Inside Windows NT (Microsoft Programming Series) [Paperback]

Helen Custer (Author), David A. Solomon (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1572316772 | ISBN-13: 978-1572316775 | Publication Date: January 1, 1997 | Edition: 2nd ed.

The eagerly awaited second edition of this well-known volume provides the best architectural overview of Mircosoft Windows NT, making it an important road map for Windows NT developers and for students of operating systems. This edition has been fully updated and expanded to include coverage of the file system, as well as comprehensive information on Windows NT version 4.0.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Beginning with broad NT concepts and then focusing sequentially on various key systems, Solomon dissects NT with a surgeon's care and a software engineer's thoroughness. That's not to say that this book is mainly about writing programs. Rather, this is the kind of guide that power users wish for, explaining why and how things happen and glossing over very little. Programmers will value the clear NT API hints.

Initially, the author talks about important NT tools (such as Performance Monitor) and concepts (such as the idea of virtual memory and how it's mapped). He illustrates all abstract concepts with excellent conceptual drawings that make it easier to comprehend what NT is doing. A chapter on NT's architecture explains how the system works as a whole. Later chapters focus on individual subsystems, providing extensive coverage of processes, memory, input/output, security, caches, and NT. After reading the chapter on memory management, for instance, you'll have a solid grasp of paging and the internal settings that affect it. The book also contains experiments that guide the reader through concept-illustrating procedures. For example, readers crash their machines to see and analyze the dump log--a valuable skill. --David Wall

Review

A direct consequence of the relatively short time Windows NT has been in use in the industry is represented by the lack of punctual and accurate information about the internals of the system, as opposed to the abundance of texts treating higher level themes. The first edition of Inside Windows NT, written by Helen Custer of Microsoft and based on version 3.1 of the product, was indeed one of the best titles falling into the first category. From that solid ground David Solomon has jumped in, updated the contents, and also added a lot of new insights on those topics that characterize the latest releases of Windows NT. The result is not only an up-to-date reproposition of the former book -- it is a largely restructured and organically reorganized manual, whose focus is on Windows NT 4.0 with Service Pack 3. Frequent marginal notes and the entire final chapter also anticipate what to expect from the upcoming Windows NT 5.0.

After spending some pages delineating its target and introducing the basic elements that make up the foundation of NT, the book digs deeper and unveils the logic of most aspects of the system. Processes and threads, the mythical memory manager (whose vivisection turned out particularly well), the cache manager, the HAL (acronym for Hardware Abstraction Layer) and the Executive, kernel mode components, and security are just some of the myriad topics covered throughout the chapters. Things like GDI, USER, networking and COM are deliberately left out, as each of them would deserve an entire book. The level of detail is excellent, but I was just as impressed by the high degree of readability and, in general, by the ability of the author to follow a progressive approach in presenting new material without losing sight of the organic whole. The strength of this book’s educational aspect is a big upside considering the innate complexity of the subject, and renders Inside Windows NT an extraordinary candidate as a textbook in support of professional seminars and academic courses...Read more from this review. --Davide Marcato, Dr. Dobb's Journal -- Dr. Dobb's Journal

Product Details

• Paperback: 600 pages
• Publisher: Microsoft Press; 2nd ed. edition (January 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1572316772
• ISBN-13: 978-1572316775
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.9 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #948,126 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must-read for NT systems professionals, May 14, 1998

By 

Mark B. Friedman (Woodinville, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Inside Windows NT (Microsoft Programming Series) (Paperback)

David Solomon's long-awaited update to Helen Custer's original survey of the Microsoft Windows NT operating system is an excellent guide to the internals of the operating system for programmers, systems administrators, and other computer professionals. At 500+ pages, it is chock full of great information about NT that is simply unavailable from any other source. Profusely illustrated and full of very good examples. Custer's original "Inside Windows NT" book was always long on self-congratulations (she apparently was the official "historian" of the project), but short on the kinds of detail that makes hackers drool. It was also written to NT version 3, and is now considerably out to date. Solomon's revision is a total rewrite that remedies this situation. The book is current on NT 4.0, and even contains a good chapter on upcoming changes in NT 5.0. This book definitely belongs on any Windows NT programmer's bookshelf. Solomon writes in the introduction that he was given access to NT source code, and he demonstrates how to use the kernel debugger to decipher what is happening inside the operating system. Even so, he manages to keep the presentation lively and informative. He also reports he had access to the NT developers themselves to review what he had written, which guarentees the accuracy of the book. In several areas I found concise explanations of features that other less well-connected authors and experts had written either in a vague or contradictory way. I am very grateful for Solomon's book clearing up the confusion in these areas.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Technically and Pedagogically, September 17, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Inside Windows NT (Microsoft Programming Series) (Paperback)

A lot of OS internal type of books talk and talk, even though most of them are indeed technically superb. But Inside Windows NT is special in that the author knows humans have to practice to learn. After you read a few pages, you come to an Experiment section and see what comes on screen if you do this and that. For non-systems programmer like me, this may be the only book to satisfy my curiosity to know more about Windows NT.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Terrific!, June 24, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (Southern New England) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Inside Windows NT (Microsoft Programming Series) (Paperback)

This book is an absolute must-have, whether you're a programmer or an NT administrator (although the former will get more out of it). The only gripe I have with the book is that the chapter on security is really weak (about 1/3 the length of every other chapter)--if you're looking for a detailed programmatic discussion of NT security, pick up Kevin Miller's "NT Services" (Wrox Press). This book isn't about security per se, but its chapter on security is terrific. Sorry for the digression, Inside WinNT is screaming to sit on your shelf now!