Microsoft commits to making Windows drivers better through strict WHCP policies

As Microsoft announced last month, its Windows Hardware Compatibility Program (WHCP) is dropping support for Windows 10 today, which makes sense considering that the OS has reached its end of life too. Now, the company has stated that it will be enforcing stricter policies for driver attestation soon.

For those unaware, WHCP is a workflow that is primarily aimed at hardware manufacturers, OEMs, and partners so that they can leverage tools like Microsoft's Hardware Lab Kit (HLK) to test the compatibility of their upcoming products on Windows. Devices which pass this certification are badged by Microsoft as such, increasing customer confidence while making informed purchases.

Starting later this year, Microsoft will begin enforcing the InfVerif /h validation, which checks for driver isolation in Windows. This is a check that was first introduced in Windows 11, version 24H2, and it ensures that Windows driver packages are resilient to external modifications, and are easy to install and update.

Microsoft has emphasized that this ruleset was already a part of the WHCP and Attestation workflows, but it will now be a mandatory requirement for compliance attestation. The tech giant hopes that this change will "help increase the security and quality of the Windows driver ecosystem".

OEMs and other partners are requested to ensure that they run the InfVerif /h ruleset on their driver package prior to submission. The ruleset is automatically run on the Windows 11, version 25H2 HLK, so if you're testing compatibility on that version of Windows, you don't need to do anything separately. The latest version of InfVerif is present in the most up to date version of the Windows Driver Kit (WDK). You can find out more details in Microsoft's dedicated blog post here, including information about how to run the InfVerif ruleset, and how to handle errors and warnings.

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Posted Wednesday 15 October 2025 at 6:43 pm AEST (my time).

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