Lesson 3 - Chapter 1: Starting Up and Signing In Flashcards
What does WBM stand for?
Windows Boot Manager
Where is the WBM stored? Where in particular?
WBM is stored on the active partition in its root directory (usually isn’t the C: drive, it’s a hidden system volume with no drive letter)
What are the 8 steps in a Windows startup sequence?
- Hardware starts up
- BIOS/UEFI locates a valid boot disk
- Boot Manager offers a choice of OS’s
- Windows Boot Manager starts the Windows Loader
- Windows Loader loads the Windows kernel
- The Registry’s instructions are followed
- A sign-in prompt appears
- The rest of the Registry settings load
During startup, after the hardware starts up, the BIOS/UEFI reads the data in either of which 2 places to search for a bootable OS?
- Master Boot Record
- GUID Partition Table
What does the BIOS/UEFI start after it finds a bootable OS in either the MBR or GPT?
the Windows Boot Manager (WBM)
When WBM starts, where does it read data from?
The boot configuration data (BCD) file
(contains info about various OS on the system, and instructions to bootstrap/load them)
WBM passes control to the Windows Loader. What’s the path to the directory for Windows Loader?
C:\windows\system32\winload
What does Windows Loader load as part of the next step?
it loads the Windows kernel
What is the kernel? What does it load? (2)
the core part of the OS and loads Registry files and any essential startup drivers
Where is the path for Windows kernel located?
C:\windows\system32\ntoskrnl
After Windows Loader loads the Windows kernel, what does the kernel initiate?
the kernel initiates the Session Manager process (Smss.exe)
What does the Session Manager process do?
it loads Registry settings
What is the Registry?
a database of settings that tell Windows how to start up/how to operate
(extensive settings control what services and apps to load to how large the mouse pointer should be)
Windows Loader loads the Windows kernel, and the kernel initiates the Session Manager process where the Registry’s instructions are followed. What’s next?
A sign-in prompt appears
What loads after you sign in?
The rest of the Registry settings specific to that user account
(like appearance preferences, personal file locations, etc)