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Thebooting process ofMicrosoft Windows varies between different releases.

In Windows versions 1.01 to Windows 2.11, the system was loaded whenWIN.COM was executed within MS-DOS. It then loadedWIN100.BIN orWIN200.BIN andWIN100.OVL orWIN200.OVL, along with the configuration settings fileWIN.INI. The default shell is theMS-DOS Executive.

The modulesGDI.EXE,KERNEL.EXE andUSER.EXE, fonts, and the various device drivers (such asCOMM.DRV,MOUSE.DRV,KEYBOARD.DRV) are incorporated inWIN100.BIN/WIN200.BIN andWIN100.OVL/WIN200.OVL.

InWindows 3.x and95/98/ME, the boot loader phase is handled byMS-DOS. During the boot phase,CONFIG.SYS andAUTOEXEC.BAT are executed, along with the configuration settings filesWIN.INI andSYSTEM.INI. Virtual device drivers are also loaded in the startup process: they are most commonly loaded from the registry (HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\VxD) or from theSYSTEM.INI file.

MS-DOS startsWIN.COM. In Windows 3.x, theWIN.COM startsKRNL286.EXE (standard mode) orKRNL386.EXE (386 enhanced mode). In Windows 9x, theWIN.COM startsVMM32.VXD.

When all system configuration files and device drivers have been loaded, the 16-bit modules,KRNL386.EXE,GDI.EXE, andUSER.EXE, are loaded, then the 32-bit DLLs (KERNEL32.DLL,GDI32.DLL, andUSER32.DLL) are loaded. The 32-bit VxD message server (MSGSRV32) startsMPREXE.EXE, which is responsible for loading the network logon client (such as Client for Microsoft Networks, Microsoft Family Logon or Windows Logon).

When a user is logging on to Windows, the startup sound is played, the shell (usuallyEXPLORER.EXE) is loaded from the [boot] section of theSYSTEM.INI file, and startup items are loaded.

In all versions of Windows 9x except ME, it is also possible to load Windows by booting to a DOS prompt and typing "win". There are some command line switches that can be used with the WIN command: with the/D switch, Windows boots tosafe mode, and with the/D:n switch, Windows boots to safe mode with networking. The latter switch only works properly with Windows 95.^[1] In Windows 3.1, additional options are available, such as/3, which starts Windows in 386 enhanced mode, and/S, which starts Windows in standard mode^[2]

A startup sound was first added in Windows 3.0 after installing the Multimedia Extensions (MME),^[3] but not enabled by default until Windows 3.1.

Windows CE uses WCELDR as its second stage boot loader in x86 platforms; or uses EBOOT as its boot loader in ARM platforms.^[4] On the startup process, NK.BINboot image or NK.EXE kernel is loaded by the WCELDR or EBOOT bootloader.^[5][6]

This sectionneeds expansion with: notable, non-"how-to" material selected fromthis version of "Booting process of Windows NT", as perWikipedia:Articles for deletion/Booting process of Windows NT. You can help byadding to it.(April 2024)

InWindows NT, the booting process is initiated byNTLDR in versions before Vista and theWindows Boot Manager (BOOTMGR) in Vista and later.^[7] The boot loader is responsible for accessing the file system on the boot drive, startingntoskrnl.exe, and loading boot-time device drivers into memory. Once all the boot and system drivers have been loaded, the kernel starts thesession manager (smss.exe), which begins thelogin process. After the user has successfully logged into the machine, winlogon applies User and ComputerGroup Policy setting and runs startup programs declared in theWindows Registry and in "Startup" folders.^[8]

• Booting process of Linux

• Windows architecture
• Booting processes

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