How Does the Windows 10 Boot Process Work?

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Have you ever wondered what happens when you press your PC’s power button? In this article, we’ll look at how Windows 10 boots and everything that goes on behind it.

Although we see it as a single process, at its core it still follows a set sequence. Knowing this can help us easily fix any problem we run into when booting Windows 10.

In this article, The Windows Club sums up the entire Windows 10 boot process.

How Does Windows 10 Boot?

The Windows 10 boot process on BIOS systems is divided into 4 main stages. It starts with POST and ends with loading the Windows OS Loader or the Kernel. Here is the list of stages:
1/ PreBoot
2/ Windows Boot Manager
3/ Windows OS Loader
4/ Windows NT OS Kernel
In each stage, a program is loaded. Depending on whether the system uses Legacy BIOS or UEFI, both the file paths and the files themselves differ.

Specifically, the boot stages are:
1/ PreBoot: 
POST, or Power-On Self-Test, loads all of the settings in the firmware. It checks whether the disk system is valid, and only if everything is good does it move on to the next stage. If your computer confirms that the MBR (Master Boot Record) is valid, the boot process moves on to the next steps and loads Windows Boot Manager.

2/ Windows Boot Manager:

 This step determines whether you have multiple operating systems installed on your computer. If you do, it displays a menu listing all of these operating systems. When you choose an operating system, it loads the matching program, for example Winload.exe for Windows 10.

3/ Windows OS Loader: 

As the name suggests, WinLoad.exe loads all of the drivers needed to start the Windows Kernel. The Kernel uses the drivers to “talk directly” to the hardware and carries out the remaining parts needed for the rest of the boot process to continue.

4/ Windows NT OS Kernel:

 This is the final stage. This stage retrieves the Registry settings, additional drivers… Once it has read them, the system management process takes full control. It loads the user interface (UI) and the rest of the hardware and software. That is when you see the Windows 10 Login screen.
On Windows 10 computers that support Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI), Trusted Boot protects your machine from the moment you power it on. When the computer starts, it first looks for the operating system’s bootloader. Computers without Secured Boot simply load whatever bootloader is on the PC’s hard drive. When a UEFI-capable computer starts, it first verifies that the firmware is digitally signed. If Secure Boot is enabled, the firmware checks the bootloader’s digital signature to confirm that it is intact and has not been modified.
Note that many things happen right after you sign in to your computer, but they are all post-boot processes.]]>