Windows Startup Files

A program that displays the Microsoft Windows startup menu; and loads ntoskrnl.exe,hal.dll, and boot-start device drivers.

A file that contains options for starting different versions of Windows installed on the computer.

A file that contains information about the boot sector of the operating system that was on the hard drive before Windows was installed. NTLDR uses this file to boot to an operating system other than W2000 pro, XP, or Vista version, including MS-DOS

A 16-bit real-mode program that queries the computer for basic device and configuration info, such as: Time and date stored on CMOS, Systen bus types and device identifiers attached to the buses, Number, size, and types of disk driver, Types of mouse input devices, Number and types of parallel ports

A copy of a storage-controller device driver. If either the boot or system drive is SCSI-based, NTLDR loads this file and uses it instead of the boot-code functions for disk access.

A program that contains the majority of operating system instructions for Windows.

An interface between a computer's hardware and software. Hal.dll provides a consistent hardware platform on which applications are run. Applications don't access hardware directly but access the Hardware Abstraction Layer(HAL). This setup allows apps. to be device-indepen. and creates amore stable OS.

A registry hive that controls the drivers and services loaded during startup for Windows.

A program responsible for handling sessions on your computer. This program is initiated by the system thread and starts the user session, including launching the Winlogon and Win32(Csrss.exe) processes and setting system variables.

A file that contains memory data that Windows can't fit into physical RAM. During startup, the Virtual Memory Manager moves data in and out of the paging file to optimize the amount of physical memory available to the OS and apps.

The Windows login manager, which is responsible for managing user logon and logoff. Winlogon is needed for user authorization.

A program that handles local security and login policies; it authenticates users for the Winlogon service. If the user credentials submitted are successfully authenticared, lsass.exe generates the user's access token, which is used to launch the user shell.