Windows NT 101 Foreword
"NT" is the generic name for the family of Windows which stemmed from the original "Windows NT" operating system.
Windows 2000, XP & 2003 are NT variants, when Microsoft switched from a number-based versioning system for its product line.
Windows 95, 98 & ME are the other family of Windows which are in reality shells on top of MS-DOS (often referred to as "Win9x").
The brief articles that follow deal exclusively with the NT family, while there may be some similarities with the Win9x functionality, there are a huge number of differences.
They are meant merely as an introduction to certain topics for those who might be interested, and as a kind of revision aid for me.
The main sources of information are
Windows Internals Fourth Edition (Russinovich & Solomon) and
MSDN online.
This is a whistle-stop tour of some Windows fundamentals, there's not a huge amount of real detail, just enough to whet your appetite if you feel so inclined to research further.
Summary
The areas I intend to touch upon are:
1. The role of the BIOS
2. The boot process from a hard disk
3. The logon process - processes that run automatically
4. Processes, threads and memory
5. Services
6. Drivers
7. Debugging
8. Windows Vista [If you think there are errors, please PM me and I'll correct as necessary.]