| There's an absurd number of components to the Windows Kernel, so here's a kind of disjointed list of various things, from different time frames. Windows Research Kernel - https://github.com/HighSchoolSoftwareClub/Windows-Research-K... - More or less Windows XP I/O Completion ports - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/fileio/i-o-c... - io_uring, but mostly better, since NT 3.5 General architecture info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Architecture_of_Windows_NT A bunch of things you'll find in Windows Internals, which is pretty much the bible for Windows (https://empyreal96.github.io/nt-info-depot/Windows-Internals..., or buy it online. Mark Russinovich is a treasure trove of Windows knowledge) The various Windows subsystems - Windows is built from the start to be able to impersonate other OSes. While the most obvious one is WSL (despite WSL2 being just a VM), there's an OS/2 Subsystem, a POSIX Subsystem, a Win32 subsystem... Very few things actually run in kernel mode. There exists a almost-kernel-but-not-quite mode called executive mode, which is a much better option than Linux's all or nothing user-or-kernel (and, as far as I know, Mach has the same problem) NT is a hybrid kernel: not quite monolithic, not quite micro. This allows Windows to do things like swapping your video drivers live as it's running, unlike Linux and Mach which would miserably crash. Hell, it can even recover from a video driver crash and restart it safely, and all you'll see is a few seconds of black screen. The breadth of devices it supports is absolutely breathtaking. (well, in part because they very much have a hand in forcing manufacturers to respect the standards that they write) All of Sysinternals (Mark Russinovich's work, again) is also an amazing resource: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/ Now, mind you, this is purely about technical merits: the NT Kernel is a miracle of technology. The APIs it exposes, and that most Microsoft products expose are downright batshit insane sometimes. But that's also what happens when you support 35 years of software. Also, the HANDLE pattern that most Win32 API uses is the superior alternative to dumb pointers (https://floooh.github.io/2018/06/17/handles-vs-pointers.html) Oh and a bunch of The Old New Things articles, but I can't be arsed to look them up right now, sorry. |
Maybe it will open eyes for people who for some reason acted as if Windows internals were some outdated tech mess just because Windows did some questionable choices when it comes to UI/UX