The Scheduling Algorithm
Windows 10 uses a priority-driven preemptive CPU scheduling algorithm with multiple priority levels, often described as a multilevel feedback queue (MLFQ) with a round-robin element. This approach allows for dynamic adjustment of process priorities, giving preference to short jobs and I/O-bound processes while preventing starvation by moving long-waiting processes to higher priority queues.
Key features of the MLFQ scheduling in Windows 10 include:
- Priority-Driven: Every thread is assigned a priority level, and higher-priority threads are given preference for the CPU.
- Preemptive: A higher-priority thread that becomes ready to run can preempt a lower-priority thread that is currently executing, immediately giving the CPU to the more important task.
- Multilevel Feedback Queue (MLFQ):
- Processes are placed into different queues based on their behavior.
- Processes that consume a lot of CPU time (CPU-bound) might be moved to lower-priority queues, while those that wait too long or are I/O-bound are moved to higher-priority queues.
- This dynamic movement ensures that processes don’t become “starved” and can respond to changing demands.
- Round-Robin within Priorities: Within each priority level, time slices are given to threads in a round-robin fashion, ensuring fair access among threads of the same priority.
This design makes the Windows scheduler very flexible and effective at managing a wide variety of workloads, from background tasks to interactive applications.
The State Values
Special Process & Thread Reporting Data in Windows 10
Windows 10 exposes process and thread information through Task Manager, Performance Monitor, and Windows APIs (like QueryProcessCycleTime, GetThreadTimes, etc.). The key pieces of data include:
References
Microsoft. (2023, October 26). Processes and threads. Microsoft Learn. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/procthread/processes-and-threads
Microsoft. (2023, October 26). Process and thread functions. Microsoft Learn. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/procthread/process-and-thread-functions
Microsoft. (2023, October 26). Scheduling. Microsoft Learn. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/procthread/scheduling
Russinovich, M. E., Solomon, D. A., & Ionescu, A. (2017). Windows Internals, Part 1: System architecture, processes, threads, memory management, and more (7th ed.). Microsoft Press.
Which type of scheduling algorithm is used by Windows 10?. Quora. (n.d.). https://www.quora.com/Which-type-of-scheduling-algorithm-is-used-by-windows-10