XPe tip #5: Direct IO operations from Win32 mode

Sometimes there may be a need to be able to control some hardware directly on an embedded device without having the appropriate device driver. After all, XPe is all about RAPID development and you may not have enough time or skills to develop the driver.

This is where some nice 3rd party tools like DirectIO come to the picture. Basically such applications (include their own drivers) will allow you to stick to Win32 API (CreateFile and etc.) and be able to make a direct queries to the selected and configured device (read/write/configuration/enumeration/etc.).

Long time ago I posted the list of some of those apps available on Internet to the newsgroup. Here is what that post mentioned:
- WinIO from internals.com,
- DirectIO from direct-io.com,
- DriverLinx's Port I/O Driver. DLPortIO component on http://www.xpefiles.com/

If you need it, check out all of them.