Windows System Internals

In this chapter, we describe the steps required to boot Windows and the options that can affect system startup. Understanding the details of the boot process will help you diagnose problems that can arise during a boot. We discuss the details of the new UEFI firmware, and the improvements brought by it compared to the old historical BIOS. We present the role of the Boot Manager, Windows Loader, NT kernel, and all the components involved in standard boots and in the new Secure Launch process, which detects any kind of attack on the boot sequence. Then we explain the kinds of things that can go wrong during the boot process and how to resolve them. Finally, we explain what occurs during an orderly system shutdown. Boot process In describing the Windows boot process, we start with the installation of Windows and proceed through the execution of boot support files. Device drivers are a crucial part of the boot process, so we explain how they control the point in the boo