Big size of CRITICAL_SECTION

[Konstantin2]

AFAIK using of critical sections is the quickest official way to synchronize threads in application. But it has a lack: it's size. This strucrure is much bigger than simple DWORD. I have thousands items. Access to them must be synchronized. Using of big structures leads to lack of memory. I think that simple DWORD or even BYTE (or more even one bit) will be enough for me for using as semaphore. Should I invent my own functions for using DWORD as semaphore by using some Interlock functions? Is there more simple official way to synchronize threads other than critical sections?

[kbw]

The system wide sync object are manipulated using handles. That's the DWORD you see, but the reference a somewhat larger data structure in the kernel.

So yes, a handle is larger than a CRITICAL_SECTION, but the Semaphore, Event, Mutex, ... are larger than handles too.