query: what is the first file used in the boot process of windows vista

pos: Windows Vista startup process Windows Vista startup process The startup process of Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008 and their successors differs from the startup process part of previous versions of Windows. In this article, unless otherwise specified, what is said about "Windows Vista" also applies to all later NT operating systems. For Windows Vista, the boot sector loads the Windows Boot Manager (a file named BOOTMGR on either the system or the boot partition), accesses the Boot Configuration Data store and uses the information to load the operating system. Then, the BCD invokes the boot loader and in turn proceeds to initiate the Windows

pos: MSDOS.SYS DR DOS 3.31 to 3.41 used DRBDOS.SYS instead. FreeDOS uses the file KERNEL.SYS for the same purpose. Windows NT-based operating systems (NT 3.1-4, 2000, XP, and 2003) use the NTLDR file and NT 6+ operating systems (Vista, 2008, 7, 8, 8.1, and 10) use bootmgr instead, as they have a different boot sequence. MSDOS.SYS in Windows 9x (95/98/ME): MSDOS.SYS MSDOS.SYS is a vital system file on MS-DOS and Windows 9x operating systems. In versions of MS-DOS from 1.1x through 6.22, the file comprised the MS-DOS kernel and is responsible for file access and program management. MSDOS.SYS is loaded by the

pos: FreeDOS 98 and ME use a stripped down version of MS-DOS. FreeDOS cannot be used as a replacement because of undocumented interfaces between MS-DOS 7.0-8.0 and Windows "4.xx" not emulated by FreeDOS; however, it can be installed and used beside these systems using a boot manager program, such as BOOTMGR or METAKERN included with FreeDOS. Windows NT-based operating systems, including Windows 2000, XP, Vista and 7 for desktops, and Windows Server 2003, 2008 and 2008 R2 for servers, do not make use of MS-DOS as a core component of the system. These systems can make use of the FAT file systems,

neg: Windows Vista startup process configuration data. It is used by Microsoft's new Windows Boot Manager and replaces the boot.ini that was used by NTLDR. Boot Configuration Data is stored in a data file that has the same format as Windows Registry hives and is eventually mounted at registry key [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\BCD00000] (with restricted permissions). For UEFI boot, the file is located at codice_1 on the EFI System Partition. For traditional BIOS boot, the file is at codice_2 on the active partition. Boot Configuration Data may be altered using a command-line tool (bcdedit.exe), using Registry Editor (regedit.exe), using Windows Management Instrumentation, or with third-party tools such

neg: Windows Vista startup process systems, the file is called codice_3 and the file is always located at codice_4. If the computer has recently hibernated, then codice_5 will instead invoke codice_6. The only difference is the alternate boot mode and the splash screen displaying "Resuming Windows". In UEFI systems, the file is called codice_7 and is always located at codice_4. With the advent of the new boot manager in Windows Vista, many components have been changed; one is the Advanced Boot Options menu that provides options for advanced boot modes (i.e. Safe Mode). Due to the implementation of Hybrid Boot in Windows 8 and up,

neg: Windows NT startup process Windows NT startup process The Windows NT startup process is the process by which Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 operating systems initialize. In Windows Vista and later, this process has changed significantly; see Windows Vista startup process for information about what has changed. The Windows NT installer works very similarly to a regular Windows NT install except that it runs from a CD-ROM. For this boot method to work, the BIOS must be compatible with the El Torito specification. The ISO 9660 file system on the install CD is not fully compatible with the

neg: Windows Vista startup process access to the Advanced Boot Options menu has been disabled by default. However, access is still possible with a BCD modification. These are the possible boot modes: The ABO menu is accessible by rapidly pressing or holding the codice_11 key before Windows boots. Windows Vista startup process The startup process of Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008 and their successors differs from the startup process part of previous versions of Windows. In this article, unless otherwise specified, what is said about "Windows Vista" also applies to all later NT operating systems. For Windows Vista, the boot sector loads the Windows Boot

neg: Black Screen of Death operating system compresses. Often the user must reinstall Windows, if the missing file is critical to the boot process. However, more often than not the boot screen will inform the user of the missing file. If the operating system is compressed, it will not be able to boot, even into safe mode. However, booting from another device and uncompressing the files will usually solve the issue. In late 2009, several new reports of the Black Screen of Death in Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7 emerged. At first several claims pointed at a Windows Update. It was later recanted

