Now that we’ve covered the terms, concepts, and tools you need to be familiar with, we’re ready to start our exploration of the internal design goals and structure of the Microsoft Windows operating system. This chapter explains the overall architecture of the system—the key components, how they interact with each other, and the context in which they run. To provide a framework for understanding the internals of Windows, let’s first review the requirements and goals that shaped the original design and specification of the system.