NTIFS vs DDK? (documents)

[redbull]

The NTIFS has been renamed to just IFS.


"IFS Kit - Installable File System Kit"
"This is the home page for the Microsoft? Windows Server? 2003 Installable File System (IFS) Kit, a developer's kit for the kernel mode file system and file system filter driver models. This kit provides the interfaces for developers to write file systems and file system filters for Windows Server 2003, Windows XP, and Windows 2000."

"The Windows 2000 IFS Kit. The Windows 2000 IFS kit is obsolete, and updated functionality is available via the Server 2003 IFS kit. The RDR issue is fixed in Windows Server 2003 IFS kit. Please see above for information on ordering. "


hxxp://www.microsoft.com/whdc/devtools/ifskit/default.mspx

If you want to learn what really windows is all about and how it works internally, DDK's documentations are surely a must read item. However, DDK's documents are not particularly suitable as the first reference as they are too short of explanaitions on WHYs and WHAT-IFs. A better idea is to start reading some books like "windows driver model" or other books about writing device drivers and use DDK as a reference material. You can find these books and more on the FTP.
IFS, however, is a different beast. There you don't find any usefull info but just for writing files-systems. I think this is a rather very very specialized topic and amongst all other things you should learn about the low-level structure of the windows, it is one of the less important topics unless you want to write a complete new files system or port something from say, Linux world to the winodws. But for normal (?) hackers, I think there is a very small need for the IFS kit.