neg: Windows NT startup process is based on the Windows Vista kernel, later Windows PE versions are based on later Windows versions. On a regular CD-ROM install, the BIOS executes the POST and then searches for a boot descriptor on the CD-ROM. The boot descriptor points to a boot catalog file on the ISO 9660 file system. The BIOS searches for a boot image compatible with the current architecture, loads it into memory and then runs it. The boot image is analogous to the boot sector on a hard drive. The boot image loads SETUPLDR.BIN which is analogous to NTLDR. If this fails for any

neg: Windows Resource Protection Windows Vista, Sfc.exe can be used to check specific folder paths, including the Windows folder and the boot folder. Windows Resource Protection Windows Resource Protection is a feature in Windows Vista that replaces Windows File Protection. It protects registry keys and folders in addition to critical system files. The way it protects resources differs entirely from the method used by Windows File Protection. Windows Resource Protection works by registering for notification of file changes in Winlogon. If any changes are detected to a protected system file, the modified file is restored from a cached copy located in a compressed folder

neg: Bootcfg system. Windows Vista and later versions will warn users who run bootcfg that BCDEdit is the correct command to modify its booting options. Bootcfg In computing, codice_1 is a command on Microsoft Windows NT-based operating systems which acts as a wrapper for editing the boot.ini file. It is used to configure, query, or change Boot.ini file settings. A similar command exists in the Recovery Console for repairing or rebuilding boot configuration files. Though NTLDR and boot.ini are no longer used to boot Windows Vista and later versions of Windows NT, they ship with the bootcfg utility regardless. This is to

neg: System File Checker System File Checker System File Checker (SFC) is a utility in Microsoft Windows that allows users to scan for and restore corruptions in Windows system files. Microsoft ships this utility with Windows 98, Windows 2000 and all subsequent versions of the Windows NT family of operating systems. In Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 10, System File Checker is integrated with Windows Resource Protection (WRP), which protects registry keys and folders as well as critical system files. Under Windows Vista, codice_1 can be used to check specific folder paths, including the Windows folder and the boot folder. Windows File Protection

neg: Bootcfg Bootcfg In computing, codice_1 is a command on Microsoft Windows NT-based operating systems which acts as a wrapper for editing the boot.ini file. It is used to configure, query, or change Boot.ini file settings. A similar command exists in the Recovery Console for repairing or rebuilding boot configuration files. Though NTLDR and boot.ini are no longer used to boot Windows Vista and later versions of Windows NT, they ship with the bootcfg utility regardless. This is to handle boot.ini in the case that a multi-boot configuration with previous versions of Windows exists and needs troubleshooting from within the later operating

neg: NTLDR to its boot manager and system loader parts: the Windows Boot Manager and "winload.exe". The boot manager part has been completely rewritten, it no longer uses "boot.ini" as a configuration file, although the "bootcfg" utility for modifying boot.ini is still present for the case of multi-boot configurations with Windows versions up to Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. The bootsect.exe utility program in the Windows PE tools has options /nt52 (NTLDR) and /nt60 (Vista and up) to store a NTLDR or Vista boot record in the first sector of a specified partition. When a PC is powered on its BIOS

neg: Multi-booting boot manager/loader (usually GRUB) as the primary bootloader pointed to by the master boot record. Windows operating systems will be found by properly installed Linux bootloaders, but Windows boot managers do not recognize Linux installations (nor does Windows deal natively with Linux file systems). However, in Vista, in order to install services packs (or other Windows updates) it may be necessary to restore the Vista boot loader first. SP2 may fail to install if it does not find certain files from the Vista boot loader, in the MBR. Similar problems may occur with SP1 or when there are cloned disks

neg: Windows NT startup process service running on the server that communicates with the client after the NBP was already loaded by the PXE. Windows NT startup process The Windows NT startup process is the process by which Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 operating systems initialize. In Windows Vista and later, this process has changed significantly; see Windows Vista startup process for information about what has changed. The Windows NT installer works very similarly to a regular Windows NT install except that it runs from a CD-ROM. For this boot method to work, the BIOS must be compatible with

