Hello,
I am wondering wether it is possible to test my replacement for SMSS (or at
least portions of it) under Win32. How to connect to keyboard.
Actually SMSS.EXE ist not some “native app” as any other. Other native apps,
like AUTOCHK are getting called by SMSS. To use NtDisplayString you’ll need
to have the privilege which defines you as a part of the TCB (trusted
computing base, i.e. the OS itself) - but for SMSS there’s more to do.
First it does is to initialise the graphics driver to some “text mode” (we
see it as the blue screen on NT). Next would be to use the settings from the
session manager key in the registry and start the Win32 subsystem
(simplified!).
Now, what I want to do is to provide an OpenSource replacement for the
recovery console - and furthermore one that can be installed on NT4 also.
This means, that besides switching to textmode I also have to connect the
keyboard to receive input from a user 
Switching to textmode itself is not the hardest thing. But it seems that
I’ll have to set the font data afterwards. Can anybody help me with that?
And is it possible that I just use some Win32 program (only using NTDLL
imports) to test switching to textmode?
Thanks in advance,
Oliver
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