How Windows NT Detects Idle Time

ID: Q101776

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Windows NT operating system version 3.1
Microsoft Windows NT Advanced Server version 3.1
Microsoft Windows NT Server version 4.0
Microsoft Windows NT Workstation version 4.0

Idle time is detected by computing the time spent in the idle thread. There is one idle thread per processor. The idle threads run when there are no executable threads. When a clock interrupt occurs, a clock tick is attributed to the active thread. When this occurs while the idle thread is active, the time is counted as idle time.

Additional query words: prodnt

Keywords : kbenv ntconfig NTSrvWkst
Version : 3.1 4.0
Platform : winnt
Issue type :