neg: Windows Vista startup process kernel. Windows Vista introduces a complete overhaul of the Windows operating system loader architecture. The earliest known reference to this revised architecture is included within PowerPoint slides distributed by Microsoft during the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference of 2004 when the operating system was codenamed "Longhorn." This documentation mentions that the Windows operating system loader would be undergoing a significant restructuring in order to support EFI and to "do some major overhaul of legacy code." The new boot architecture completely replaces the NTLDR architecture used in previous versions of Windows NT. Boot Configuration Data (BCD) is a firmware-independent database for boot-time

neg: Management features new to Windows Vista Startup Repair checks for corruption of operating system and other components, such as Boot Configuration Data, disk and file system metadata, the Master Boot Record, and the Windows Registry. Microsoft has stated that the utility is intended to repair over eighty percent of issues. "Package Manager", part of the Windows Vista servicing stack, replaces the previous "Package Installer" (codice_1) and "Update Installer" (codice_2). Microsoft delivers updates for Windows Vista as files and resources only. Package Manager, Windows Update, and the Control Panel item to turn Windows features on and off, all use the Windows Vista servicing stack. Package Manager can

neg: Multi-booting and Linux Partition will most likely be formatted in the ext4 file format as Windows can't run off of ext4 and Linux can't run on NTFS. However, for example if a user intends to dual boot two versions of Windows (i.e. Windows 7 and Windows Vista) or two versions of Linux (i.e. Linux Mint and Ubuntu Linux), the same file system (e.g. NTFS or ext4) can be used across both drives and partitions. The basic concept involves partitioning a disk to accommodate each planned installation, usually including separate partitions for boot, root, data storage and backups. Windows Vista's partitioners may

neg: Bootsplash is loaded during the startup process. With extra, third-party utilities, it is possible to replace the default Windows boot screen with custom images, text, and/or animations. In Windows Vista, the default boot screen is represented by a green indeterminate progress indicator. The boot screen can be changed so that it displays a static image of an aurora with the text, "Starting Windows Vista" by enabling the "No GUI boot" option within the Windows System Configuration Utility (msconfig.exe). Microsoft would update the aurora image throughout the lifecycle of the operating system, starting with the first service pack, where it was altered

neg: Windows startup process The sequence of booting Windows Vista is different from any previous version of Windows that uses the NT kernel. The operating system boot loader in Vista is called winload.exe, and is invoked by Windows Boot Manager. Additionally, the GINA that has been in use with all versions of Windows NT since 3.1 has been entirely replaced by "Credential Providers". Windows startup process The Windows startup process is the process by which Microsoft's Windows series of operating systems initializes. In Windows versions 1.01 to Windows/386, the system was loaded when codice_1 was executed. It then loaded codice_2 or codice_3 and codice_4

neg: AUTOEXEC.BAT its derivatives, Windows 2000, Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP, the equivalent file is called codice_60 and is located in the codice_61 directory. The file is not used during the operating system boot process; it is executed when the MS-DOS environment is started, which occurs when a DOS application is loaded. The codice_1 file may often be found on Windows NT, in the root directory of the boot drive. Windows only considers the codice_63 and codice_64 statements which it contains, in order to define environment variables global to all users. Setting environment variables through this file may be interesting if

neg: Volume boot record XP and Windows Server 2003), take copies of the bootstrap code that individual operating systems install into a single partition's VBR and store them in disc files, loading the relevant VBR content from file after the boot loader has asked the user which operating system to bootstrap. In Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008 and newer versions, NTLDR was replaced; the boot-loader functionality is instead provided by two new components: WINLOAD.EXE and the Windows Boot Manager. In file systems such as FAT12 (except for in DOS 1.x), FAT16, FAT32, HPFS and NTFS, the VBR also contains a BIOS Parameter Block (BPB)

