Abstract: A user-mode device driver architecture is provided by the subject invention. The architecture includes a reflector, a driver manager and a host process which hosts and isolates one or more user-mode device driver(s). The user-mode device driver runs in the user-mode (UM) environment and has access to various UM services. The reflector resides in “kernel memory” (e.g., memory/resource(s) available to operating system) while the driver manager, host process and user mode device driver(s) are located in user space (e.g., memory/resource(s) available to user application(s)). The reflector provides a secure, stable communication path for application(s), the host process and/or user-mode device driver(s) to communicate with the operating system. The reflector can redirect input/output (I/O) request(s) from application(s) to the user-mode device driver(s) via the host process. The driver manager can create the host process (e.g.

Abstract: A host process for use in a user-mode device driver architecture is provided by the subject invention. The architecture includes a reflector, a driver manager and the host process which hosts and isolates one or more user-mode device driver(s). The user-mode device driver runs in the user-mode (UM) environment and has access to various UM services. The reflector resides in “kernel memory” (e.g., memory/resource(s) available to operating system) while the driver manager, host process and user mode device driver(s) are located in user space (e.g., memory/resource(s) available to user application(s)). The host process can include a host runtime component and a framework component. The host runtime component is responsible for building a driver stack object, and, locating/loading object(s) of a framework component. The host runtime component further includes a message handler that facilitates communication with the reflector and routes information to components of the host process.