Undocumented Windows 2000 Secrets: A Programmer's Cookbook

This book is highly recommended to device driver writers and kernel hackers. This book revolves around the tools presented on the companion cd, an excellent kernel spy (with working source code and tools. Nowadays, so many books have source codes on their CD that just flat out don't work). The author of this book has carefully prepared the source code and made sure it works on both NT4 and w2k. My only complaint about building the source code is it requires windows 2000 DDK which is no longer available from msdn as free download. It'd been much more convenient if the author had actually provided some of the header files and libraries to build the tools without having to get the entire DDK library. The author explains why/how the tools/source code on the companion CD works. These explanations bring you through some of the most exciting aspects of w2k hacking such as direct kernel call linking in userland app, hooking kernel native APIs. The assembly code demonstrates some very useful hacking tricks. Appendix A is a summary of microsoft kernel debugger commands, which is extremely useful in itself! This is a quality book for serious kernel hackers.

This book would suit anyone attempting the painful transition from user mode to kernel mode programming, as well as hardened system hackers. It is very hands on, and doesn't induce the same level of insomnia as the DDK documentation. If, like myself you don't intend to actually implement any more undocumented techniques than as absolutely necessary, it's still great to understand what's going on behind the scenes. It's refreshing to read something written by someone who isn't afraid to rip open the black boxes and leave the panel's strewn on the floor!

I have overwhelming thankfulness that someone else has done all this hard work! Sven has taken Windows 2000 by the scruff of the neck and has explained many of its internal features in a refreshingly straightforward way - he is a great communicator with obvious and infectious enthusiasm for the subject. I believe this book will be one of those classics, since it is of use not only to explain 2000 but also NT4 and no doubt many future versions of the OS as well.

This is an excellent book that I started reading and couldn't put down for days. The author explains complex Win2K internal structures clearly. By providing the source and binaries of the tools he developed, he made it very easy to run the tools and examine the internals while reading the book - sort of like lab experiments! I've read some articles published in DDJ, WD, MSDN, etc. in the past that were difficult to understand. After reading this book, I've re-read some of them and they now make sense.I've also used some of the tools to delve into Windows XP! and have already seen what some of the differences between Win2K and WinXP are. I'm applying some of the techniques in this book to recompile the code that the author graciously provided and make the necessary changes to see what's underneath WinXP. I wrote a kernel-mode driver for the first time after using the author's win2k_wiz to create a skeleton. Wow! that made it easy!In my opinion Schreiber has joined the ranks of Pietrek, Schulman, Russinovich, and the other OS gurus.