Booting process of Windows

Process by which the Microsoft Windows of operating system family initializes The booting process of Microsoft Windows varies between different releases. DOS-based Windows Windows 1.x/2.x In Windows versions 1.01 to Windows 2.11, the system is loaded when WIN.COM is executed within MS-DOS. It then loads WIN100.BIN or WIN200.BIN and WIN100.OVL or WIN200.OVL, along with the configuration settings file WIN.INI. The default shell is the MS-DOS Executive (MSDOS.EXE). The modules GDI.EXE, KERNEL.EXE and USER.EXE, fonts, and the various device drivers (such as COMM.DRV, MOUSE.DRV, KEYBOARD.DRV) are incorporated in WIN100.BIN/WIN200.BIN and WIN100.OVL/WIN200.OVL. In Windows/386, WIN200.BIN starts WIN386.EXE. Windows 3.x/9x In Windows 3.x and 95/98/ME, the boot loader phase is handled by MS-DOS. During the boot phase, CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT are executed, along with the configuration settings files WIN.INI and SYSTEM.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 the SYSTEM.INI file. MS-DOS starts WIN.COM. In Windows 3.x, the WIN.COM starts DOSX.EXE (standard mode) o