NTOSKRNL

NTOSKRNL.EXE contains the Windows kernel. When control is transfered to the kernel, the following components have been loaded into memory: When the kernel receives control, it performs the following initialization steps:
  1. The kernal switches the processor from real mode to 32- or 64-bit protected mode. (When bootmgr was used, it performed this step.)
  2. The kernel next initializes various internal components.
  3. The kernel then calls the initialization routines for the drivers loaded by the boot loader (NTLDR or WINLOAD.EXE, depending on the Windows version).
  4. The kernal loads and intializaes additional device drivers that are marked "SYSTEM" in the registry. (These drivers are loaded by the Windows disk driver that was loaded and initialized above.)
  5. The NT kernel does some additional initialization and the state of all disk file systems is checked.
  6. The kernel begins dispatching processes. This begins the next stage of system initialization.

Next: Windows Process Initialization

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