Operating System

We recently interviewed Adrian Marinescu, lead developer on the Windows Kernel team focusing on the Heap Manager and associated technologies. The Heap Manager plays a big role in shaping system performance and security. (Heap mechanisms have been targets of several security attacks in the past…

Ever wonder how virtualization works? Where is it used? What role could virtualization play in the future of Windows, for example? How will it evolve over time?We recently met with some of the Microsoft Virtualization people to find some answers to these questions and learn a whole lot about…

Ever wonder what's really going on when you attach a peripheral device to your computer (running Windows XP or Vista)? Well, we wanted to find out the low level truths about Plug and Play in Windows. Who else better to talk to than Eugene Lin and Jason Cobb, the Plug and Play Guys ( Eugene is a…

Transactions have long been the domain of the database but what if you could transact virtually any resource in your application?  How would that change the architecture and design of the systems you are building?  Well get ready because Windows Vista includes a powerful new…

Charles recently caught up with seasoned Niner, Larry Osterman, an SDE and 20 year Microsoft veteran, and Elliot H Omiya, a Software Architect and audio guru, to dig into the innerworkings of Vista's updated Audio Stack and new user mode API. Much of the guts of Windows audio have…

Surendra Verma, Development Manager on the Vista Kernel team, digs into Vista's new Transactional File System whith Charles Torre. TxF, as it is referred to internally, is a new kernel construct that is part of an updated Vista NTFS. Surendra provides a high level overview of TxF in this…

Charles Torre again sits down with some of the people behind MSR's Singularity research OS. This time, we drill down into the architecture of Singularity and discuss design decisions, usage of safe code, Channels, SIPs, etc. We even manage to get Galen Hunt, the OS Guy, up to the white…

Almost everything you do on your PC requires the assistance of NT's Object Manager. The Object Manager is a shared resource; a subsystem upon which all other executive kernel subsystems rely on to get their jobs done. That said, among NT's kernel components, the OM receives the least amount of…

Nar, an architect on Windows Device Experience team, takes us deep inside the I/O manager inside Windows' kernel.

Charles Torre continues his series of "going deep in Windows" with an interview of Nar Ganapathy, an architect on the I/O Manager in Windows (part of the Windows Kernel).