Hardware certification submission fees update

re: Hardware certification submission fees update

Lyndon Bethel - MSFT HCK Support — Tue, 18 Feb 2014 19:14:49 GMT

I don't understand something related to your comments Don. I have always been able to access the certification filters without a Sysdev account for a short time these were on connect which required a connect loigin that was available to anyone but now they appear freely available: msdn.microsoft.com/.../hh998024.aspx

-Lyndon

re: Hardware certification submission fees update

Don Burn — Tue, 21 Jan 2014 18:25:13 GMT

I guess I don't have a big a problem with the $300 to $300 a year for the cert as I do with the requirements around the cert that will code me $5000 to $8000 a year. It would be nice to get rid of both of them, but cert is well within the range one spends yearly for mainenance of some tools.

re: Hardware certification submission fees update

D J Smith — Tue, 21 Jan 2014 18:21:13 GMT

To answer cpbain the $99 is a first year only discount and cannot be used in subsequent years. If Microsoft could negotiate that as being permanent then great.

As for it being a "small part of the cost" of overall certification effort, that may be true, but it's an annual ongoing additional cost to the certification effort and so should not be ignored as an unwelcome high rate compared to certificates available in the market but disallowed for use by Microsoft WHQL.

re: Hardware certification submission fees update

Steve Leo — Wed, 15 Jan 2014 21:43:17 GMT

Hi Mark,

Thanks for your information.

Steve

re: Hardware certification submission fees update

Mark Hughes (MSFT) — Wed, 15 Jan 2014 17:05:22 GMT

As of 1/1/2014 no more fees are charged for any certification submissions. This dos cover both device and system submissions. The policy document updated on 1/10/2014 to reflect this new policy.

re: Hardware certification submission fees update

Steve Leo — Tue, 14 Jan 2014 05:42:05 GMT

Hi Mark,

I have review the latest Windows 8.1 Hardware Certification Policy, and I cannot finds any information about "WHQL submission".

Does the mean all device/system never pay submission for Microsoft WHQL submission fee?

Thanks,

Steve

re: Hardware certification submission fees update

Mark Hughes — Wed, 08 Jan 2014 18:42:04 GMT

All editing on the policy document is completed and just waiting for the final posting to take place at this time on the following link.

msdn.microsoft.com/.../dn423132

Then open the Windows 8.1 certification hardware policy document. The following will be updated on the new posting once it takes place.

1. Billing submission fees removed

2. Updated touch testing policies

3. Updated graphics testing polices

re: Hardware certification submission fees update

pmathan — Wed, 08 Jan 2014 08:13:05 GMT

"The Windows Hardware Certification Policy document" - When the document will get updated and where can we get that document?

re: Hardware certification submission fees update

It is more than the $99 cost — Tue, 07 Jan 2014 17:10:08 GMT

In Massachusetts, the last time I looked by the time you pay for the corprate fees and the accountant costs (since corporate taxes are a mess), the verisign costs is well less than 10% of the total yearly expense. And that is purely monetary, if you add in the time it costs versus lost income from actually working for a 1 man shop the percentage drops to less than 1%.

Now it is hard to tell your customer to spend any price so that they can understand the challenges and the benefits of WHQL. Even telling someone they need to submit their corporate info to get a Verisign cert at $99 bucks, to then have one of their people who is trusted root around the dashboard and collect the info they need and the latest filters, is more than most firms will put up with. Note: that since Verisign provides a ton of warnings about how no one but a senior trusted official should have access to the cert, this just makes it harder. Most of the small companies I deal with just say "why bother with these WHQL bozo's", this was taken from an email in the last couple of weerks.

WHQL needs to put as much data in the public as it reasonably can, and then only have the submission process and error reporting behind the firewall. This was the case 12 years ago. Add to this providing alternate means to identify peoiple, and they would solve the problem. It is ironic that for years as a DDK MVP (before they eliminated the program) I could access the Windows source code, but I could not get data on WHQL or the filters to know if the tests worked!

re: Hardware certification submission fees update

cpbain — Tue, 07 Jan 2014 16:55:23 GMT

wasn't there a $99 special on the VeriSign/Symantec certificate? Is that gone now? Perhaps just bring that back...

re: Hardware certification submission fees update

Mudit Garg — Thu, 02 Jan 2014 10:46:48 GMT

Great Move by MSFT. New Year gift :-)

re: Hardware certification submission fees update

Mark Hughes — Mon, 30 Dec 2013 19:39:19 GMT

The feedback related to the VeriSign ID's is being discussed with the Dashboard site PM's at this time.

re: Hardware certification submission fees update

Don Burn — Fri, 20 Dec 2013 15:35:36 GMT

To expand on the comment by D J Smith, not only is there the challenge of the cost but the fact the problems of getting a Symantec cert if you are not an fully incorporated firm. Especially when you consider that in the last 10 years, WHQL has gone from almost all the data (including errata) being available to anyone, to putting almost all the information behind the dashboard which requires a login with the cert to get to.

I am a one man consulting shop and try to get my clients to WHQL their products. But I no longer share the test results with them since, they want perfect results, and I can't get at the filters! I also, cannot explain to them the process and the challenges since so much is behind the dashboard. I've looked at the cost of getting my business to the point it would clear the symantec hurdles and it is where I live many times the cost of the cert. Many of my customers are embedded, 10 years ago, I made sure their product could WHQL if they wanted to do the submission, now I run the tests for bigger contracts, and see if there is something that stands out. Overall this is a regression in quality.

re: Hardware certification submission fees update

D J Smith — Fri, 20 Dec 2013 15:24:23 GMT

This is very welcome news. But can we please see the requirement to use only a Verisign/Symantec code signing certificate relaxed. Here are the 1 year prices for code signing certificates:

Symantec (ex-Verisign) $499

Thawte $299

Comodo $120

I cannot understand for a minute why Microsoft insist on a Verisign/Symantec certificate!