neg: Windows NT startup process "boot sector" file listed in "boot.ini" or BCD (by default, this is "bootsect.dos" if no file name is specified) and passes execution control to it. Otherwise, the boot process continues. The operating system starts when certain basic drivers flagged as "Boot" are loaded into memory. The appropriate file system driver for the partition type (NTFS, FAT, or FAT32) which the Windows installation resides are amongst them. At this point in the boot process, the boot loader clears the screen and displays a textual progress bar, (which is often not seen due to the initialization speed); Windows 2000 also displays the

neg: Windows NT startup process whose file system is NTFS or FAT file systems, CDFS (ISO 9660) or UDFS. Windows Boot Manager also supports operating systems installed inside a VHD file, stored on an NTFS disk drive. In the Windows 2000 or in later versions of Windows which hibernation is supported, the Windows boot loader starts the search for operating systems by searching for "hiberfil.sys". NTLDR looks into the root folder of the default volume specified in boot.ini. Windows Boot Manager looks up the location of hiberfil.sys in BCD. If this file is found and an active memory set is found in it, the boot

neg: Windows NT startup process root directory of a floppy disk. Windows NT startup process starts when the computer finds a "Windows boot loader", a portion of Windows operating system responsible for finding Microsoft Windows and starting it up. Prior to Windows Vista however, the boot loader was NTLDR. Microsoft has also released operating systems for Intel Itanium processors which use IA-64 architecture. The boot loader of these editions of Windows is IA64ldr.efi (later referred as simply IA64ldr). It is an Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI) program. The boot loader, once executed, searches for a Windows operating system. Windows Boot Manager does so by reading Boot

neg: Initial ramdisk possible to install Windows so that it will always boot from a WIM or VHD file placed on a physical drive. However, this is rarely used since the Windows boot loader is capable of loading the .sys files for boot-time kernel modules itself, which is the task that requires initrd in Linux. Initial ramdisk In computing (specifically in regards to Linux computing), codice_1 ("initial ramdisk") is a scheme for loading a temporary root file system into memory, which may be used as part of the Linux startup process. codice_1 and codice_3 refer to two different methods of achieving this. Both

neg: Disk Defragmenter (Windows) which requires at least 15% of free space on the volume. The command line utility, "Defrag.exe", offers more control over the defragmentation process, such as performing a full defragmentation by consolidating all file fragments regardless of size. This utility can be used to defragment specific volumes or to just analyze volumes as the defragmenter would in Windows XP. Disk Defragmenter is maintained by Microsoft's Core File Services. The Windows Vista version has been updated in Windows Vista SP1 to include the improvements made in Windows Server 2008. The most notable of these improvements is that the ability to select which

neg: System Deployment Image file itself is partitioned into the following sections: SDI usually contains either Disk BLOB (HD cloning or temporary SDI) or three other of them (bootable SDI). Windows Vista or Windows PE 2.0 boot sequence includes a boot.sdi file, which contains Part BLOB for an empty NTFS volume and a Table-of-Contents slot for the WIM image, which is stored on a separate on-disk file. SDI files can be mounted as virtual disk drives and assigned a drive letter if an SDI driver is available to allow this. A SDI driver is a type of storage driver and is commonly used with

neg: Management features new to Windows Vista also install updates to an offline Windows image, including updates, boot-critical device drivers, and language packs. Windows Vista introduced Component-Based Servicing (CBS) as an architecture for installation and servicing. The deployment of Windows Vista uses a hardware-independent image, the Windows Imaging Format (WIM). The image file contains the necessary bits of the operating system, and its contents are copied "as is" to the target system. Other system specific software, such as device drivers and other applications, are installed and configured afterwards. This reduces the time taken for installation of Windows Vista. Corporations can author their own image files (using the

neg: Installable File System improved CD-ROM filesystem driver that incorporated long file names using the Microsoft Joliet filesystem. Windows NT 3.51 added per-file compression to NTFS and to the IFS interface. In Windows NT 4.0 HPFS was removed. In Windows 2000 FASTFAT was updated to support FAT32 and UDF was added. Windows 2000 modified the IFS interface to add per-file encryption. Network file-sharing protocols and antivirus are also implemented using IFS. Apple started including read only HFS+ drivers in Mac OS X 10.6's version of Boot Camp for use in Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7. Installable File System The Installable File System

