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- Windows XP Professional Application Support
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- Understand the runtime environments and applications support in Windows
XP Professional
- Deploy DOS, Win16, and Win32 applications
- Fine-tune the application environment for DOS and Win16 executables
- Understand how to assign and publish applications using Group Policy
- Address application compatibility issues
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- Fundamentally, the Windows XP Professional operating system incorporates
three primary components:
- Environment subsystems
- Executive Services
- User applications
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- Environment subsystems offer runtime support for a variety of different
kinds of applications
- Executive Services and the underlying Windows XP kernel define the kernel
mode for this operating system and its runtime environment
- User applications provide the functionality and capabilities that rank
Windows XP Professional among the most powerful network operating
systems in use today
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- The main difference between kernel mode and user mode lies in how memory
is used by kernel-mode components and user-mode components
- Processes running in user mode cannot access hardware or communicate
with other processes directly
- When code runs in the Windows XP kernel mode, it may access all hardware
and memory in the computer
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- Process
- An environment in which the executable portion of a program runs,
defining its memory usage, which processor to use, its object, and so
forth
- Thread
- Executable portion of a program, with a priority based on the priority
of its process
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- Child processes
- Inherits operating characteristics from its parent subsystem
- Parent process
- Windows XP environment subsystem that creates a runtime process
- Context
- Current collection of Registry values and runtime environment variables
in which process or thread runs
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- Windows XP Professional’s support for multiple runtime environments,
also known as environment subsystems, confers numerous advantages
- Local procedure call (LPC)
- Technique to permit processes to exchange data in the Windows XP
runtime environment
- Dynamic link library (DLL)
- Collection of virtual procedure calls
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- Context switch
- Act of unloading the context information for one process and replacing
it with the information for another
- To permit the operating system to run more efficiently, Windows XP
avoids making context switches whenever possible
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- Win32 subsystem
- Operating environment that supports 32-bit Windows applications
- Is required to run Windows XP
- Also the foundation upon which virtual DOS machines (VDMs) rest
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- Environment subsystem
- The Win32 subsystem is the main environment subsystem under Windows XP,
and the only one required for operation
- Multithreading
- When a program’s process contains more than one thread, it is said to
be a multithreaded processes
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- Memory space
- Section of code that modifies data structures used by several threads
is called a critical section
- It is very important that a critical section never be overwritten by
more than one thread at once
- Application use Windows XP synchronization objects to prevent this
from happening
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- Input message queues
- Queue for each process that contains the messages sent to the process
from the user
- Base priorities
- Lowest priority that a thread may be assigned
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- It is reasonable to describe two separate operating environments that
can run within a VDM:
- One supports straightforward DOS emulation and may be called the DOS
operating environment
- The other supports operation of Win16 applications within a VDM, and
may be called the Win16 operating environment
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- The VDM runs using the following files:
- Ntio.sys
- Ntdos.sys
- Ntvdm.exe
- Ntvdm.dll
- Redir.exe
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- DOS applications do not communicate directly with Windows XP drivers
- Instead, a layer of VDDs underlies these applications, and they
communicate with Windows XP 32-bit drivers
- VDDs are device drivers used by VDMs
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- Like DOS applications, Win16 applications also run in a VDM
- Unlike DOS applications, all Win16 applications run in same VDM unless
you specify otherwise
- This lets them act like Win32 applications
- This also lets multiple Win16 applications interact with one another
within a single VDM
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- Multitasking
- Sharing processor time between threads
- Win16-on-Win32 (WOW)
- Name for collection of components, interfaces, and capabilities that
permits Win32 subsystems to provide native support for well-behaved
16-bit Windows applications
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- Wowexec.exe
- Wow32.dll
- Mmtask.tsk
- Ntvdm.exe, ntvdm.dll, ntio.sys, and redir.exe
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- Vdmredir.dll
- Krnl386.exe
- Gdi.exe
- User.exe
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- Separate and shared memory
- The “lose one, lose them all” effect of a single shared VDM explains
why you might choose to run Win16 applications in separate VDMs
- Disadvantages of running Win16 applications in separate memory spaces
hinge on memory usage and interprocess communications
- Message queues
- All Win16 applications running in a single process share a message
queue
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- Threads
- All application threads within a WOW VDM are cooperatively multitasked
- Using only well-behaved DOS and Win16 applications
- In Windows XP terminology, any application that attempts direct access
to hardware is called “ill-behaved”
- Such applications will not run in a VDM
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- Package
- File that contains instructions for the Windows Installer
- Transform
- Specific type of Microsoft Installer file that usually ends in .mst
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- Windows XP includes a remarkable new technology called Windows Side by
Side (WinSxS) isolation support
- By default, Windows checks DLLs and other common code components before
installing them on a computer
- If it finds potential conflicts, it automatically makes the Registry
modifications necessary to point to alternate versions of DLLs and
other shared objects in a special directory named
%systemroot%\WINDOWS\WinSxS
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- Windows XP Professional is divided into three main parts:
- Environment subsystems
- Executive Services
- User applications
- In addition to the basic Win32 Subsystem, two special-purpose operating
environments (VDM and WOW) also run within that subsystem to provide
backward compatibility for DOS and Win16 applications
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- Of these subsystems, only Win32 is crucial to the functioning of Windows
XP as a whole
- The other subsystems start up only as they are needed
- Windows XP includes some interesting additional application management
facilities
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