Worker Factories (Thread Pools)
Worker factories refer to the internal mechanism used to implement user-mode thread pools. Prior to Windows Vista, the thread pool routines were completely implemented in user mode inside the Ntdll.dll library, and the Windows API provided various routines to call into the relevant routines, which provided waitable timers, wait callbacks, and automatic thread creation and deletion depending on the amount of work being done.
Note
Information on the new thread pool API is available on MSDN at http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms686760.aspx. It includes information on the APIs introduced and the APIs retired, as well as important differences in certain details of the way the two APIs are implemented.
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