neg: Master boot record the disk signature (under, e.g., the key value codice_5), it would begin at byte offset (10,495,457,280), which is also the first byte of physical sector 20,498,940. Starting with Windows Vista, the disk signature is also stored in the Boot Configuration Data (BCD) store, and the boot process depends on it. If the disk signature changes, cannot be found or has a conflict, Windows is unable to boot. Unless Windows is forced to use the overlapping part of the LBA address of the Advanced Active Partition entry as pseudo-disk signature, Windows' usage is conflictive with the Advanced Active Partition feature of

neg: EasyBCD EasyBCD EasyBCD is a program developed by NeoSmart Technologies to configure and tweak the Boot Configuration Data (BCD), a boot database first introduced in Windows Vista and used in all subsequent Windows releases. EasyBCD can be used to set up multi-boot environments for computers on which some versions of Windows, Linux, BSD and Mac OS X can be simultaneously installed; EasyBCD can also be used for adding entries to bootable tools and utilities, as well as modifying and controlling the behavior of the Windows boot menu. EasyBCD 2.3 introduced additional support for creating and managing entries for UEFI-based Windows entries

neg: Windows Imaging Format the less new data will be added. A WIM can also be split (spanned) into multiple parts, which have the .swm extension. WIM images can be made bootable. Windows boot loader supports booting Windows from within a WIM file. Windows Setup DVD in Windows Vista and later use such WIM files. In this case, BOOT.WIM contains a bootable version of Windows PE from which the installation is performed. Other setup files are held in the INSTALL.WIM. ImageX is the command-line tool used to create, edit and deploy Windows disk images in the Windows Imaging Format. It is distributed as part

neg: Defragmentation defragment Windows system files such as the swap file and the files that store the Windows registry by running at boot time before the GUI is loaded. Since Windows Vista, the feature is not fully supported and has not been updated. In NTFS, as files are added to the disk, the Master File Table (MFT) must grow to store the information for the new files. Every time the MFT cannot be extended due to some file being in the way, the MFT will gain a fragment. In early versions of Windows, it could not be safely defragmented while the partition

neg: Features new to Windows 7 Features new to Windows 7 Some of the new features included in Windows 7 are advancements in touch, speech, and handwriting recognition, support for virtual hard disks, support for additional file formats, improved performance on multi-core processors, improved boot performance, and kernel improvements. Windows 7 retains the Windows Aero graphical user interface and visual style introduced in the operating system's predecessor, Windows Vista, but many areas have seen enhancements. Unlike Windows Vista, window borders and the taskbar do not turn opaque when a window is maximized when Windows Aero is active; instead, they remain translucent. Support for themes has been

neg: Windows NT startup process reason, a message is displayed saying that NTLDR was not found, which may of itself be misleading; moreover, the NTLDR on the CD is never used during the loading phase of the installer. The process also assumes that file versions are unavailable. Before starting the boot loader, the boot image checks whether there is a Windows install (system) already present and, if so, it starts codice_1. If no install is found, or if the disk does not have an MBR, then it starts the boot loader directly, thus obviating the need for codice_1. If codice_1 is started, it displays the

neg: Windows Vista I/O technologies for the exFAT file system. Windows Vista I/O technologies Windows Vista introduced a number of new I/O functions to the Microsoft Windows line of operating systems. They are intended to shorten the time taken to boot the system, improve the responsiveness of the system, and improve the reliability of data storage. Vista modifies the behavior of asynchronous I/O operations. With the new asynchronous I/O APIs, a thread, different from the one that issued the I/O request, can be notified when the operation completes. With this, a single thread can issue all the I/O requests, and then switch to a different

neg: Windows Registry XP, the following additional user-specific file is used for file associations and COM information: For Windows Vista and later, the path was changed to: Windows 2000 keeps an alternate copy of the registry hives (.ALT) and attempts to switch to it when corruption is detected. Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 do not maintain a System.alt hive because NTLDR on those versions of Windows can process the System.log file to bring up to date a System hive that has become inconsistent during a shutdown or crash. In addition, the %SystemRoot%\Repair folder contains a copy of the system's registry hives that

