Microsoft Windows Internals

Microsoft Windows Internals Front Cover

The fourth edition of this cornerstone volume from Microsoft Press has been updated to cover Windows XP and Windows Server 2003, including 64-bit support, in addition to Windows 2000. From simply perusing the foreword by Jim Allchin, Group Vice President of Platforms at Microsoft, and the historical perspective by David Cutler, "father of the Windows kernel" to whom the book is also dedicated, the reader already knows they are in for an outstanding volume written by the best, most official specialists in the field. Indeed Mark Russinovich is one of the leading inspirations behind the excellent range of tools by Sysinternals, which, combined with Microsoft's own support and debugging tools, the book makes ample, intelligent use of in its explanations or test cases in order to document internal system architecture. Such is the official sanction of this must-have companion that there is even an updated list of errata on Microsoft's site at http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;892212 [Ed, Link will open as a new page.]

But no matter how knowledgeable and technically reliable a writer may be, what ultimately matters if such a challenging book is to reach the widest possible audience is how lucidly and pedagogically they can present their complex subject matter, and this is where Windows Internals 4th Edition excels beyond any doubt, from the clarity of the most daunting technical developments or the usefulness of hands-on experiments to the overall organization of the volume, as well as the sheer exhaustiveness of the coverage. (In that respect though, while readers familiar with the previous incarnation will not greatly miss the absence of a CD-ROM since all the tools referenced in the book can easily be downloaded, this also implies that they will lack the convenience of a searchable e-book version to supplement an excellent, comprehensive index.) Whether it deals with file system, examines processes, threads and jobs, looks at memory management or details networking architecture (to name just a few key topics), Windows Internals 4th Edition does an admirable job of balancing technical rigour with accessibility of presentation, and Jim Allchin's claim that this is "the definitive book on the core Windows internals" is not an overstatement but a fair appraisal of the phenomenal effort and care that went into this crucial work. Clearly a lot is at stake in this volume, whose main readership will include not only IT professionals and administrators seeking advanced troubleshooting information to maintain mission-critical systems but also software developers who need to build an awareness of how their tools are going to interface with the OS, for e.g. by gaining insight into APIs and protocol drivers. But although this book is definitely not targeted at the casual faint-hearted dabbler, anybody serious about getting to grips with the fundamentals of kernel architecture or passionate about the internal workings of their OS of choice should not miss this revised, expanded version of a great classic.