[WinObj logo]

            Copyright © 1996 Mark Russinovich and Bryce Cogswell

                       last updated October 26, 1996

   WinObj - Object Manager Name Space Viewer

         Introduction   WinObj is a 32-bit Windows NT program that uses the
                        native Windows NT API (provided by NTDLL.DLL) to
                        access and display information on the NT Object
                        Manager's name space. Except for one directory,
                        DosDevices, this entire name space is private to
                        the NT operating system. Winobj may seem similar to
                        the Microsoft SDK's program of the same name, but
                        the SDK version suffers from numerous significant
                        bugs that prevent it from displaying accurate
                        information (e.g. its handle and reference counting
                        information is totally broken). In addition, our
                        WinObj shows specific information about certain
                        object types that the MS WinObj does not. We will
                        be expanding WinObj's knowledge about object types
                        over time.

                        Source code and documentation for the currently
                        undocumented NTDLL calls WinObj uses will be
                        published in our book, Windows NT Internals (due
                        out in late Spring from IDG Books).

 Installation and Use   There is no device driver component to WinObj, so
                        you can run it like any Win32 program.

   Sample Screen Shot   This is a screenshot of WinObj browsing the Object
                        Manager namespace.

         How it Works   The Object Manager is in charge of managing
                        internal NT objects. As part of this
                        responsibility, it maintains an internal namespace
                        where various operating system components, device
                        drivers and Win32 programs can store and lookup
                        objects. The native NT API provides routines that
                        allow user-mode programs to browse the namespace
                        and query the status of objects located there, but
                        the interfaces are undocumented. Our book will
                        describe the Object Manager's functionality in
                        intimate detail and document NTDLL routines such as
                        those used by WinObj.

     More Information   Helen Custer's Inside Windows NT provides a good
                        overview of the Object Manager name space.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

                           Download WinObj (20KB)

                                  [Image]