ntoskrnl.exe

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ntoskrnl.exe (and ntkrnlpa.exe on systems with Physical Address Extension support) is the kernel image for the family of Microsoft Windows NT operating systems. It provides the Microkernel and Executive layers of the Windows NT kernel space, and is responsible for various system services such as hardware virtualisation, process and memory management, etc., thus making it a fundamental part of the system. It contains the Cache Manager, the Executive, the Kernel, the Security Reference Monitor, the Memory Manager, and the Scheduler, among other things.[1]

Contents

[edit] Startup

This system binary is a Native Application (in that it is linked against ntdll.dll) but with a standard main entry point, a stub that calls the Kernel Initialization function and is itself called upon system Boot by the OS Loader (internal symbol OSLOADER):

//
// NTOSKRNL main
//
int main( boot parameters )
{
  //
  // Fire up NT!
  //
  KiSystemStartup();
  return 0;
}

[1]

[edit] Names of kernel

  • NTOSKRNL.EXE : 1 CPU
  • NTKRNLMP.EXE : N CPU SMP
  • NTKRNLPA.EXE : 1 CPU, PAE
  • NTKRPAMP.EXE : N CPU SMP, PAE

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ a b Russinovich, M: Systems Internals Tips and Trivia, SysInternals Information

[edit] See also

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Microsoft Windows components
Core
Management
tools
Applications
Games
Kernel
Services
File systems
Server
Architecture
Security
Compatibility
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