WIWindows Internals
LevelsExploreSearchGlossaryLabs
All levels

Level 4

The Executive: objects, processes & memory

The core kernel-mode managers every subsystem above is built on: the Object Manager, the Process/Thread Manager, and the Memory Manager.

  1. 1Executive & subsystems
  2. 2Processes & threads
  3. 3Kernel objects
  4. 4Job objects
  5. 5Memory management
  6. 6The VAD tree
  7. 7Paging & page faults
  8. 8Working sets & trimming
  9. 9Pool & heap
L3 IPC & component boundariesL5 I/O, storage & the cache manager
  1. User Mode

    L0Applications, the loader & the Win32 environment
  2. L1System support processes & services
  3. L2Security & authentication
  4. Kernel Mode — the Executive

    L3IPC & component boundaries
  5. L4The Executive: objects, processes & memory
  6. L5I/O, storage & the cache manager
  7. L6Networking
  8. L7Configuration & the registry
  9. Kernel Mode — the kernel

    L8The kernel: scheduling, interrupts & synchronization
  10. Virtualization

    L9Virtualization & the hypervisor
  11. Boot, HAL & hardware

    L10Boot, HAL & hardware