NTKERN.VXD Windows 2003

NTDEV
1

Hi All,

I am trying to understand the architecture of the driver and have the following query.

" i understand that NTKERN.VXD is responsible for creating IRP and submitting it to device driver for further processing "

Is this NTKERN.vxd only applicable for windows 98 and XP ? , if so what is the relevant file in windows 2003 OS ?

Regards,
Sainath.

2

Ntoskrnl.exe is essentially where the IO subsystem resides [and this is also true of WinXP]. VxD’s were the “device driver” technology for the non-NT versions of Windows [at least, for those that ran on 32-bit platforms- never did 16-bit kernel DDs for Windows, myself, so I wouldn’t know]. NTKERN.VxD was how WDM [including the NT I/O model] was shoehorned into the last couple of non-NT consumer OS (Win98/ME). The basic IRP model goes back to the original NT release [in 1993], and thus predates Win98 by several years.

-----Original Message-----

Hi All,

I am trying to understand the architecture of the driver and have the following query.

" i understand that NTKERN.VXD is responsible for creating IRP and submitting it to device driver for further processing "

Is this NTKERN.vxd only applicable for windows 98 and XP ? , if so what is the relevant file in windows 2003 OS ?

Regards,
Sainath.

3

> Is this NTKERN.vxd only applicable for windows 98 and XP ?

NTKERN.VXD is the emulator of the NT/WDM kernel over the old 3.x/95/98/Me Windows VMM kernel.

So, it was in 98/Me only.

–
Maxim S. Shatskih
Windows DDK MVP
xxxxx@storagecraft.com
http://www.storagecraft.com

4

VXD drivers were *only* used in MS-DOS-based systems. Win16, Win95, Win98
and WinMe, all of which are dead. NTKERN.VXD never existed in Win16, only
in the 32-bit MS-DOS operating systems.
joe

-----Original Message-----
From: xxxxx@lists.osr.com
[mailto:xxxxx@lists.osr.com] On Behalf Of Maxim S. Shatskih
Sent: Wednesday, November 26, 2008 8:07 PM
To: Windows System Software Devs Interest List
Subject: Re:[ntdev] NTKERN.VXD Windows 2003

Is this NTKERN.vxd only applicable for windows 98 and XP ?

NTKERN.VXD is the emulator of the NT/WDM kernel over the old 3.x/95/98/Me
Windows VMM kernel.

So, it was in 98/Me only.

–
Maxim S. Shatskih
Windows DDK MVP
xxxxx@storagecraft.com
http://www.storagecraft.com

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5

Yes, I wrote the ambigious sentence in the previous post :slight_smile:

3.x/95/98/Me are the OSes based on the VMM kernel - WIN386.EXE or VMM32.VXD. This kernel originated from the MS-DOS virtual machine manager, but then evolved to something similar to a full OS kernel with its own native hardware, FS and network protocol drivers.

NTKERN.VXD - wrapper around VMM exposing the NT/WDM APIs, and also the .SYS WDM driver binary loader - only appeared in 98 and existed in 98/Me only.

–
Maxim S. Shatskih
Windows DDK MVP
xxxxx@storagecraft.com
http://www.storagecraft.com

“Joseph M. Newcomer” wrote in message news:xxxxx@ntdev…
> VXD drivers were only used in MS-DOS-based systems. Win16, Win95, Win98
> and WinMe, all of which are dead. NTKERN.VXD never existed in Win16, only
> in the 32-bit MS-DOS operating systems.
> joe
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: xxxxx@lists.osr.com
> [mailto:xxxxx@lists.osr.com] On Behalf Of Maxim S. Shatskih
> Sent: Wednesday, November 26, 2008 8:07 PM
> To: Windows System Software Devs Interest List
> Subject: Re:[ntdev] NTKERN.VXD Windows 2003
>
>> Is this NTKERN.vxd only applicable for windows 98 and XP ?
>
> NTKERN.VXD is the emulator of the NT/WDM kernel over the old 3.x/95/98/Me
> Windows VMM kernel.
>
> So, it was in 98/Me only.
>
> –
> Maxim S. Shatskih
> Windows DDK MVP
> xxxxx@storagecraft.com
> http://www.storagecraft.com
>
>
> —
> NTDEV is sponsored by OSR
>
> For our schedule of WDF, WDM, debugging and other seminars visit:
> http://www.osr.com/seminars
>
> To unsubscribe, visit the List Server section of OSR Online at
> http://www.osronline.com/page.cfm?name=ListServer
>
> –
> This message has been scanned for viruses and
> dangerous content by MailScanner, and is
> believed to be clean.
>
>
>