[corty]

That is a kind way of putting it. I would say Windows lacks modularity and is a messy monolith with a lot of spooky crosstalk.

[Carpetsmoker]

Yeah, maybe. I don't really know much of the Windows internals, so I try not to assume too much (hence my question in the top comment[1], which was very much a "curiosity"-question, and not a "omg, wtf"-question).

[1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23656237