What Is the Thread Reaper?
a day ago
- #Bug Check Codes
- #Kernel Internals
- #Windows NT
- Bug Check 0x13 (EMPTY_THREAD_REAPER_LIST) is an obsolete Windows error code from early Windows NT development, never used in released versions.
- Thread reapers in Windows kernel clean up expired threads, specifically freeing their stacks or TEBs, as threads can't destroy their own execution stack.
- The EMPTY_THREAD_REAPER_LIST likely occurred if the reaper was instructed to reap a thread but found an empty list, a scenario eliminated in later designs.
- A modern false alarm of this bug check was due to a memory bit flip changing error code 0x113 (VIDEO_DXGKRNL_FATAL_ERROR) to 0x13.
- Despite being unused, the code remains documented to avoid confusion, with various misleading online fixes existing for it.