Microsoft love developers. They want to make our lives better. They want to make it really, really easy for us to develop software for their operating systems. Everyone remembers how excited and sweaty Mr Ballmer got as he reminded everyone just how much they care:

This is why if you want to write, say, some device drivers, you can just go to their website, download the Driver Development Kit for Windows Server 2003, unpack it, install it and start using it. 10 minutes. Including the time to download the 230MB DDK.

Great stuff.

But things have changed...

For some reason, the latest version of the Driver Development Kit is contained within the Windows Driver Kit (WDK). To obtain the WDK you have to

  1. Obtain a Microsoft Passport (Windows Live ID?) by providing an email address
  2. Agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Statement
  3. Wait for the email and confirm your email address
  4. Sign in and find the WDK in the list of Available Connections on the Microsoft Connect website
  5. Apply for the WDK. More Terms of Use and Privacy Statements to accept and more personal details required. This time email address, first name, last name and country are required, and you have to opt out of various maillings.
  6. Wait for another email and confirm your email address again
  7. Download the WDK
  8. Realise that you didn't download the WDK, just something which needs the Microsoft File Transfer Manager to actually download the WDK
  9. Download and install the Microsoft File Transfer Manager
  10. Allow the Microsoft File Transfer Manager to install the New Language Update it complains about
  11. Actually download the WDK - a whopping 2.3GB ISO file
  12. Unpack the ISO file (using IZArc archive utility) to find only a readme.txt
  13. Read the readme.txt which tells you that the ISO contains a UDF file system, which IZArc doesn't extract
  14. Curse the fact you do not have a DVD burner on your machine
  15. Download and install the Virtual CD-ROM Control Panel for Windows XP
  16. Mount the ISO, copy the contents onto the hard disk for future use
  17. Run the installer
  18. Install the prerequisites
  19. Install the WDK

This takes slightly longer than 10 minutes. Brew a pot of strong coffee and set aside a whole day.

Although Microsoft have always done well to make somanydeveloperresources easily available, it looks like they are moving in the wrong direction here. Perhaps another motivational speech from Mr Ballmer is required?