Windows Internals: The Implementation of the Windows Operating Environment [Paperback]

Matt Pietrek (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 10, 1993 | ISBN-10: 0201622173 | ISBN-13: 978-0201622171 | Edition: 1

Most Windows (tm) programming books treat Windows like a "black box"-your program makes calls to the Windows API and somewhere the request is processed. But to write truly professional programs, you need to understand what goes on under the hood of Windows.Matt Pietrek, coauthor of the bestselling Undocumented Windows, reveals the internal complexity and power of Windows in a clear and concise style. Through the extensive use of pseudocode, the book illustrates the actual implementation of Windows functions, showing in detail what happens when a Windows program executes. The topics include a walk through a typical Windows application, memory management, the creation and destruction of a program, dynamic linking, the Windows-DOS interface, the scheduler, the messaging system, resource management, and GDI basics. Based on intensive research of the actual binary code of the Windows program files,Windows Internals' authoritative account of the complicated interactions that occur inside Windows is essential reading for all Windows programmers. 0201622173B04062001

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Most Windows (tm) programming books treat Windows like a "black box"-your program makes calls to the Windows API and somewhere the request is processed. But to write truly professional programs, you need to understand what goes on under the hood of Windows. Matt Pietrek, coauthor of the bestselling Undocumented Windows, reveals the internal complexity and power of Windows in a clear and concise style. Through the extensive use of pseudocode, the book illustrates the actual implementation of Windows functions, showing in detail what happens when a Windows program executes.

The topics include a walk through a typical Windows application, memory management, the creation and destruction of a program, dynamic linking, the Windows-DOS interface, the scheduler, the messaging system, resource management, and GDI basics. Based on intensive research of the actual binary code of the Windows program files, Windows Internals' authoritative account of the complicated interactions that occur inside Windows is essential reading for all Windows programmers.

0201622173B04062001

About the Author

Matt Pietrek is an engineer at Nu-Mega Technologies Incorporated, developer of BOUNDS-CHECKER and Soft-ICE/W (tm). He is coauthor of Undocumented Windows.

Matt Pietrek is a software engineer at a major language developer.

0201622173AB04062001

Product Details

• Paperback: 560 pages
• Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional; 1 edition (June 10, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0201622173
• ISBN-13: 978-0201622171
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #412,004 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Outdated but still valuable, June 21, 2004

By 

F. Liu "Fei Liu" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Windows Internals: The Implementation of the Windows Operating Environment (Paperback)

I have recently bought and finished reading this book. This book covers the internals of the windows 3.11 (16bit) operating system. Because windows 3.11 does not use most of today's PC technology, the ia32 architecture, protected mode kernel/application enviroment, some of the materials are really not relevant any more. However, the mechanism and the design of the windows 3.11 is still very relevant to help understand modern operating systems such as Windows NT/2000 and even Linux. Matt is an outstanding windows developer and his understanding of the windows internals still helps.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The book that made Windows programming interesting, December 3, 2009

By 

John S. Lyon Smith (Redmond, WA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Windows Internals: The Implementation of the Windows Operating Environment (Paperback)

Just adding a quick review to try and undo the effects of the individual who rated this one star. Don't buy this book to understand current (circa 2009) versions of Windows. Buy it to understand the challenges early Windows developers faced and to marvel at Matt's ingenuity as he unravels the many undocumented internals of early Windows. Yes, most of the book does not apply any more, except perhaps that Windows is still an O/S based on the concept of the Dynamic Link Library (DLL). This is a book by an early Windows developer who defended the idea that it's OK to lift up the lid and understand how your computer works. It's a battle that continues to this day between the open source community and the software industry, and this book may just inspire you to join the fight.

7 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A hundred-star, brilliant book (yes, about a dead technology), February 5, 2009

By 

Ghost(Ghost(M)) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Windows Internals: The Implementation of the Windows Operating Environment (Paperback)

I got this brilliant book and read it when it came out and only post this note because I saw some genius below give it ONE star because "it's outdated". I find it outrageous when some dummkopf gives a good book one star because it's not the book he needs: somehow the author should have written about future software, like he's a seer of some sort.

_Windows Internals_ by Pietrek is a fifteen-year-old book about Windows 3.1 and it is _this_ that's outdated. The book does not mislead the reader as far as what it's about in any way. So yeah, this book will teach you nothing about XP and Vista (nor even NT); it is a book on a piece of dead technology. So you probably don't need it anymore, at least not as a direct study aid sort of thing -- except, perhaps, for this:

Technologies, especially software, do age and die very quickly today, but human intelligence doesn't! This is a fantastic book where the author uncorks Win3.1 and studies its internal workings. In a sense it still is good to read this book -- just in order to learn how this is done. You can never go wrong reading a well-written book by a brilliant author, no matter how outdated the subject matter. If you have time to spend on general learning, get this book; looks like today it can be had for pennies, so take advantage! Whether to read this book or not is only a question of having time, I believe: it's a brilliant piece of work.