this post was submitted on 26 Nov 2025
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are there any resources to learn how Windows internal/kernel works? (lemmy.ca)
submitted 3 months ago by kionite231@lemmy.ca to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world
7 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Hello o/

I am a avid Linux user and now want to learn more about Windows too since it's the most widely used OS out there. basically what I want is a website where people learn and teach about Windows internals/kernel and how its userspace works.

now I know that Windows is closed source so it's hard for people to figure out how stuff works inside Windows but I believe I can understand it if I try.

Thanks in advance!

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[–] usbpc@programming.dev 13 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (3 children)

I'm not aware of any Website that goes into detail. There are however books that go into detail of how Windows works internally: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/resources/windows-internals

In general to poke around in Windows the sysinternals tools distributed by Microsoft are great. The developer of the Sysinternals tools also gave some talks going through how he uses the tools to debug problems that occurred. Those are freely available on the web.

But in general it is was harder to find information about Windows, than linux. Most of the time when it comes to a problem with Windows a solution is posted, that dosen't explain how the solution was discovered. I found with Linux there is often more information given. And obviously with Linux you can just look at the code in the Kernel if you need to dig deep, with Windows that is not an option.

[–] strlcpy@lemmy.sdf.org 4 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Definitely the Windows Internals books, I don't think there's anything else quite like it (wrt. Windows). I was also pleasantly surprised by de depth of Windows Via C/C++, which I expected to be one of those beginner tutorials distracted by language basics, but instead it's the opposite, just a really in depth dive into low level Windows APIs.

[–] ramble81@lemmy.zip 2 points 3 months ago

+1 to the Windows Internal books. Mark Russinovich knows the inside of Windows better than Microsoft did, to the point they picked him up.

The interesting thing you’ll discover when you start getting in to low level Windows internals is how close things are to Linux and how many parallels there are.

I won’t get started on the networking stack since both Microsoft and Linux stole that from BSD!

[–] xylogx@lemmy.world 1 points 3 months ago

Also great is “The Case of the Unexplained” series by Mark Russinovich, author of Sysinternals, where he uses the various Sysinternals tools to solve real problems:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/resources/webcasts

[–] Skullgrid@lemmy.world 10 points 3 months ago

I salute you salmon swimming upstream.

Most people are tinkering with linux and making it more like linux, you're about to make windows work like gnome 🤣

[–] 11111one11111@lemmy.world 6 points 3 months ago

Good luck cuz im fairly certain Microsoft doesnt have a fuckin clue how anything works in windows anymore.

[–] sem@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 3 months ago

There's an open source is called ReactOS you might like to investigate