Processes Threads Handles
Processes
An instance of an executable
Think of it as a container
An application can have many processes i.e. your web browser
each tab you open will spawn a new processes
A Process typically isnt aware of other processes on the machine
It believes it is the only process on the machine
Each processes is started with a single thread, often called
primary threadbut can create additional threads from any of its threads
Three Types of Processes
Application Processes
i.e chrome is an application process
Can be terminated by the user
Background processes
Get started automatically
updating software
anti viruses
Windows Processes
system level processes
automatically get launched at start up
device drivers
windows memory management
Process Priority
determines the amount of CPU time each processes will be allocated
there are 6 different levels
Realtime
High
Above normal
Normal
Below normal
Low
Low
only be given cpu time when there are no other higher priority processes running on the system
Normal
by default normal is used for the creation of a processes
NORMAL_PRIORITY_CLASS
Realtime
full access to the cpu
very dangerous as this is higher than disk cache, mouse, keyboard
will leave no cycles for anything else
Threads
a thread is the entity within a processes that can be scheduled for execution
All threads of a process share its virtual address space and system resources
Process can have many threads
also called multi threading
Differences Processes and Threads
processes use much more resources
threads are lightweight
processes are a team trying to complete a project
thread is a single member of the team working on a part of a project
processes are independent of each other
threads are dependent on each other
Handle
Generic unit of identification
pointer to our object
many different types of handles
the most common one is handles to processes and handles to modules
handles are system wide
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