I/O Concepts

File Buffering

Describes considerations for application control of file buffering, also known as unbuffered file input/output (I/O).

File Caching

Windows caches file data that is read from disks and written to disks.

Synchronous and Asynchronous I/O

There are two types of input/output (I/O) synchronization: synchronous I/O and asynchronous I/O. Asynchronous I/O is also referred to as overlapped I/O.

Canceling Pending I/O Operations

Allowing users to cancel I/O requests that are slow or blocked can enhance the usability and robustness of your application.

Alertable I/O

Alertable I/O is the method by which application threads process asynchronous I/O requests only when they are in an alertable state.

I/O Completion Ports

I/O completion ports provide an efficient threading model for processing multiple asynchronous I/O requests on a multiprocessor system.