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Q83726: INT 12h and Windows Enhanced Mode

Article: Q83726
Product(s): Microsoft Windows Device Driver Kit
Version(s): 3.0
Operating System(s): 
Keyword(s): 
Last Modified: 03-NOV-1999

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The information in this article applies to:

- Microsoft Windows Device Development Kit (DDK) for Windows, version 3.0 
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SUMMARY
=======

A well-known method of providing security features for MS-DOS is to install an
interrupt handler into the upper area of conventional memory. INT 12h is used to
inform MS-DOS that this portion of memory is no longer available for use with
MS-DOS applications. For this technique to work with Windows enhanced mode, it
is necessary to write a virtual device (VxD) to map the affected memory pages
into virtual machines.

MORE INFORMATION
================

When the value in location 40:13 of the BIOS data segment is decreased, MS- DOS
will reserve memory immediately below the 384 kilobyte adapter segment. The
return value from issuing an INT 12h is the new amount of available memory.
Several manufacturers of security software use this technique to install
software prior to starting MS-DOS.

This technique fails with Windows in enhanced mode because Windows does not map
the corresponding pages in virtual machines onto the physical locations of those
pages. If any interrupt handlers reside in the affected area, the missing
mapping will keep the handlers from being invoked properly.

The EBIOS virtual device, provided with the Windows Device Development Kit (DDK),
demonstrates using the VxD services PhysIntoV86 and Assign_Device_V86_Pages to
add page mappings to Windows. These techniques have been incorporated into the
RIPLMEM VxD, which was originally designed to address a problem related to
starting Windows on diskless workstations. RIPLMEM is distributed as an
application note and is in the Software/Data Library. For more information on
RIPLMEM, query on the following words in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

  " prod(win3) and riplmem " (without the quotation marks)

Additional query words: 3.0 boot

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Keywords          :  
Technology        : kbAudDeveloper kbWin3xSearch kbWinDDKSearch kbWinDDK300
Version           : :3.0

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