Microsoft documentation does not mention this at all.

I’ve found this step-by-step manual: http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/GetStart/testing.mspx which says that verisign certificate costs 399$ and registering winqual account requires billing info, “Because there are fees for some submission types, we require a billing address to set up an account.”.

Did anyone encountered, what are the fees for establishing winqual account? How much do they charge for new and next submission packages?

It’s a such shame on Microsoft they do not write this information directly somewhere in public documentation.

Thanks for any information.

2

The fees are detailed in the Word document on this page:
http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/whql/policies/default.mspx

(shame it hasn’t been updated since August 2006)

The summary is: $250 per driver per OS.

Hope this helps,
Tim Green
Development Engineer
DisplayLink (UK) Limited
Registered in England No. 04811048

-----Original Message-----
From: xxxxx@lists.osr.com
[mailto:xxxxx@lists.osr.com] On Behalf Of
xxxxx@gmail.com
Sent: 19 February 2009 08:38
To: Windows System Software Devs Interest List
Subject: [ntdev] WHQL costs

Hello,

It seems like I need to pass WHQL tests for my NDIS IM Filter
driver. I am trying to calculate costs for this, and I am a
little bit confused as Microsoft documentation does not
mention this at all.

I’ve found this step-by-step manual:
http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/GetStart/testing.mspx which
says that verisign certificate costs 399$ and registering
winqual account requires billing info, “Because there are
fees for some submission types, we require a billing address
to set up an account.”.

Did anyone encountered, what are the fees for establishing
winqual account? How much do they charge for new and next
submission packages?

It’s a such shame on Microsoft they do not write this
information directly somewhere in public documentation.

Thanks for any information.

NTDEV is sponsored by OSR

For our schedule of WDF, WDM, debugging and other seminars visit:
http://www.osr.com/seminars

To unsubscribe, visit the List Server section of OSR Online
at http://www.osronline.com/page.cfm?name=ListServer

3

Thanks for information.

I have a question regarding “per driver per OS”. I want to get rid of “This driver is not signed” when installing NDIS IM filter in XP x32, because almost all clients of my company are running XP SP3 x32.

For this I am going to pass WHQL and get the “Windows Logo”. After I pass it, and my driver is signed by MSFT I should not see any warnings in all 32 bit systems (XP, 2k, Vista and servers), true? But if I would like to get Windows Logo for x64 version of driver I will need to pay extra 250 bucks, am I right?

Thanks for any info.

4

It is $250 per OS family. A single submission includes both 32 bit and 64
bit versions.

Sometime in the last year, I submitted my DTM package for the USB HID device
and got the signature for Vista family for $250.

To be more clear, the single signature is for Windows Vista of any edition
like Business, Home, Ultimate, etc and also for both 32 bit and 64 bit
versions.

Regards.

On Thu, Feb 19, 2009 at 5:04 PM, wrote:

> Thanks for information.
>
> I have a question regarding “per driver per OS”. I want to get rid of “This
> driver is not signed” when installing NDIS IM filter in XP x32, because
> almost all clients of my company are running XP SP3 x32.
>
> For this I am going to pass WHQL and get the “Windows Logo”. After I pass
> it, and my driver is signed by MSFT I should not see any warnings in all 32
> bit systems (XP, 2k, Vista and servers), true? But if I would like to get
> Windows Logo for x64 version of driver I will need to pay extra 250 bucks,
> am I right?
>
> Thanks for any info.
>
> —
> NTDEV is sponsored by OSR
>
> For our schedule of WDF, WDM, debugging and other seminars visit:
> http://www.osr.com/seminars
>
> To unsubscribe, visit the List Server section of OSR Online at
> http://www.osronline.com/page.cfm?name=ListServer
>

5

Uday,

Thanks for info. What if I have the same driver for both XP and Vista. It is the same binary. Why should I pay twice more? :slight_smile:

6

xxxxx@gmail.com wrote:

Uday,

Thanks for info. What if I have the same driver for both XP and Vista. It is the same binary. Why should I pay twice more? :slight_smile:

Because Winqual makes the rules, that’s why. It’s their playground.
The certificate they use to sign your CAT file has, encoded within it, a
set of operating system codes. Your fee determines which codes they embed.

