Driver Verifier

Driver Verifier monitors Windows kernel-mode drivers and graphics drivers to detect illegal function calls or actions that might corrupt the system. Driver Verifier can subject the Windows drivers to a variety of stresses and tests to find improper behavior.

You can run Driver Verifier on multiple drivers simultaneously, or on one driver at a time. You can configure which tests to run, which allows you to put a driver through heavy stress loads or through more streamlined testing.

• Where can I download Driver Verifier?
• When to use Driver Verifier
• How to start Driver Verifier
• How to control Driver Verifier (stop, reset, and view settings and status)
• How to debug Driver Verifier violations
• Related topics

Where can I download Driver Verifier?

When to use Driver Verifier

Run Driver Verifier throughout the driver development and test process.

• Use Driver Verifier to find problems early in the development life cycle, when they are easier and less costly to correct.

• Use Driver Verifier when you deploy a driver for testing using the WDK, Visual Studio, and the Windows Hardware Certification Kit (HCK) tests. See Testing a Driver.

• Use Driver Verifier for troubleshooting and debugging test failures and computer crashes.

How to start Driver Verifier

You should only run Driver Verifier on test computers, or computers you are testing and debugging. To get the most benefit from Driver Verifier, you should use a kernel debugger and connect to the test computer. See Windows Debugging.

1. Open a Command Prompt window (Run as administrator) and type verifier to open the Driver Verifier Manager.

2. Select Create standard settings (default) and click Next.

   You can also choose Create custom settings to select from predefined settings, or to select individual options. See Driver Verifier Options and Selecting Driver Verifier Options for more information.

3. Select a driver or drivers to verify.

   Option	Recommended use
   Automatically select unsigned drivers	Useful option for testing on computers running versions of Windows that don't require signed drivers.
   Automatically select drivers built for older versions of Windows	Useful option for testing driver compatibility with newer versions of Windows.
   Automatically select all drivers installed on this computer	Provides maximum coverage in terms of the number of drivers that are tested on a system. This option is useful for test scenarios where a driver can interact with other devices or drivers on a system. This option can also exhaust the resources available for Special Pool and some resource tracking. Testing all drivers can also adversely affect system performance.
   Select driver names from a list	In most cases, you will want to specify which drivers to test. Selecting all drivers in a device stack allows the Enhanced I/O Verification option to track objects and check compliance as an IRP is passed between each of the drivers in the stack and allows for a greater level of detail to be provided should an error be found. Select a single driver if you are running a test scenario that measures system or driver performance metrics, or if you want to allocate the greatest number of resources available for detecting memory corruption or resource tracking issues (deadlocks, mutexs). The Special Pool and I/O Verification options will be more effective when used on one driver at a time.

    

4. Click Finish and reboot the computer.

Note  You can also run Driver Verifier in a Command Prompt window. For example, to run Driver Verifier with the standard settings on a driver called myDriver.sys, you would use the following command:

verifier  /standard /driver myDriver.sys

See Driver Verifier Command Syntax for more information.

How to control Driver Verifier (stop, reset, and view settings and status)

To stop or reset Driver Verifier

1. Open a Command Prompt window (Run as administrator) and type verifier to open the Driver Verifier Manager.
2. Select Delete existing settings.
3. Reboot the computer.

Or type the following command in a Command Prompt window and reboot the computer.

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verifier  /reset

To view Driver Verifier settings

1. Open a Command Prompt window (Run as administrator) and type verifier to open the Driver Verifier Manager.

2. Select Display existing settings.

Or type the following command in a Command Prompt window.

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verifier  /querysettings

To view Driver Verifier statistics

1. Open a Command Prompt window (Run as administrator) and type verifier to open the Driver Verifier Manager.

2. Select Display information about the currently verified drivers.

Or type the following command in a Command Prompt window.

verifier  /query

How to debug Driver Verifier violations

To get the most benefit from Driver Verifier, you should use a kernel debugger and connect to the test computer. See Windows Debugging for more information.

If Driver Verifier detects a violation, it generates a bug check to stop the computer. This is to provide you with the most information possible for debugging the issue. When you have a kernel debugger connected to a test computer running Driver Verifier, if Driver Verifier detects a violation, Windows breaks into the debugger and displays a brief description of the error.

All Driver Verifier violations result in bug checks, the most common ones (although not necessarily all of them) are:

• Bug Check 0xC1: SPECIAL_POOL_DETECTED_MEMORY_CORRUPTION
• Bug Check 0xC4: DRIVER_VERIFIER_DETECTED_VIOLATION
• Bug Check 0xC6: DRIVER_CAUGHT_MODIFYING_FREED_POOL
• Bug Check 0xC9: DRIVER_VERIFIER_IOMANAGER_VIOLATION
• Bug Check 0xD6: DRIVER_PAGE_FAULT_BEYOND_END_OF_ALLOCATION
• Bug Check 0xE6: DRIVER_VERIFIER_DMA_VIOLATION

For more information see Handling a Bug Check When Driver Verifier is Enabled. For tips about debugging Bug Check 0xC4, see Debugging Bug Check 0xC4: DRIVER_VERIFIER_DETECTED_VIOLATION.

When you start a new debug session, use the debugger extension command !analyze. In kernel mode, the !analyze command displays information about the most recent bug check. The !analyze -v command displays additional information and attempts to pinpoint the faulting driver.

kd> !analyze -v

In addition !analyze, you can use the following debugger extensions to view information specific to Driver Verifier:

• !verifier dumps captured Driver Verifier statistics. Use !verifier -? to display all of the available options.
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  kd> !verifier
  

• !deadlock displays information related to locks or objects tracked by Driver Verifier's deadlock detection feature. Use !deadlock -? to display all of the available options.
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  kd> !deadlock
  

• !iovirp [address] displays information related to an IRP tracked by I/O Verifier. For example:
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  kd> !iovirp 947cef68
  
  

• !ruleinfo [RuleID] displays information related to the DDI compliance checking rule that was violated (RuleID is always the first argument to the bug check. All DDI Compliance Checking RuleID are in the form 0x200nn). For example:
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  kd> !ruleinfo 0x20005
  

Related topics

Driver Verifier: What's New

Driver Verifier Options

Driver Verifier Command Syntax

Using Driver Verifier

Controlling Driver Verifier

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Build date: 2/13/2014