Windows is mostly just a database !

This topic has 9 replies, 3 voices, and was last updated 4 years, 6 months ago by Ed P.

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August 23, 2021 at 10:47 pm #68496
Wheels-Of-Fire
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@grahamdearsley
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The more I study the innards of Windows, the more I notice its just a collection of data structures.

What is a process ?

Well really just a description of a tasks virtual address space layout.

What is a thread ?

Mostly just the state of the CPU registers at any given time, stored in a data structure.
August 24, 2021 at 8:26 am #68498
Ed P
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@edps
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If you add ‘Events’ to your definitions they would be pretty accurate.
August 24, 2021 at 8:44 am #68499
keith with the teef
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@thinktank
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Hmm. Sounds like windows is now just the XBox OS with other stuff thrown in. Just for good measure. Best hope you do not find the towel.
August 24, 2021 at 8:54 am #68500
Wheels-Of-Fire
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@grahamdearsley
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You should see the data structures that go along with events !

Its either going to be a scheduled event or an interupt and they both have massive structures that govern what they do.

Even an app requested operation like a file read/write starts with the creation of a data structure called an i/o request packet.
August 24, 2021 at 9:05 am #68501
Wheels-Of-Fire
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@grahamdearsley
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Well nearly Keith

X Box OS is now a full copy of Windows 10, it previously only had the direct x api and a cut down core of Windows but it now has the whole thing.
August 24, 2021 at 11:29 am #68502
keith with the teef
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@thinktank
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@wof.

wtf.

So being mostly a data base. How does that help. Is it faster or slower. Is it AI based like on a cpu with predictors or what?
August 24, 2021 at 12:30 pm #68504
Wheels-Of-Fire
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@grahamdearsley
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Tricky to explain, but the thing to understand is that a CPU can only execute one instruction at a time and that instruction must be in physical memory.

Windows keeps track of what should be in physical memory through its data structures.
August 24, 2021 at 12:50 pm #68505
Wheels-Of-Fire
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@grahamdearsley
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Oh, and it all works because the address the CPU is using is only real to the CPU, the physical memory that gets accessed it determined by page tables that the CPU’s memory management unit uses. Each processes has its own set of tables in kernel address space.
August 25, 2021 at 7:15 am #68510
keith with the teef
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@thinktank
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Uh, Huh.
August 25, 2021 at 3:59 pm #68516
Ed P
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@edps
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Imo, ‘Events’ are the triggers that launch the data-driven elements database lookups etc in the modern Windows OS.

Although the complexity,power and initiating options have changed they are not too different overall from the old IRQs and Windows Registers. database

Where I feel really out of date is in the Security database, as that has become layered beyond my simple omprehension. For example when I shutdown Windows as an Admin (and only user) and it complains that others may be working on the machine!
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