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Alternatives to Mutex Objects

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Fast mutexes and guarded mutexes can be used as a replacement for mutex objects. A fast mutex or guarded mutex can be acquired and released faster than a mutex object, but they have the following restrictions:

  • Drivers cannot use the KeWaitForSingleObject or KeWaitForMultipleObjects routines to wait for a fast or guarded mutex. Thus, a driver cannot wait for a fast or guarded mutex and a dispatcher object simultaneously.

  • Drivers cannot acquire a fast or guarded mutex recursively. If a driver tries to acquire a fast or guarded mutex that it has already acquired, the driver will deadlock. A mutex object, however, can be acquired recursively.

For more information about fast and guarded mutexes, see Fast Mutexes and Guarded Mutexes.