Is it possible to develop a Windows driver (specifically a PDF-like printer driver that displays the data on-screen instead of actually printing) without using Visual Studio? I'm thinking of using free C++ tools such as MinGW/gcc.
Both the Windows SDK and the Windows DDK come with the Visual C++ compiler. You don't need Visual Studio for this, though you may have some success with the free Express editions. I'd prefer this over MinGW anytime.