Well ... , you can indeed develop an os (not a real one but a virtual one )in Windows ... by initially defining an arch spec and by implementing the virtual machine for the os and later making an os for the virtual machine ... ( this virtual machine can use DX 10 for simulation)
There are 2 factors to be considered
1) closeness of the virtual machine with the real word ...
2) The language used for developing the virtual os ...
( See Nachos for example ....)
Although it becomes easier to debug ..coz u defined everything ...no undocumented hardware features and quirks etc ... But i do not think this is the easiest way to go .... I havent used darkbasic yet... but it appears to be a language specifically tailored for game development .Asm , C or C++ ( sometimes Java, Pascal etc ..) is the lingua franca of the OS developer's world . You can make an os using any language ... but more exertion may be required ... I know its like saying ..." You can make a super os using a hex editor " . Finally OS development is a very frustrating journey ... It has provided me with many sleepless nights and
i still havent compleated a fully fuctional os ... I do not think there is a smooth path to os development ...