Question - Explain the booting process of a Windows XP system.
Answer -
he steps involved are as follows:
- As the computer is powered on, the BIOS begins execution from ROM, it loads and executes the bootstrap loader.
- The NTLDR program is loaded from the root directory of the system disk and determines which boot disk contains the operating system.
- NTLDR loads the HAL library, kernel and system hive. The system hive indicates the required boot drivers and loads them one by one.
- Kernel execution begins by initializing the system and creating two processes: the system process containing all internal worker threads and the first user-mode initialization process: SMSS.
- SMSS further initializes the system by establishing paging files and loading device drivers.
- SMSS creates two processes: WINLOGON, which brings up the rest of the system and CSRSS, the Win32 subsystem process.