The book is devoted to the internal structure and algorithms of the main components of the Microsoft Windows operating system - Windows Server 2003, Windows XP and Windows 2000 - and the NTFS file system. System mechanisms are considered in detail: dispatching of traps and interrupts, DPC, APC, LPC, RPC, synchronization, system workflows, global flags, etc. It also describes all the stages of booting the operating system and shutting it down.