16-bit VDDs and Vista

NTDEV
1

Hi guys,

does anyone know if virtual device drivers (VDDs) for the 16-bit subsystem
are still supported in Vista?

I’m talking about the thing that installs to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\VirtualDeviceDrivers,
“VDD” value.

The WDK doesn’t really say much about it, and the VDD value seems to be
actually *ignored* by Vista RC1 (although it is present).

So, I’m a bit confused.

Thanks,

-Ondrej

2

I thought x64 machines dropped support for 16 bit code. Maybe I’m
misremembering though.

Loren

does anyone know if virtual device drivers (VDDs) for the 16-bit subsystem
are still supported in Vista?

3

I heard no 16-bit support for Vista - any bitness.

“Loren Wilton” wrote in message news:xxxxx@ntdev…
>I thought x64 machines dropped support for 16 bit code. Maybe I’m
>misremembering though.
>
> Loren
>
>> does anyone know if virtual device drivers (VDDs) for the 16-bit
>> subsystem
>> are still supported in Vista?
>
>

4

That’s what I thought too, but every build I have gotten has had
autoexec.bat and config.sys in the root directory. Maybe their existence
is an oversight?

Beverly

-----Original Message-----
From: xxxxx@lists.osr.com
[mailto:xxxxx@lists.osr.com] On Behalf Of David J. Craig
Sent: Tuesday, September 12, 2006 7:58 AM
To: Windows System Software Devs Interest List
Subject: Re:[ntdev] 16-bit VDDs and Vista

I heard no 16-bit support for Vista - any bitness.

“Loren Wilton” wrote in message
news:xxxxx@ntdev…
>I thought x64 machines dropped support for 16 bit code. Maybe I’m
>misremembering though.
>
> Loren
>
>> does anyone know if virtual device drivers (VDDs) for the 16-bit
>> subsystem are still supported in Vista?
>
>

—
Questions? First check the Kernel Driver FAQ at
http://www.osronline.com/article.cfm?id=256

To unsubscribe, visit the List Server section of OSR Online at
http://www.osronline.com/page.cfm?name=ListServer

5

What do those files have to do with 16-bit? True, they did begin with the
16-bit DOS, but they are used by the CMD and COMMAND processors in Vista and
just kept around because they can and too many programs want to find them, I
suppose. Try running a 16-bit Windows program on Vista. It is not supposed
to work, but I have not tried. I just try to keep up with the UAC changes.
The last one is where you can’t make a CMD window or Windows Explorer
shortcut an Administrator task. Real bummer, but I use Total Commander and
that can be made admin. Yes, you can run it as admin by selecting that
option, but it is not one that can be tied to a shortcut as earlier versions
permitted.

“Brown, Beverly” wrote in message news:xxxxx@ntdev…
That’s what I thought too, but every build I have gotten has had
autoexec.bat and config.sys in the root directory. Maybe their existence
is an oversight?

Beverly

-----Original Message-----
From: xxxxx@lists.osr.com
[mailto:xxxxx@lists.osr.com] On Behalf Of David J. Craig
Sent: Tuesday, September 12, 2006 7:58 AM
To: Windows System Software Devs Interest List
Subject: Re:[ntdev] 16-bit VDDs and Vista

I heard no 16-bit support for Vista - any bitness.

“Loren Wilton” wrote in message
news:xxxxx@ntdev…
>I thought x64 machines dropped support for 16 bit code. Maybe I’m
>misremembering though.
>
> Loren
>
>> does anyone know if virtual device drivers (VDDs) for the 16-bit
>> subsystem are still supported in Vista?
>
>

—
Questions? First check the Kernel Driver FAQ at
http://www.osronline.com/article.cfm?id=256

To unsubscribe, visit the List Server section of OSR Online at
http://www.osronline.com/page.cfm?name=ListServer

6

David J. Craig wrote:

I heard no 16-bit support for Vista - any bitness.

Not true. There’s still way too much legacy code to do that unilaterally.

“Loren Wilton” wrote in message news:xxxxx@ntdev…
>
>
>>I thought x64 machines dropped support for 16 bit code. Maybe I’m
>>misremembering though.
>>
>>

This, however, is true…

–
Tim Roberts, xxxxx@probo.com
Providenza & Boekelheide, Inc.

7

Brown, Beverly wrote:

That’s what I thought too, but every build I have gotten has had
autoexec.bat and config.sys in the root directory. Maybe their existence
is an oversight?

Really? On a bare install of Vista? A bare-metal installation of
Windows XP SP2 does NOT create these files.

–
Tim Roberts, xxxxx@probo.com
Providenza & Boekelheide, Inc.

8

I thought only command.com used it which was part of the 16-bit
subsystem. I didn’t think cmd.exe used those files. Especially
config.sys. What use could it have for anything that is not 16-bit?

Beverly

-----Original Message-----
From: xxxxx@lists.osr.com
[mailto:xxxxx@lists.osr.com] On Behalf Of David J. Craig
Sent: Tuesday, September 12, 2006 11:53 AM
To: Windows System Software Devs Interest List
Subject: Re:[ntdev] 16-bit VDDs and Vista

What do those files have to do with 16-bit? True, they did begin with
the 16-bit DOS, but they are used by the CMD and COMMAND processors in
Vista and just kept around because they can and too many programs want
to find them, I suppose. Try running a 16-bit Windows program on Vista.
It is not supposed to work, but I have not tried. I just try to keep up
with the UAC changes.
The last one is where you can’t make a CMD window or Windows Explorer
shortcut an Administrator task. Real bummer, but I use Total Commander
and that can be made admin. Yes, you can run it as admin by selecting
that option, but it is not one that can be tied to a shortcut as earlier
versions permitted.

