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Free Textbook

An Introduction to Windows Operating System

by Einar Krogh
(14 ratings)
1 review
123
Language:  English
This book is about Windows operating system written for courses in operating systems.
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This book is about Windows operating system written for courses in operating systems.

The book provides both an introduction to operating systems in general and to Windows operating system in particular. The book is therefore suitable both for beginning courses in operating systems and for introductory courses on how Windows operating system functions.

Windows is a huge operating system. This book presents the key components of Windows operating system in a short and straightforward way.

Topics in the book on Windows are the architecture of the Windows operating system, Windows API, system mechanisms in Windows, file systems in Windows, networking features in Windows, Windows security, and error handling (The Blue Screen).

Central themes in the book on operating systems are processes, threads, synchronization of threads, process scheduling, deadlocks, memory management, storage management, input/output and how applications interact with hardware.

The book also includes an overview of Windows history. There are control questions to each chapter.

About the author

Einar Krogh is teaching Informatics/Mathematics with The Faculty of Computer Science, at Ostfold University College in Norway.

  • Introduction
  1. About Windows history
    1. MS-DOS
    2. The first versions of Windows
    3. Windows NT
    4. Windows versions based on Windows NT
    5. Windows Server
    6. Control Questions
  2. The tasks of an operating system
    1. About the construction of computers
    2. Central tasks for an operating system
    3. Control Questions
  3. Some concepts and terms of the Windows operating system
    1. Windows API
    2. .NET Framework
    3. Objects and Handles
    4. Windows runs in two modes
    5. Processes and threads
    6. Services, functions and routines
    7. Unicode
    8. Control Questions
  4. The architecture of Windows
    1. Some aims for the Windows NT operating system
    2. About the structure of Windows
    3. User mode
    4. Kernel mode
    5. Windows Executive Services
    6. The kernel
    7. Hardware Abstraction Layer
    8. Device Drivers
    9. The window and graphics system
    10. System Processes
    11. Control Questions
  5. System Mechanisms
    1. Interrupts
    2. Exceptions
    3. Object Manager
    4. 32-bit applications on a 64-bit operating system
    5. Control Questions
  6. Mechanisms for data management
    1. The Registry
    2. Configuration Manager
    3. Control Questions
  7. Processes, Threads and Jobs
    1. Processes
    2. Threads
    3. Fibers
    4. Jobs
    5. The Process Manager
    6. Multitasking
    7. Communication between processes
    8. Control Questions
  8. Synchronization of threads
    1. Threads cooperating
    2. Threads competing
    3. Critical region
    4. Mutual Exclusion
    5. Semaphore
    6. Mutex
    7. Some synchronization mechanisms in Windows
    8. Control Questions
  9. Process planning on one processor
    1. Voluntary and involuntary sharing of the processor
    2. Non-preemptive process planning
    3. Preemptive process planning
    4. Scheduling for various operating systems
    5. Context Switching
    6. Quantum
    7. About scheduling in Windows
    8. Control Questions
  10. Process planning on multiple processors
    1. Multi-core processors
    2. The organization of multiple processors
    3. Symmetric Multiprocessing
    4. Multiple processors and synchronization
    5. Process scheduling on multiple processors
    6. Multiprocessing in Windows
    7. Control Questions
  11. Deadlocks
    1. Examples of deadlocks
    2. Conditions for a deadlock to occur
    3. How the operating system can manage deadlocks
    4. Tools to find deadlocks
    5. Control Questions
  12. Memory Management
    1. Swapping
    2. Some memory models
    3. Virtual Memory
    4. Memory management in Windows
    5. The Memory Manager
    6. The Heap Manager
    7. Stacks
    8. Control Questions
  13. Caching in Windows
    1. The Cache Manager
    2. Control Questions
  14. Input and output
    1. Problems with input and output
    2. Block devices and character devices
    3. Data Streams
    4. Treatment of errors in input and output
    5. Synchronous and asynchronous input/output
    6. Use of a buffer
    7. Polling
    8. Interrupts
    9. Direct access to memory
    10. About drivers for input/output devices
    11. Input and output in Windows
    12. The Input/output Manager
    13. The Plug and Play Manager
    14. The Power Manager
    15. Control Questions
  15. File systems in Windows
    1. FAT
    2. NT File System
    3. Support for SSD disks
    4. File systems for CD-ROM and DVDs
    5. Control Questions
  16. Storage Management
    1. About storage on hard drives
    2. Organization of hard disks
    3. Storing data on servers
    4. Control Questions
  17. Networking Features in Windows
    1. Network Services
    2. Some network APIs
    3. About network drivers in Windows
    4. Control Questions
  18. Security in Windows
    1. About security in computer systems
    2. Security in Windows NT
    3. Security Mechanisms in Windows
    4. Defense against Spyware
    5. Virus Protection
    6. The firewall in Windows
    7. Windows Update
    8. Control Questions
  19. When Windows crashes
    1. The blue screen
    2. Some reasons that Windows can crash
    3. File dumping by system crash
    4. Control Questions
  • Wordlist
  • Some references
Alexander
Excelente contenido.
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Einar Krogh

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