$250 for all XPs (x86, x64)
$250 for all Server 2003 editions (x86, x64, IA64)
$250 for all Vistas (x86, x64, Home, Business, Double Extra Secret
Premiere Hyper)
$250 for all Server 2008 editions (x86, x64, IA64)

Win 2k comes for free, as long as you pay for one of the others, but you
have to ask for it.

–
Tim Roberts, xxxxx@probo.com
Providenza & Boekelheide, Inc.

7

That is correct. You have to pay $250 per OS family irrespective of the
binaries.

From our side all we can do is that make sure that DTM passes all the tests
and indicates 100% chances of obtaining the logo.

Remember that once the submission is rejected, and the new binaries need to
be submitted, again that is treated as new submission entirely. So
additional $250.

Regards.

On Fri, Feb 20, 2009 at 12:09 AM, Tim Roberts wrote:

> xxxxx@gmail.com wrote:
> > Uday,
> >
> > Thanks for info. What if I have the same driver for both XP and Vista. It
> is the same binary. Why should I pay twice more? :slight_smile:
>
> Because Winqual makes the rules, that’s why. It’s their playground.
> The certificate they use to sign your CAT file has, encoded within it, a
> set of operating system codes. Your fee determines which codes they embed.
>
> $250 for all XPs (x86, x64)
> $250 for all Server 2003 editions (x86, x64, IA64)
> $250 for all Vistas (x86, x64, Home, Business, Double Extra Secret
> Premiere Hyper)
> $250 for all Server 2008 editions (x86, x64, IA64)
>
> Win 2k comes for free, as long as you pay for one of the others, but you
> have to ask for it.
>
> –
> Tim Roberts, xxxxx@probo.com
> Providenza & Boekelheide, Inc.
>
>
> —
> NTDEV is sponsored by OSR
>
> For our schedule of WDF, WDM, debugging and other seminars visit:
> http://www.osr.com/seminars
>
> To unsubscribe, visit the List Server section of OSR Online at
> http://www.osronline.com/page.cfm?name=ListServer
>

8

Thanks to all for clearning this. A few more questions to ask :slight_smile:

  1. Since I have the same binary for 2k, XP and Vista, can it be signed for all these operating systems, or I will need to have one signature per each binary file, thus there will be 3 drivers with one signature for each OS? The reason I want this - is to make my MSI simple, and not to handle 3 drivers in it.

  2. Since I am having just one NDIS IM filter for 3 OS, it means I use NDIS 5.0 to satisfy them all. Will I pass WHQL for Vista having NDIS 5.0 driver and not NDIS 6.0? I don’t need the benefits of NDIS 6.0 and I really need to support 2k.

Thanks!

9

xxxxx@gmail.com wrote:

  1. Since I have the same binary for 2k, XP and Vista, can it be signed for all these operating systems, or I will need to have one signature per each binary file, thus there will be 3 drivers with one signature for each OS? The reason I want this - is to make my MSI simple, and not to handle 3 drivers in it.

It’s actually your .cat file that gets signed, not your binary. As I
think I said yesterday, the .cat file signature includes a list of valid
operating system codes. If you request 2K, XP, and Vista (thus paying
$500), you will get three operating system codes in your .cat file.
That one driver package will work on all three systems. If you request
2K and XP (thus paying $250), you will only get two operating system
codes in your .cat file. The driver will still install on Vista, but
you’ll get the dreaded “unsigned driver!” warning.

–
Tim Roberts, xxxxx@probo.com
Providenza & Boekelheide, Inc.

10

Bhaskar wrote:

That is correct. You have to pay $250 per OS family irrespective of
the binaries.

From our side all we can do is that make sure that DTM passes all the
tests and indicates 100% chances of obtaining the logo.

Remember that once the submission is rejected, and the new binaries
need to be submitted, again that is treated as new submission
entirely. So additional $250.

No. There is no charge for a rejected submission. The charge only
applies once you succeed.

–
Tim Roberts, xxxxx@probo.com
Providenza & Boekelheide, Inc.

11

The binary may be signed as well for boot-start drivers that need to pass KMCS.

