>> Someone told me that NT does not allow direct writes to anything, without
 >> it's permission is that true ?

 RJ> _inp() and _outp() in NT will give you a
 RJ> priveged-instruction exception message.

Not from an IOPL segment, and even a user application can have one of those
(unless the kernel refuses to link it, but afaik, NT does).

BTW, as you no doubt already know, this isn't so much an "NT"
feature, as it is a feature of the 386 in protected mode. It wouldn't be
the first time an OS vendor claimed amazing "features" stolen
from Intel. :-)

 RJ> If you attempt
 RJ> port I/O from a 16-bit DOS app in an NT console window,
 RJ> the I/O is either ignored or emulated by NT's virtual
 RJ> device drivers.

Emulated? It might actually /do/ it, and probably does. :-)

--- MaltEd/2 1.0.b6