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. 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) or WIN386.EXE (386 enhanced mode). The DOSX.EXE later starts KRNL286.EXE; the WIN386.EXE later starts KRNL386.EXE. In Windows 9x, the WIN.COM starts VMM32.VXD. When all system configuration files and device drivers have been loaded, the 16-bit modules, KRNL386.EXE, GDI.EXE, and USER.EXE, are loaded, then the 32-bit DLLs (KERNEL32.DLL, GDI32.DLL, and USER32.DLL) are loaded. The 32-bit VxD message server (MSGSRV32) starts MPREXE.EXE, which is responsible for loading the network logon client (such as Client for Microsoft Networks, Microsoft Family Logon or Windows Logon). When a user is logging on to Windows, the startup sound is played, the shell (usually EXPLORER.EXE) is loaded from the [boot] section of the SYSTEM.INI file, and startup items are loaded. In all versions of Windows 9x except ME, it is also possible to load Windows by booting to a DOS prompt and typing "win". There are some command line switches that can be used with the WIN command: with the /D switch, Windows boots to
safe mode, and with the /D:n switch, Windows boots to safe mode with networking. The latter switch only works properly with Windows 95. In Windows 3.1, additional options are available, such as /3, which starts Windows in 386 enhanced mode, and /S, which starts Windows in standard mode A startup sound was first added in Windows 3.0 after installing the Multimedia Extensions (MME), but not enabled by default until Windows 3.1. == Windows CE ==