Extended attribute
An EA is viewed as an untyped name-value pair that is defined by the user to describe extended information about a file. Typical system uses are to store the icon for an image, to indicate that the file is a symbolic link, etc.
Error correction code
Extended industry standard architecture
A standard that defines the architecture of (and interface to) the extended PC I/O bus. See also ISA.
A user-mode object upon which one or more threads can wait until the event is set to the Signaled state. Every user-mode event object is implemented through the use of a kernel-mode event object. A kernel-mode event object is an instance of a Kernel-defined dispatcher object type.
Each event object can be classified as either of the following:
· When a synchronization event (a.k.a. “autoclearing event”) is set to the Signaled state, a single thread that was waiting on the event is released (its dispatch state transitions from waiting to ready, standby, or running), and the event is automatically reset to the Not-Signaled state.
· When a notification event is set to the Signaled state, all threads that were waiting on the event are released, and the event remains in the Signaled state until it is explicitly reset to the Not-Signaled state.
A synchronous error condition, resulting from the execution of a particular machine instruction. See also SEH.
The collection of kernel-mode components that form the base Windows NT operating system. Executive components include the Executive Support, Kernel, Memory Manager, Cache Manager, Process Structure, Interprocess Communication (LPC and RPC), Object Manager, I/O Manager, Configuration Manager, Hardware Abstraction Layer, and Security Reference Monitor. Each executive component except the Cache Manager and Hardware Abstraction Layer supplies a specialized set of native system services, and every executive component exports a set of kernel-mode support routines for use by other executive components.
NT drivers also call kernel-mode support routines supplied by executive components, including (but not limited to) routines beginning with the prefix “Ex” for Ex(ecutive) Support. Other support routines of interest to drivers begin with the prefixes: Hal, Ke(rnel), Ps (for Process Structure), Ob(ject), Io, Mm (for Memory Manager), Cc (for Cache Manager), Se(curity), Rtl (Runtime Library), and FsRtl (for File System Runtime Library). See also Zw routines.
Note that NT drivers, including device, intermediate, and file system drivers, are considered part of the executive after they are loaded. The “operating system” visible to end users is actually a protected subsystem that runs in user mode, calling system services, on top of the executive. That is, the executive is hidden from end users by a subsystem-supplied interface that emulates Windows®, POSIX, or some other operating system.
See system worker threads.