  • S

-----Original Message-----
From: Tim Roberts
Sent: Friday, February 20, 2009 10:26
To: Windows System Software Devs Interest List
Subject: Re: [ntdev] WHQL costs

xxxxx@gmail.com wrote:
> 1. Since I have the same binary for 2k, XP and Vista, can it be signed for all these operating systems, or I will need to have one signature per each binary file, thus there will be 3 drivers with one signature for each OS? The reason I want this - is to make my MSI simple, and not to handle 3 drivers in it.
>

It’s actually your .cat file that gets signed, not your binary. As I
think I said yesterday, the .cat file signature includes a list of valid
operating system codes. If you request 2K, XP, and Vista (thus paying
$500), you will get three operating system codes in your .cat file.
That one driver package will work on all three systems. If you request
2K and XP (thus paying $250), you will only get two operating system
codes in your .cat file. The driver will still install on Vista, but
you’ll get the dreaded “unsigned driver!” warning.

–
Tim Roberts, xxxxx@probo.com
Providenza & Boekelheide, Inc.

—
NTDEV is sponsored by OSR

For our schedule of WDF, WDM, debugging and other seminars visit:
http://www.osr.com/seminars

To unsubscribe, visit the List Server section of OSR Online at http://www.osronline.com/page.cfm?name=ListServer

12

Does WHQL sign your driver binary, as well as the driver package via the CAT file? I’m curious (never having been through the WHQL process, I don’t know)…

Peter
OSR

13

xxxxx@osr.com wrote:

Does WHQL sign your driver binary, as well as the driver package via the CAT file? I’m curious (never having been through the WHQL process, I don’t know)…

Just yesterday, I received back a WHQL-signed driver package. The CAT
file is signed, but the SYS files are not.

Although I don’t know it for sure, I would be surprised if WHQL signed
the SYS file for a boot-start driver. KMCS is entirely different from
WHQL signing, and for an entirely different purpose. WHQL affects
installation, not normal operation. If I am building a boot-start
driver, I have to sign it myself anyway, using my certificate and
cross-certificate, just in order to test it. Therefore, I **SUSPECT**
that WHQL would just leave my certificate in the SYSs, and insert theirs
only into the CAT.

–
Tim Roberts, xxxxx@probo.com
Providenza & Boekelheide, Inc.

14

Nope, just the .cat file.

xxxxx@osr.com wrote:

Does WHQL sign your driver binary, as well as the driver package via the CAT file? I’m curious (never having been through the WHQL process, I don’t know)…

Peter
OSR

–
Ray
(If you want to reply to me off list, please remove “spamblock.” from my
email address)

15

Thanks to all for reply. But what about the second part of my question?

I.e.,

  1. Since I am having just one NDIS IM filter for 3 OS, it means I use NDIS 5.0
    to satisfy them all. Will I pass WHQL for Vista having NDIS 5.0 driver and not
    NDIS 6.0? I don’t need the benefits of NDIS 6.0 and I really need to support 2k.
16

You must test on the Vista platform to get a WHQL signature for Vista. In
addition, for Vista you must test and submit results for both a 32-bit and a
64-bit version of your NDIS 5 driver even if you have no intention of
distributing a 64-bit product. IIRC, even though you will be making two test
submissions for Vista you are only charged the per-platform $250.00 cost.

Good luck!

Thomas F. Divine

-----Original Message-----
From: xxxxx@lists.osr.com [mailto:bounce-355740-
xxxxx@lists.osr.com] On Behalf Of xxxxx@gmail.com
Sent: Monday, February 23, 2009 6:57 AM
To: Windows System Software Devs Interest List
Subject: RE:[ntdev] WHQL costs

Thanks to all for reply. But what about the second part of my question?

I.e.,

  1. Since I am having just one NDIS IM filter for 3 OS, it means I use
    NDIS 5.0
    to satisfy them all. Will I pass WHQL for Vista having NDIS 5.0 driver
    and not
    NDIS 6.0? I don’t need the benefits of NDIS 6.0 and I really need to
    support 2k.

NTDEV is sponsored by OSR

For our schedule of WDF, WDM, debugging and other seminars visit:
http://www.osr.com/seminars

To unsubscribe, visit the List Server section of OSR Online at
http://www.osronline.com/page.cfm?name=ListServer