Windows® Internals, Sixth Edition, Part 1

Chapter 5. Processes, Threads, and Jobs

In this chapter, we’ll explain the data structures and algorithms that deal with processes, threads, and jobs in the Microsoft Windows operating system. The first section focuses on the internal structures that make up a process. The second section outlines the steps involved in creating a process (and its initial thread). The internals of threads and thread scheduling are then described. The chapter concludes with a description of jobs.

Because processes and threads touch so many components in Windows, a number of terms and data structures (such as working sets, objects and handles, system memory heaps, and so on) are referred to in this chapter but are explained in detail elsewhere in the book. To fully ...