Windows Vista® Resource Kit, Second Edition

System Files

The files listed in Table A-1 are core components of the Windows Vista operating system.

Table A-1. Windows Vista Core System Files

File Name	Disk Location	Description
Ntoskrnl.exe	%SystemRoot%\System32	The core (also called the kernel) of the Windows Vista operating system. Code that runs as part of the kernel does so in privileged processor mode and has direct access to system data and hardware.
Hal.dll	%SystemRoot%\System32	The HAL dynamic-link library file. The HAL abstracts low-level hardware details from the operating system and provides a common programming interface to devices of the same type (such as video adapters).
Smss.exe	%SystemRoot%\System32	The Session Manager file. Session Manager is a user-mode process created by the kernel ...