Reading memory content in VB on NT4

Hi,
Question 1:
Does anyone know how to access the memory dirctly (The first megabyte) and read a content of a byte /word / whatever?

I am looking for a VB equivalent to PEEK or INP that used to be in the good old BASIC days.

It can be in form of a small OCX (I pass to it address and it gives back bytes, etc. ) or any API you know about that can do this.

NOTE: It MUST work on NT
NOTE2: Only the first megabytes is reuired (DOS memory).

Question 2:
How come I can do this EASILY in a short BASIC program running in DOS winodw on NT4 and works perfect (and correctly) and I can't do this from within Windows?
How DOS crosses the HAL?

Thanks.

Nathan