You are right, the new Windbg is a complete re-write of the old.
Around this time last year we began re-doing Windbg
The first thing we did was take the code of ntsd/kd and turn it into a
DLL, which we call the Debugger Engine. The Engine is what actually
knows how to do the debugging. It exposes COM-like interfaces that are
used by the EXE’s and new style extensions. (The new package actually
contains a SDK for the engine that you can use to develop new tools or
extensions). This allowed us to share the same debugging code between
all debuggers and greatly helped improve the stability and features of
Windbg.
Then the UI code (which is what you think of Windbg) was completely
re-written so that it just calls the dbgeng.dll interfaces to do the
acual debugging work. This explains why some of the commands and syntax
has changed. Windbg got KD’s commands and syntax.
Basicly with the DbgEng.dll it is possible for someone to write a new UI
for the debugger and not have to
The old Windbg code base is gone. Completely. All improvements and bug
fixes are done in the new code base.
In July we released version 1 of the new debugger package. It’s main
features are the dbgeng interfaces & UI seperation, that DbgEng can
handle any supported target (NT4 or Win2k or Whistler, x86 or alpha or
IA64, user mode or kernel mode, live or dump) and much improved docs.
We are currently working on version 2 and have a beta out. Version 2’s
primary improvements are dealing with workspaces, a new symbol handler
(which supports PDB7 from VC7, scoped locals, static functions, etc…),
more improved docs, and many bug and perf fixes and user suggested
enhancements.
We are very interested in everyone’s comments, bug reports and
suggestions. You can send feedback to xxxxx@microsoft.com or post
it at the microsoft.public.windbg newsgroup
-----Original Message-----
From: Pane, Chris [mailto:xxxxx@vanteon.com]
Sent: Wednesday, December 13, 2000 1:54 PM
To: NT Developers Interest List
Subject: [ntdev] What’s the difference between the WinDBG Versions
I have noticed 2 very different versions of WinDBG, at least from a User
Interface.
The first one, which I started using 1 year ago was (What I think) the
original WinBag. Then I downloaded an updated version, that seemed to be
a
complete re-write of the old from a UI standpoint. It had a prettier
look
and feel (This one had the kernel debug check box in the view/options
tab.
Now it looks like the latest version has the original UI on it.
Will the real windbg please stand up 
Just Curious
-Chris
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