Loading The Windows NT Kernel
The operating system starts when certain basic drivers flagged as "Boot" are loaded into memory. The appropriate file system driver for the partition type (NTFS, FAT, or FAT32) which the Windows installation resides are amongst them. At this point in the boot process, the boot loader clears the screen and displays a textual progress bar, (which is often not seen due to the initialization speed); Windows 2000 also displays the text "Starting Windows..." underneath. If the user presses F8 during this phase, the advanced boot menu is displayed, containing various special boot modes including Safe mode, with the Last Known Good Configuration, with debugging enabled, and (in the case of Server editions) Directory Services Restore Mode. Once a boot mode has been selected (or if F8 was never pressed) booting continues.
Next, the Windows NT kernel (Ntoskrnl.exe) and the Hardware Abstraction Layer (hal.dll) are loaded into memory. If multiple hardware configurations are defined in the Windows Registry, the user is prompted at this point to choose one.
With the kernel in memory, boot-time device drivers are loaded (but not yet initialized). The required information (along with information on all detected hardware and Windows Services) is stored in the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System
portion of the registry, in a set of registry keys collectively called a Control Set. Multiple control sets (typically two) are kept, in the event that the settings contained in the currently-used one prohibit the system from booting. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System
contains control sets labeled ControlSet001
, ControlSet002
, etc., as well as CurrentControlSet
. During regular operation, Windows uses CurrentControlSet
to read and write information. CurrentControlSet
is a reference to one of the control sets stored in the registry. Windows picks the "real" control set being used based on the values set in the HKLM\SYSTEM\Select
registry key:
Default
will be the boot loader's choice if nothing else overrides this- If the value of the
Failed
key matchesDefault
, then the boot loader displays an error message, indicating that the last boot failed, and gives the user the option to try booting anyway, or to use the "Last Known Good Configuration". - If the user choose (or has chosen) Last Known Good Configuration, the control set indicated by the
LastKnownGood
key is used instead ofDefault
.
When a control set is chosen, the Current
key gets set accordingly. The Failed
key is also set to the same as Current
until the end of the boot process. LastKnownGood
is also set to Current
if the boot process completes successfully.
For the purposes of booting, a driver may be one of the following:
- A "Boot" driver that is loaded by the boot loader prior to starting the kernel. "Boot" drivers are almost exclusively drivers for hard-disk controllers and file systems (ATA, SCSI, file system filter manager, etc.); in other words, they are the absolute minimum that the kernel will need to get started with loading other drivers, and the rest of the operating system.
- A "System" driver which is loaded and started by the kernel after the boot drivers. "System" drivers cover a wider range of core functionality, including the display driver, CD-ROM support, and the TCP/IP stack.
- An "Automatic" driver which is loaded much later when the GUI already has been started.
With this finished, control is then passed from the boot loader to the kernel.
Read more about this topic: Windows NT Startup Process, Boot Loader Phase
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