Using Both the Retail and Debug Kernel of Windows (89701)

SUMMARY

The D2N.BAT and N2D.BAT files shipped with the Windows SDK provide a way to switch between the retail and debug kernels of Windows within the same installation. One problem with this approach is that the entire kernel of Windows gets swapped during the copying process. This article describes a way to use the debug and retail kernel at the same time with much less overhead involved.

MORE INFORMATION

The following steps are involved to provide coexisting debug and retail installations of Windows:

Make a copy of the SYSTEM.INI file (for example, copy it to SYSTEM.RET).
Copy renamed versions of the debug kernel .EXE files to your Windows system directory (for example, copy GDI.EXE from the debug subdirectory of the SDK disks to GDIDBG.EXE in the Windows subdirectory).

In SYSTEM.INI, add the following lines to the [boot] section:

      gdi.exe = gdidbg.exe
      <add lines for the updated USER.EXE, KRNL286.EXE, KRNL386.EXE
      and MMSYSTEM.DLL files>

Make a copy of the new SYSTEM.INI file (for example, copy it to SYSTEM.DBG).

Now you can switch between the debug and retail kernels just by copying SYSTEM.DBG or SYSTEM.RET to SYSTEM.INI before booting Windows.

Notice that this technique does not work for the debugging version of WIN386.EXE because that file actually reads SYSTEM.INI. To install the debug version of WIN386.EXE, you still need to replace WIN.386 with the version that is being shipped with the Windows Device Development Kit.