Windows Internals, Part 1 (6th Edition) (Developer Reference)

Delve inside Windows architecture and internals—and see how core components work behind the scenes. Led by three renowned internals experts, this classic guide is fully updated for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2—and now presents its coverage in two volumes.

As always, you get critical insider perspectives on how Windows operates. And through hands-on experiments, you’ll experience its internal behavior firsthand—knowledge you can apply to improve application design, debugging, system performance, and support.

In Part 1, you will:

• Understand how core system and management mechanisms work—including the object manager, synchronization, Wow64, Hyper-V, and the registry
• Examine the data structures and activities behind processes, threads, and jobs
• Go inside the Windows security model to see how it manages access, auditing, and authorization
• Explore the Windows networking stack from top to bottom—including APIs, BranchCache, protocol and NDIS drivers, and layered services
• Dig into internals hands-on using the kernel debugger, performance monitor, and other tools

Alex Ionescu is a chief software architect and consultant expert in low-level system software, kernel development, security training, and reverse engineering. He teaches Windows internals course with David Solomon, and is active in the security research community.