Programming Services for Microsoft Windows (Microsoft Programming) Book

An ever-growing number of applications are being developed for the Windows server platform. As more companies rely on this burgeoning code base, software developers require skills to closely integrate with Windows. Administrators resent applications with obvious bugs, but they will also reject code that is difficult to administer, performs poorly, or dominates system resources. Programming Server-Side Applications for Microsoft Windows 2000 helps intermediate and advanced Windows programmers, covering a range of topics needed to develop reliable applications for Windows 2000. The authors assume the reader is familiar with C++ Windows programming, and spend little time introducing basic concepts. Advanced readers will find this refreshing, while beginners should scurry off and bone up with the prequel, Jeffrey Richter's Programming Applications for Microsoft Windows. And although this book covers server-side applications, it spends very little time covering network programming--it assumes the reader is already comfortable with sockets or some other form of client-server communication. The sections on services and administration are straightforward, and readers familiar with Windows NT will easily grasp the skills needed to build system-friendly applications. Security is a trickier topic and the authors do a good job introducing the different aspects of Windows security, emphasising the functions that programmers will use most frequently. They provide a solid explanation of Windows network authentication and secure communication. (These topics almost warrant a separate book, but there is enough information here to get off to a good start.) The authors emphasise the critical nature of server-side applications--stressing that it is not acceptable to reboot the server machine regularly if the system grows unstable. They give strong advice on the importance of managing resources, easy administration, and scalability. In most cases, these concepts are reinforced with specific examples throughout the text via notes on common pitfalls and bugs. However, it would have been nice to see this point hammered home a bit more, especially the difficulty in testing code in a simulated production environment. The best aspect of this book is the exemplary sample code. It is easy to understand, well documented, and does a good job demonstrating the book's topics. The companion CD contains all the code needed to build the sample applications under Visual C++ 6.0, most of which can easily be modified to other uses. Note that much of the information in this book is not specific to Windows 2000--topics are easily applied to Windows NT 4.0, and new features such as Active Directory are not discussed in any detail. This book can be used to modify existing applications to better integrate with Windows, or to develop new server applications from scratch. If you want a solid tutorial for developing Windows server applications, this is a nice supplement to your technical library. --Pete Ostenson, Amazon.com Topics covered: I/O completion ports and thread pools, Windows service development and administration, managing the registry, performance counters, event logging, Windows security, user and group management, SSPI, and SSL.Read More