Editing Windows 98 (section)

====Windows Driver Model====
{{Main article|Windows Driver Model}}
[[File:Windows 98 architecture.svg|thumb|The Windows 98 architecture is set up as a tier of layers in which the higher layers depend on any component of the layers below them. The difference between the architectures of this and Windows 95 is that the Windows Driver Model can now be used to access the Windows 98 core and the registry.<ref name=architecture>{{cite web|url=https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/cc768198(v=technet.10)|title=Chapter 28 – Windows 98 Architecture|publisher=[[Microsoft]]|date=February 19, 2014|access-date=October 20, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190302054042/https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/cc768198(v%3dtechnet.10)|archive-date=March 2, 2019|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=PCMAGp325/>]]

Windows 98 was the first operating system to use the [[Windows Driver Model]] (WDM). This fact was not well publicized when Windows 98 was released, and most hardware producers continued to develop drivers for the older [[VxD]] driver standard, which Windows 98 supported for compatibility's sake. The WDM standard only achieved widespread adoption years later, mostly through [[Windows 2000]] and [[Windows XP]], as they were not compatible with the older VxD standard.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://support.microsoft.com/kb/244601/|title=How to troubleshoot unknown devices that are listed in Device Manager in Windows 2000|date=May 7, 2007|work=Microsoft Support|publisher=Microsoft|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070717081308/http://support.microsoft.com/kb/244601|archive-date=July 17, 2007}}</ref> With the Windows Driver Model, developers could write drivers that were compatible with other versions of Windows.<ref name=PCMAGp328>{{harvnb|PC Magazine, August|1998|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=4c8Qbd14llIC&pg=PA328 328]}}</ref> Device driver access in WDM is implemented through a VxD device driver, <code>NTKERN.VXD</code>, which implements several [[Windows NT]]-specific kernel support functions.<ref name=RK1322>{{harvnb|Resource Kit|1998|p=1322}}</ref>

Support for WDM audio enables digital mixing, routing and processing of simultaneous audio streams, and [[kernel streaming]] with high-quality [[sample rate conversion]] on Windows 98. WDM Audio allows for software emulation of legacy hardware to support MS-DOS games, [[DirectSound]] support, and [[MIDI]] [[Sample-based synthesis|wavetable synthesis]]. The Windows 95 11-device limitation for MIDI devices is eliminated.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/may00/articles/pcmusician.htm|title=PC Solutions For MIDI Musicians|work=soundonsound.com|access-date=March 12, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120110123947/http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/may00/articles/pcmusician.htm|archive-date=January 10, 2012|url-status=live}}</ref> A Microsoft [[Roland GS|GS]] Wavetable Synthesizer licensed from [[Roland Corporation|Roland]] shipped with Windows 98 for WDM audio drivers. Windows 98 supports digital playback of [[audio CDs]], and the Second Edition improves WDM audio support by adding DirectSound [[hardware mixing]] and DirectSound 3D hardware abstraction, [[DirectMusic]] kernel support, [[KMixer]] sample-rate conversion for capture streams, and multichannel audio support. All audio is sampled by the Kernel Mixer to a fixed sampling rate, which may result in some audio getting upsampled or downsampled and having a high latency, except when using Kernel Streaming or third-party audio paths like [[Audio Stream Input/Output|ASIO]] which allow unmixed audio streams and lower latency. Windows 98 also includes a WDM streaming [[class driver]] (''Stream.sys'') to address real time multimedia data stream processing requirements and a WDM kernel-mode video transport for enhanced video playback and capture.

Windows Driver Model also includes Broadcast Driver Architecture, the backbone for TV technologies support in Windows. [[WebTV]] for Windows utilized BDA to allow viewing television on the computer if a compatible [[TV tuner card]] is installed. TV listings could be updated from the Internet and WaveTop Data Broadcasting allowed extra data about broadcasts to be received via regular television signals using an antenna or cable, by embedding data streams into the [[vertical blanking interval]] portion of existing broadcast television signals.