[PangingJr]

taken from the TechNet Magazine (online version), Written By Mark Russinovich.
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Inside the Windows Vista Kernel: Part 1

At a Glance:
Thread priority and scheduling
File-based symbolic links
Canceling I/O operations

This is the first part of a series on what's new in the Windows Vista kernel. In this issue, I'll look at changes in the areas of processes and threads, and in I/O. Future installments will cover memory management, startup and shutdown, reliability and recovery, and security.

The scope of this article comprises changes to the Windows Vista™ kernel only, specifically Ntoskrnl.exe and its closely associated components. Please remember that there are many other significant changes in Windows Vista that fall outside the kernel proper and therefore won't be covered. This includes improvements to the shell (such as integrated desktop search), networking (like the new IPv6 stack and two-way firewall), and the next-generation graphics model (such as Aero™ Glass, Windows® Presentation Foundation, the Desktop Window Manager, and the new graphics driver model). Also not covered are the new Windows User-Mode and Kernel-Mode Driver Frameworks (UMDF and KMDF) since these are back-level installable on earlier versions of Windows.

full article content -- http://www.microsoft.com/technet/tec...2/VistaKernel/




Inside the Windows Vista Kernel: Part 2

At a Glance:
Memory management
Startup and shutdown
Power management

Last month, in the first installment of this three-part series, I looked at Windows Vista kernel enhancements in the areas of processes and I/O.

This time I'll cover advances in the way Windows Vista manages memory, as well as major improvements to system startup, shutdown, and power management (Part 1).

Every release of Windows® improves scalability and performance, and Windows Vista™ is no different. The Windows Vista Memory Manager includes numerous enhancements, like more extensive use of lock-free synchronization techniques, finer-grained locking, tighter data-structure packing, larger paging I/Os, support for modern GPU memory architectures, and more efficient use of the hardware Translation Lookaside Buffer. Plus, Windows Vista memory management now offers dynamic address space allocation for the requirements of different workloads.

Four performance-enhancing features that use new technologies make their operating system debut on Windows Vista: SuperFetch, ReadyBoost, ReadyBoot, and ReadyDrive. I'll discuss them in detail later in this article

full article content -- http://www.microsoft.com/technet/tec...3/VistaKernel/




Inside the Windows Vista Kernel: Part 3

At a Glance:
Reliability
Recovery
Security

This series has so far covered Windows Vista kernel enhancements related to processes, I/O, memory management, system startup, shutdown, and power management. In this third and final

installment, I take a look at features and improvements in the areas of reliability, recovery, and security.

One feature I'm not covering in this series is User Account Control (UAC), which comprises several different technologies, including file system and registry virtualization for legacy applications, elevation consent for accessing administrative rights, and the Windows® Integrity Level mechanism for isolating processes running with administrative rights from less-privileged processes running in the same account. Look for my in-depth coverage of UAC internals in a future issue of TechNet Magazine.

Windows Vista™ improves the reliability of your system and your ability to diagnose system and application problems through a number of new features and enhancements. For example, the kernel Event Tracing for Windows (ETW) logger is always active, generating trace events for file, registry, interrupt, and other types of activity into a circular buffer. When a problem occurs, the new Windows Diagnostic Infrastructure (WDI) can capture a snapshot of the buffer and analyze it locally or upload it to Microsoft support for troubleshooting.

The new Windows Performance and Re*liability Monitor helps users correlate errors, such as crashes and hangs, with changes that have been made to system configuration. The powerful System Repair Tool (SRT) replaces the Recovery Console for off-line recovery of un*bootable systems.

There are three areas that rely on kernel-level changes to the system and so merit a closer look in this article: Kernel Transaction Manager (KTM), improved crash handling, and Previous Versions

full article content -- http://www.microsoft.com/technet/tec...4/VistaKernel/