W

WAN

Wide area network. A communications network that connects geographically separated areas. Compare with LAN.

warm docking

A method of removing or installing a mobile system in a docking station with which the computer can be docked or undocked while in a reduced power state, such as suspend.

WBEM

Web-based Enterprise Management. Technology under development by BMC Software, Inc., Cisco Systems, Inc., Compaq Computer Corporation, Intel Corporation, and Microsoft Corporation, based on standards being developed by DMTF and IETF, to provide a mechanism to specify information exchange between management applications and managed components.

WDL

Windows Driver Library. See WHQL.

WDM

Windows Driver Model. A driver model based on the Windows NT/Windows 2000 32-bit driver model that is designed to provide a common architecture of I/O services and binary-compatible device drivers for both Windows NT/Windows 2000 and Windows operating systems for specific classes of drivers. These driver classes include USB and IEEE 1394 buses, audio, still-image capture, video capture, and HID-compliant devices such as USB mice, keyboards, and joysticks. Provides a model for writing kernel-mode drivers and minidrivers, and provides extensions for Plug and Play and power management.

WDM DDK

Provides the supplementary header files used together with the Windows 2000 DDK to build WDM drivers.

WDM power management

Facilities provided in WDM for drivers to implement power policy and control. DDIs are defined for synchronizing power state changes with other power management activities in the system and for detecting device idleness. IRPs are defined for setting power sate, enabling wakeup, and querying power status.

WDM streaming

A WDM-based kernel-mode extension of Microsoft ActiveMovie, providing kernel connection and streaming services as used by the WDM Stream class driver and system software components provided in future versions of the Windows and Windows NT/Windows 2000 operating system, such as the cross-process audio mixer and sample rate converter. WDM streaming provides low-level services for the lowest latency streaming; ActiveMovie provides higher-level features. Operating system support includes a Stream class driver that supports minidrivers for audio, video, and other types of stream input, output, and acceleration.

WHQL

Windows Hardware Quality Labs. Formerly Microsoft Compatibility Labs. Provides compatibility testing services to test hardware and drivers for Windows and Windows NT/Windows 2000. Administers testing for the "Designed for Microsoft Windows" logo programs. Information: http://www.microsoft.com/hwtext/.

Win32 API

A 32-bit application programming interface for both Windows and Windows NT/Windows 2000 that includes sophisticated operating-system capabilities, security, and API routines for Windows-based applications.

Windows

Refers to the Microsoft Windows 95 operating system, including any add-on capabilities and any later versions of the operating system.

Windows NT

Refers to the Microsoft Windows NT version 4.0 operating system, including any add-on capabilities, unless specific design issues are defined that relate to Microsoft Windows 2000.

Windows 2000 DDK

Supports Windows 2000, provided through MSDN Professional membership. Documents the Windows 2000 driver model (upon which WDM is based) and is an essential component for building WDM drivers.

Windows 2000 driver model

The layered device driver model used under the Windows 2000 operating system. For information, see Inside Windows NT, by Helen Custer (Microsoft Press, 1993).

WMI

Windows Management Instrumentation. Extensions to WDM being developed for Windows 2000 and Windows 98 to provide an operating system interface through which instrumented components can provide information and notifications.

workstation

In general, a powerful computer with considerable calculating and graphics capability.