Windows Kernel
Introduction
The kernel is the core of the operating system: it is a software layer that provides secure and controlled access to the machine's hardware (by creating a hardware abstraction layer that provides a uniform interface to the underlying hardware so to simplify developers' job in writing applications) to all the running processes as well as scheduling processes and executing them in a multitasking environment.
Credit
Thanks to Luigi Bruno for originally authoring this content.
Community Resources
Blogs
Technical Articles
- Windows XP: Kernel Improvements Create a More Robust, Powerful, and Scalable OS (MSDN Magazine, December 2001)
- Inside the Windows Vista Kernel: Part 1
- Inside the Windows Vista Kernel: Part 2
- Inside the Windows Vista Kernel: Part 3
- Inside Windows Server 2008 Kernel Changes
Videos
- Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 Kernel Changes
- Mark Russinovich: Inside Windows 7
- Mark Russinovich: On Working at Microsoft, Windows Server 2008 Kernel, MinWin vs ServerCore, HyperV
- Windows, Part I - Dave Probert
- Windows, Part II - Dave Probert
- Windows, Part III - Dave Probert
- Windows, Part IV - Dave Probert
White Papers
Books
- Inside Microsoft Windows 2000, Third Edition by David A. Solomon and Mark E. Russinovich (Microsoft Press, August 2000)
- Windows Internals, Fourth Edition by David A. Solomon and Mark E. Russinovich (Microsoft Press, December 2004)
- Windows Internals, Fifth Edition by David A. Solomon, Mark E. Russinovich and Alex Ionescu (Microsoft Press, June 2009)