Boot Process
In describing the Windows boot process, we’ll start with the installation of Windows and proceed through the execution of boot support files. Device drivers are a crucial part of the boot process, so we’ll explain the way that they control the point in the boot process at which they load and initialize. Then we’ll describe how the executive subsystems initialize and how the kernel launches the user-mode portion of Windows by starting the Session Manager process (Smss.exe), which starts the initial two sessions (session 0 and session 1). Along the way, we’ll highlight the points at which various on-screen messages appear to help you correlate the internal process with what you see when you watch Windows boot.
The early phases of the ...
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