NDIS 6.30 Backward Compatibility

NDIS 6.30 adds backward compatibility features to those that apply to NDIS 6.20 and NDIS 6.0 drivers. For information about NDIS 6.20 compatibility issues, see NDIS 6.20 Backward Compatibility. For information about NDIS 6.0 compatibility issues, see NDIS 6.0 Backward Compatibility.

For more information about NDIS 6.30 features, see Introduction to NDIS 6.30.

Features that are no longer supported

The following features are not supported in Windows 8 and later:

  • TCP chimney offload is no longer supported for virtual machines. However, it is still supported for native use.
  • IPsec task offload version 1. All drivers that support IPsec task offload should be updated to support IPsec task offload version 2.
  • Filter intermediate drivers. Instead, use the NDIS 6.x filter driver interface. For more information about filter drivers, see NDIS Filter Drivers.
  • 802.11 drivers that emulate 802.3. NDIS 802.11 drivers must support the native 802.11 interface. For more information about native 802.11, see Native 802.11 Wireless LAN.
  • NDIS WAN drivers. NDIS WAN drivers must be ported to the NDIS 6.0 CoNDIS WAN driver model. For more information about CoNDIS WAN, see WAN Miniport Drivers.

Features that have been removed

The following features have been removed from Windows 8 and later:

  • NDIS 5.x and earlier
  • IrDA miniport drivers
  • NetDMA
  • Token Ring (802.5)

Other changes

  • The TCP/IP protocol driver that ships with Windows 8 has been updated to NDIS 6.30. However, this change was relatively minor, so it's not worth porting your driver just for this feature. The TCP/IP protocol driver is backward compatible with NDIS 6.20 and earlier drivers in the driver stack.