Inside Windows NT (Microsoft Programming Series) Review

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Inside Windows NT (Microsoft Programming Series) ReviewDavid Solomon's long-awaited update to Helen Custer's original survey of the Microsoft Windows NT operating system is an excellent guide to the internals of the operating system for programmers, systems administrators, and other computer professionals. At 500+ pages, it is chock full of great information about NT that is simply unavailable from any other source. Profusely illustrated and full of very good examples. Custer's original "Inside Windows NT" book was always long on self-congratulations (she apparently was the official "historian" of the project), but short on the kinds of detail that makes hackers drool. It was also written to NT version 3, and is now considerably out to date. Solomon's revision is a total rewrite that remedies this situation. The book is current on NT 4.0, and even contains a good chapter on upcoming changes in NT 5.0. This book definitely belongs on any Windows NT programmer's bookshelf. Solomon writes in the introduction that he was given access to NT source code, and he demonstrates how to use the kernel debugger to decipher what is happening inside the operating system. Even so, he manages to keep the presentation lively and informative. He also reports he had access to the NT developers themselves to review what he had written, which guarentees the accuracy of the book. In several areas I found concise explanations of features that other less well-connected authors and experts had written either in a vague or contradictory way. I am very grateful for Solomon's book clearing up the confusion in these areas.Inside Windows NT (Microsoft Programming Series) Overview

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Developer's Workshop to COM and ATL 3.0 Review

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Developer's Workshop to COM and ATL 3.0 ReviewThe book is not perfect. I did run across a few mistakes; I had some trouble with a couple of the examples. But this book is far and away the best tutorial on COM and ATL that is out there. It is more than a simplistic introduction. The author starts with simple concepts, usually in straight C++, and progresses in a very logical sequence to an intermediate level using ATL. Many subtleties are covered but in context of the overall presentation. There is none of this inexplicable, out of context pandering to fellow COM gurus that seems to motivate so many software authors.
This book is easily superior to "Beginning ATL 3 COM," "COM+ From the Ground Up," and "Creating Lightweight Components." The other ATL book that is good is "Active Template Library," but this book is better and more recent. For example, it does a far better job of explaining ATL internals. Amazingly, the explanations of ATL are in many ways superior to a book on the market that purports to be solely an ATL internals book. Of course, the difference is that one author can write, the other cannot.
In any event I do not hesitate in declaring this book at this time to be the one book that is best at explaining and conducting a thoroughgoing learning session in COM and ATL. I applaud the author for rising above the mediocrity that so typifies programming books.Developer's Workshop to COM and ATL 3.0 Overview

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Windows® Internals: Including Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista, Fifth Edition (Pro Developer) Review

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Windows® Internals: Including Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista, Fifth Edition (Pro Developer) ReviewLate last week (around 7/2/2009), a small but heavy box showed up at my door. I'd 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, I've been plowing through this 1,260 page book to see what's new and interesting -- though I obviously haven't had time to read it in its entirety. Keep that caveat in mind as I extoll this book's many treasures.
Here's another caveat: the primary audience for this book is Windows system developers. They're 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, there's 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 (I'll 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 I've 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 I've ever seen. Worth the price of admission all by itself.
Chapter 5 Processess, Threads, and Jobs: Here's a tour-de-force illustration of Mark Russinovich's 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) I've 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 you'll pay for it by shopping online. My only beef about this book is that it's a monster, at over 1,200 pages and 4.4 pounds, it's a bit too heavy to read in your lap or hold in your hands for very long. You'll want to plant this puppy on a table to flip through its many useful bits of information.
Windows® Internals: Including Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista, Fifth Edition (Pro Developer) Overview

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