Windows® Internals: Including Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista, Fifth Edition (PRO-Developer)

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by: Edward A. Averill (Austin, TX, USA)
on: Monday, 13-September-2010

Ive recently been transitioning from WinCE and Linux driver to Vista/Win7 drivers and middleware, and while theres a ton of information online chasing down accurate data when you have a deadline can be fairly daunting.

Id heard good buzz about this book so I hit your site and grabbed a copy. And, after having it next to my workstation for 2 weeks, I can say that in my opinion this is the best-organized, most complete, and accessible book on Windows internals and architecture Ive ever found. I have yet to run into an issue in my real-world work that I couldnt get some insight on in this book, typically inside a few minutes. For someone in the trenches as a contractor, where I never know what kind of curve Ill get thrown, this book is worth its weight in Tums.. erm.. gold.

The only thing Id wish for is more info on the Windows Driver Framework, but thats an entire book on its own, I guess, and this thing is already hefty enough.

by: Vlad (United States)
on: Monday, 8-March-2010

Got my personal copy after reading book online and in a library. This is a must have book for anybody, who wants to become the Windows Pro.

by: Richard Sveyda (Chicago)
on: Saturday, 20-February-2010

The authors have taken an extremely complex topic and laid it out for anyone willing to take the time to absorb it. It is very well written; it is not dumb-ed down, but there are no tangents taken either.

The authors know their topic, and dont try to impress you with their knowledge. Also, they are unbiased about the topic. No operating system is perfect, but after reading the book, at least youll know why things dont work properly. (For example, why does the OS hang if you put in a blank DVD?)

There is an awful lot of meat in this book. Some topics youll want to skip, some youll want to memorize: but it will put you at the front of the pack, because so much of what you learn is vital to being the best IT professional you can be.

by: Prashanth Jaligama (United States)
on: Friday, 5-February-2010

I am a C++ programmer on windows. Seriously this is a must read book.
If you want to be a master on windows, you should read this book.

by: Christopher Bisnett (United States)
on: Sunday, 13-September-2009

The knowledge contained in this book is staggering. If you want a complete understanding of any component of Windows there is no better reference. Every Windows programmer should have this book on their bookshelf.

by: R. Halpert (Pembroke, MA)
on: Tuesday, 8-September-2009

This book is a must have for Windows Vista and MS Server 2008 administrators and support pros. Delving into all aspects of the operating systems with detailed explanations of the workings of both the server and the Vista client. I highly reccomend this book for anyone who wants to truly get to know the two systems.

by: Martin Drenovac (sydney, australia)
on: Thursday, 3-September-2009

I ordered the book on the basis of my admiration of Mark Russ.. brilliance in his layman speak about matters as intense technical as an O/S kernel. However, when i received the book I found it just as crisp in its detail, very low key on the techno speak abundant with detailed easy to understand technical material.

It doesnt leave you googling for explanation on any aspect that it mentions, all the detailed and inter-related topics are simply there.

I found myself reading aspect of the kernel that in reality are of no interest to me, simply read them there because the explanation was crisp, precise and so easy to follow.

Love the book, excellent value for money via your site through which I buy all my technical books even though Im in Sydney - Aust.

by: Signal Frog (Wad, Nl)
on: Sunday, 23-August-2009

Already the fifth edition of what is THE Windows Guide. A must have for every Windows afficionado! Gives an in depth view of the internals of the Windows-family. Clear and straight as one can expect of Mark R.

by: Jason Fossen (Dallas, Tx)
on: Friday, 21-August-2009

You dont have to be a C/C developer to enjoy this book, its for anyone who wants to dig into the guts of Windows. The book provides a guided tour of Windows internals using the Sysinternals tools and other free utilities from Microsofts web site. If youre worried that this material doesnt apply to Windows 7, dont worry, most of it does, and there are nice videos on the Channel9 page of the MSDN site which go over some of the differences between Vista and 7 to fill the gaps. Importantly, this is a hands-on book with lots of tool walk-throughs to bring the abstract material to life, so start with the topics which interest you the most (security, networking stack, I/O, whatever) and jump around the chapters while sitting at a test computer, you dont have to read it cover to cover like a textbook.

by: Axel Van Goud (Ontario, Canada)
on: Monday, 10-August-2009

For all security and architecture enthusiasts, this book will prove an indispensable guide to mastering the secrets of Windows system design, performance et al. All chapters feature revealing experiments, serving to strengthen the graps on the subject matter even further. The section on CPU algorithms does a great job of explaining CPU sequencing and placement;the accessibility of the language turns traditionally abstruse topics such as virtual memory task-tiering and the workings of APIs into worthwhile, instructive reading.
There are enough savory bits to elicit the interest of tech mavens as well as more junior developers alike, and I whole-heartedly recommend it to both!

by: Ed Tittel (Austin, TX)
on: Monday, 13-July-2009

Late last week (around 7/2/2009), a small but heavy box showed up at my door. Id long since forgotten bugging Mark Russinovich last December for a review copy of the latest edition of his Windows internals book: Windows Internals: Including Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista, 5th edition, co-authored with David A. Solomon and Alex Ionescu, but there it was in my hot little hands. In my odd free moments since then, Ive been plowing through this 1,260 page book to see whats new and interesting -- though I obviously havent had time to read it in its entirety. Keep that caveat in mind as I extoll this books many treasures.

