Continuing with our series of conversations with engineers in Windows, we meet Pedro Teixeira, a software developer on the Windows kernel team (aka core OS) who has improved the Windows thread pools in Windows 8. Thread pools are thread management subsystems (user mode and kernel mode) where threads are created and queued for any number of arbitrary tasks (work) required by applications and services. As it turns out, there are some significant improvements to the thread pool pattern in Windows 8. Pedro takes the time necessary - at the whiteboard for the entire interview - to dig into the details, beginning with first principles. So, if you don't really know what a thread pool is, then you will after the first 5 minutes of this interview. As the conversation progresses, the complexity will increase, but will remain suitable for most user mode application developers. Speaking of user mode, much of the time in this interview is spent on the Windows 8 user mode thread pool. The kernel mode thread pool is addressed towards the end of the conversation.In Windows 8, there is a new thread pool model and new thread creation policy. What is the new policy? How is the new user mode thread pool designed? How is it better than its predecessors? What does this all mean for developers? Tune in. Learn. Huge thanks to Pedro for taking the time to dig in - and for explain things in such a clear way.