Architectural difference between Windows (8 and above) and *Nix

Question

I'm applying for a development position at a company that uses MS products exclusively. To prepare myself for the interview I'd like to have a better grasp of how Windows works under the hood. I am familiar with windows as an end-user, I know where stuff gets installed, the registry and have some basic command line skills. But when searching online for an overview of how Windows actually works, I have come up empty handed. I see the COM thing coming up here and there, and how in comparison most(if not all) *nix variants are of the "everything is a file" paradigm.
So how does Windows(8/10) do its business compared to unix/gnu linux

Thanks!

Answer 1

Well you asked for a good resource, so I would suggest the book series Windows Internals.

The 6th edition is available on Amazon:

• Windows Internals, Part 1 (6th Edition)
• Windows Internals, Part 2 (6th Edition)

Alex Ionescu is a chief software architect and consultant expert in low-level system software, kernel development, security training, and reverse engineering. He teaches Windows internals course with David Solomon, and is active in the security research community.

You can also do some light reading about the Windows Architecture, but beware the article is from 2007 (and actually references a diagram from an older version of the Windows Internals book).