Heres another caveat: the primary audience for this book is Windows system developers. Theyre the people who will get the most out of its contents, and my lack of in-depth Windows system programming experience probably explains why my eyes glaze over and my mind goes on vacation as I look at certain sections in the book.

That said, theres a tremendous wealth of information on Windows in here (and from what I can tell, thanks to having recently updated 9 chapters for the upcoming Pearson title Windows 7 in Depth it applies nearly 100% to Windows 7 as well as Windows Vista, thanks to relatively little changes in the kernel and other system facilities between these two most recent desktop Windows versions). In particular, these are the topics that I found most interesting and illuminating as I flipped through the book for a first quick pass over its contents (Ill report again from time to time as I dig more deeply into its contents):

Chapter 2 System Architecture: learned a thing or two about device drivers, and how to find them, in this chapter.
Chapter 3 System Mechanisms: the best coverage of the MS Hyper-V Hypervisor Ive ever seen anywhere.
Chapter 4 Management Mechanisms: as in previous versions, this chapter provides some of the best information about how the Windows registry is structured, and how it works, that Ive ever seen. Worth the price of admission all by itself.
Chapter 5 Processess, Threads, and Jobs: Heres a tour-de-force illustration of Mark Russinovichs knowledge of Windows internals, and how nicely the SysInternals tools work to reveal their inner workings.
Chapter 6 Security: Provides a killer walkthrough of how Windows performs access checks and uses security identifiers (SIDs) for accounts, groups, and logons. Lots of good detail here on security minutae.
Chapter 7 I/O System: includes great sections on Windows Plug and Play (PnP) operation and facilities, and ditto for ACPI/Power Manager.
Chapter 8 Storage Management: Best discussions of both BitLocker Drive Encyrption and Volume Shadow Copy Servive (VSS) Ive seen anywhere.
Chapter 9 Memory Management: Another embarrassment of riches, and also worth the price of the book all by itself, especially the sections on physical memmory limits, working sets, and SuperFetch/ReadyBoost/ReadyDrive.
Chapter 11 File Systems is worthwhile because it pulls info on all the Windows file systems together in one place and because it provides lots of great information on NTFS in particular.
Chapter 12 Networking: lots of good information on the Windows IP stack, NetBIOS, MUP, NLA, LLTD, NAT, and more. I need to spend more time with this chapter to savor it more fully.
Chapter 13 Startup and Shutdown: Great excursions into BIOS boot processes, BCD and Bootmgr, EFI boot stuff, plus more on ReadyBoot/ReadyBoost interaction. The great, great section on troubleshooting boot an startup problems is another gem.
Chapter 14 Crash Dump Analysis: the second on The Blue Screen includes a list of the top 30 stop codes for Windows Vista, and included all my old familiars, for sure. The in-depth discussion of crash dump analysis includes basic and advanced sections, and is also sure to reward further study.

Anybody who works with Windows regularly and needs to understand its inner working will find their investment in this book amply repaid. It is worth every bit of the $38 to $70 youll pay for it by shopping online. My only beef about this book is that its a monster, at over 1,200 pages and 4.4 pounds, its a bit too heavy to read in your lap or hold in your hands for very long. Youll want to plant this puppy on a table to flip through its many useful bits of information.

by: H. Weisskopf (United States)
on: Saturday, 4-July-2009

Windows Internals is one of two foundation books that should be on the bookshelf of every sysadmin and win engineer. The other is Windows Server 2008 Inside Out. Between the two you have everything youll likely want to ever know about the core of Windows.

I have read Stanek and Russinovichs work for years and have the utmost respect for both. As I imagine with most readers, I dont need to know everything about Windows but I do need to know everything possible about certain issues. In this book, this is the kernel, memory management, I/O sub-system (ACPI/PnP) and storage (ntfs).

Clearly Windows Internals is written for system level developers and theyl get the most benefit from this book, but there is a ton of stuff for IT professionals as well. It is not easy reading, you have to know something more about operating systems to understand it.

This book goes into depth, with real world ways you can apply (like practical exercises). I highly recommend this book to developers, sysadmins and win engineers who needs a very indepth analysis of Windows Vista/Windows Server 2008.