The Windows NT kernel architecture

Windows NT 5.0 is a massive release, with significant new operating system and network functionality being added to many areas of the system. It is not, however, a rewrite-many aspects of the kernel system architecture remain the same or are being extended. In other words, the fundamental operating system architecture is not changing in Windows NT 5.0. The article is intended as a brief introduction to the NT architecture, including those features-notably plug and play, the job object, and 64 bit large memory support-that necessitated extensions to the executive and the kernel. The author briefly describes major new features in NT 5.0, such as the Active Directory and the Distributed Security Services. The companion articles describe major new extentions to the NT file system and the Microsoft Clustering Service