“Brown, Beverly” wrote in message news:xxxxx@ntdev…
That’s what I thought too, but every build I have gotten has had
autoexec.bat and config.sys in the root directory. Maybe their existence
is an oversight?

Beverly

-----Original Message-----
From: xxxxx@lists.osr.com
[mailto:xxxxx@lists.osr.com] On Behalf Of David J. Craig
Sent: Tuesday, September 12, 2006 7:58 AM
To: Windows System Software Devs Interest List
Subject: Re:[ntdev] 16-bit VDDs and Vista

I heard no 16-bit support for Vista - any bitness.

“Loren Wilton” wrote in message
news:xxxxx@ntdev…
>I thought x64 machines dropped support for 16 bit code. Maybe I’m
>misremembering though.
>
> Loren
>
>> does anyone know if virtual device drivers (VDDs) for the 16-bit
>> subsystem are still supported in Vista?
>
>

—
Questions? First check the Kernel Driver FAQ at
http://www.osronline.com/article.cfm?id=256

To unsubscribe, visit the List Server section of OSR Online at
http://www.osronline.com/page.cfm?name=ListServer

—
Questions? First check the Kernel Driver FAQ at
http://www.osronline.com/article.cfm?id=256

To unsubscribe, visit the List Server section of OSR Online at
http://www.osronline.com/page.cfm?name=ListServer

9

What do you mean by bare-metal? If you mean a clean install, then yes,
they are there. They’re on my XP SP2 system (and even on my XP64 system
but are 0 KB in size!) and they are on my 32-bit vista system. They
might be hidden, I don’t know. I always setup my systems to show me
everything - don’t hide extensions, don’t hide hidden/system files, etc.

I don’t see them on vista64, though.

Beverly

-----Original Message-----
From: xxxxx@lists.osr.com
[mailto:xxxxx@lists.osr.com] On Behalf Of Tim Roberts
Sent: Tuesday, September 12, 2006 12:18 PM
To: Windows System Software Devs Interest List
Subject: Re: [ntdev] 16-bit VDDs and Vista

Brown, Beverly wrote:

That’s what I thought too, but every build I have gotten has had
autoexec.bat and config.sys in the root directory. Maybe their
existence is an oversight?

Really? On a bare install of Vista? A bare-metal installation of
Windows XP SP2 does NOT create these files.

–
Tim Roberts, xxxxx@probo.com
Providenza & Boekelheide, Inc.

Questions? First check the Kernel Driver FAQ at
http://www.osronline.com/article.cfm?id=256

To unsubscribe, visit the List Server section of OSR Online at
http://www.osronline.com/page.cfm?name=ListServer

10

That’s odd. I just made a CMD shortcut always run as administrator. On
the shortcut properties->Shortcut tab, click advanced and there is a
checkbox to make it run as administrator. Haven’t tried with explorer.

Beverly

-----Original Message-----
From: xxxxx@lists.osr.com
[mailto:xxxxx@lists.osr.com] On Behalf Of Brown, Beverly
Sent: Tuesday, September 12, 2006 12:33 PM
To: Windows System Software Devs Interest List
Subject: RE: [ntdev] 16-bit VDDs and Vista

I thought only command.com used it which was part of the 16-bit
subsystem. I didn’t think cmd.exe used those files. Especially
config.sys. What use could it have for anything that is not 16-bit?

Beverly

-----Original Message-----
From: xxxxx@lists.osr.com
[mailto:xxxxx@lists.osr.com] On Behalf Of David J. Craig
Sent: Tuesday, September 12, 2006 11:53 AM
To: Windows System Software Devs Interest List
Subject: Re:[ntdev] 16-bit VDDs and Vista

What do those files have to do with 16-bit? True, they did begin with
the 16-bit DOS, but they are used by the CMD and COMMAND processors in
Vista and just kept around because they can and too many programs want
to find them, I suppose. Try running a 16-bit Windows program on Vista.
It is not supposed to work, but I have not tried. I just try to keep up
with the UAC changes.
The last one is where you can’t make a CMD window or Windows Explorer
shortcut an Administrator task. Real bummer, but I use Total Commander
and that can be made admin. Yes, you can run it as admin by selecting
that option, but it is not one that can be tied to a shortcut as earlier
versions permitted.

“Brown, Beverly” wrote in message news:xxxxx@ntdev…
That’s what I thought too, but every build I have gotten has had
autoexec.bat and config.sys in the root directory. Maybe their existence
is an oversight?

Beverly

-----Original Message-----
From: xxxxx@lists.osr.com
[mailto:xxxxx@lists.osr.com] On Behalf Of David J. Craig
Sent: Tuesday, September 12, 2006 7:58 AM
To: Windows System Software Devs Interest List
Subject: Re:[ntdev] 16-bit VDDs and Vista

I heard no 16-bit support for Vista - any bitness.

“Loren Wilton” wrote in message
news:xxxxx@ntdev…
>I thought x64 machines dropped support for 16 bit code. Maybe I’m
>misremembering though.
>
> Loren
>
>> does anyone know if virtual device drivers (VDDs) for the 16-bit
>> subsystem are still supported in Vista?
>
>

—
Questions? First check the Kernel Driver FAQ at
http://www.osronline.com/article.cfm?id=256

To unsubscribe, visit the List Server section of OSR Online at
http://www.osronline.com/page.cfm?name=ListServer

—
Questions? First check the Kernel Driver FAQ at
http://www.osronline.com/article.cfm?id=256

To unsubscribe, visit the List Server section of OSR Online at
http://www.osronline.com/page.cfm?name=ListServer

—
Questions? First check the Kernel Driver FAQ at
http://www.osronline.com/article.cfm?id=256

To unsubscribe, visit the List Server section of OSR Online at
http://www.osronline.com/page.cfm?name=ListServer