1.5. Handles and Objects
Windows uses the concepts of a handle and an object throughout the system services. An object is owned by the operating system and represents a system resource. For example, a thread is represented as an object. The operating system stores all information about the thread in the thread's object. The object is opaque to the programmer.
A handle points to an object. It is possible to create a single object and refer to it with several different handles. You can think of the handles as pointers that let you access the object.
The 32-bit API defines the following " kernel objects." All of them return a handle when they are created or opened:
| Object | Function | Chapter |
|---|---|---|
| Access tokens | OpenProcessToken | Chapter 13 |
| CloseHandle | ||
| Console ... |
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