Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Darryl E Havens

Mark H Lucovsky

Richard Bruce Ward

David N Cutler

John D Vert

Steven R Wood

Arun Upadhyaya Kishan

Eric P Traut

Jose Bernabeu-Auban

Mark Robbin Brown

Suyash Sinha

Adam D Stritzel

Tahsin Erdogan

Adriaan W Canter

Multiple software component identifiers are maintained in a catalog of an operating system running on a device. Each of these software component identifiers corresponds to one of multiple software components installed on the device. The catalog is accessed in response to a request regarding one of the multiple software components, and the request is responded to based at least in part on information included in the catalog. Additionally, two or more versions of a software component that are installed on the computing device can be identified. Which one of the two or more versions of the software component is an active version of the software component to be run is determined. In response to requests for information regarding the software component, information regarding the active version of the software component is returned.

Catalog-based software component management

A method and apparatus for enabling a general purpose operating system to maximize the probability of time-sensitive threads, e.g., multimedia threads, gaining access to CPU resources quickly enough to meet the demands of time-sensitive tasks while allowing time-insensitive threads to meet the demands of time-insensitive tasks, is disclosed. The priorities of time-sensitive threads in an operating system are adjusted so that the time-sensitive threads have a high probability of gaining access to CPU resources quickly enough to meet the demands of time-sensitive tasks while allowing time-insensitive threads to meet the demands of time-insensitive tasks. A system responsiveness cell (SRC) value is used to determine how quickly the operating system needs to respond to time-sensitive threads and time-insensitive threads. Priorities of threads are dynamically changed according to the relative CPU resource access requirements of system profile tasks. Criteria for mapping time-sensitive tasks are contained in system profile tasks. Priorities of cross-process groups of time-sensitive threads related to specific instances of tasks are adjusted according to the criteria in the system profile tasks. System profile tasks are stored in a system profile which may vary by machine. Priorities of system profile tasks are the regrouped priorities used by the operating system.

Class scheduler for increasing the probability of processor access by time-sensitive processes

A secure process may be created which does not allow code to be injected into it, does not allow modification of its memory or inspection of its memory. The resources protected in a secure process include all the internal state and threads running in the secure process. Once a secure process is created, the secure process is protected from access by non-secure processes. Process creation occurs atomically in kernel mode. Creating the infrastructure of a process in kernel mode enables security features to be applied that are difficult or impossible to apply in user mode. By moving setup actions previously occurring in user mode such as creating the initial thread, allocating the stack, initialization of the parameter block, environment block and context record into kernel mode, the need of the caller for full access fights to the created process is removed.

Creating secure process objects

A technique for performing multiple simultaneous asynchronous input/output operations in a computer operating system. An input/output completion port object is created and associated with a file descriptor. When I/O services are requested on the file descriptor, completion is indicated by a message queued to the I/O completion port. A process requesting I/O services is not notified of completion of the I/O services, but instead checks the I/O completion port's queue to determine the status of its I/O requests. The I/O completion port manages multiple threads and their concurrency.

Input/output completion port queue data structures and methods for using same

System for performing asynchronous file operations requested by runnable

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Kirland, WA, United States of America

Darryl E Havens