neg: Windows Vista this "Ghost Partition" and allow a piece of malicious software to compromise the system, or disable the encryption. BitLocker can work in conjunction with a Trusted Platform Module (TPM) cryptoprocessor (version 1.2) embedded in a computer's motherboard, or with a USB key. However, as with other full disk encryption technologies, BitLocker is vulnerable to a cold boot attack, especially where TPM is used as a key protector without a boot PIN being required too. A variety of other privilege-restriction techniques are also built into Vista. An example is the concept of "integrity levels" in user processes, whereby a process with

neg: Dell MediaDirect to the misreported disk geometry. Version 4 deletes the dual-boot "fast start" capability and associated disk partition. It is now installed as a standard application. MediaDirect 4 includes optimisations for multi-media playback and is primarily used to support Blu-ray drives. Version 3.5 is compatible with Microsoft Windows XP and Vista (it also works on Windows 7 and Windows 8.1). Each version has separate editions that can only be installed on certain computer models. This is achieved by using folder and file names in the installation software that matches the BIOS SystemID. Version 3.3 is compatible with Microsoft Windows XP and

neg: Black Screen of Death in mid-1991 by Ed Brown, a technician with The Coca-Cola Company's IT department in Atlanta, GA. He reports that the company was rolling out Windows 3.0 within the Global Marketing group and when the users would attempt to run WordPerfect, they would randomly receive a black screen. MS-DOS, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows ME, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8 also display a Black Screen of Death when the operating system cannot boot. This is usually due to a missing file. This also happens when the user enables file compression on all files and the

neg: EasyBCD on the normal PC bootloader or more practically on bootable external media. EasyBCD can create entries that boot into hard disk images (both VHD and raw disk image formats), ISO images, WinPE 2.0+ WIM files, floppy disk images, and BIOS extenders. EasyBCD EasyBCD is a program developed by NeoSmart Technologies to configure and tweak the Boot Configuration Data (BCD), a boot database first introduced in Windows Vista and used in all subsequent Windows releases. EasyBCD can be used to set up multi-boot environments for computers on which some versions of Windows, Linux, BSD and Mac OS X can be simultaneously

neg: Windows Vista startup process as EasyBCD, BOOTICE, or Visual BCD Editor. Boot Configuration Data contain the menu entries that are presented by the Windows Boot Manager, just as boot.ini contained the menu entries that were presented by NTLDR. These menu entries can include: Boot Configuration Data allows for third-party integration, so anyone can implement tools like diagnostics or recovery options. The Windows Boot Manager invokes winload.exe—the operating system boot loader—to load the operating system kernel executive (ntoskrnl.exe) and core device drivers. In that respect, winload.exe is functionally equivalent to the operating system loader function of NTLDR in prior versions of Windows NT. In UEFI

neg: Windows startup process Windows startup process The Windows startup process is the process by which Microsoft's Windows series of operating systems initializes. In Windows versions 1.01 to Windows/386, the system was loaded when codice_1 was executed. It then loaded codice_2 or codice_3 and codice_4 or codice_5, along with the configuration settings file codice_6. The default shell is the MS-DOS Executive. The modules codice_7, codice_8 and codice_9, fonts, and the various device drivers (such as codice_10, codice_11, codice_12) are incorporated in codice_2/codice_3 and codice_4/codice_5. In Windows 3.x and 95/98/ME, the boot loader phase is handled by MS-DOS. During the boot phase, codice_17 and codice_18

neg: MSConfig MSConfig MSConfig (officially called System Configuration in Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8 or Windows 10, and Microsoft System Configuration Utility in previous operating systems) is a system utility to troubleshoot the Microsoft Windows startup process. It can disable or re-enable software, device drivers and Windows services that run at startup, or change boot parameters. It is bundled with all versions of Microsoft Windows operating systems since Windows 98 except Windows 2000. Windows 95 and Windows 2000 users can download the utility as well, although it was not designed for them. MSConfig is often used for speeding up the Microsoft

neg: BitLocker device was lost or stolen; another feature, titled "Code Integrity Rooting", was designed to validate the integrity of Microsoft Windows boot and system files. When used in conjunction with a compatible Trusted Platform Module (TPM), BitLocker can validate the integrity of boot and system files before decrypting a protected volume; an unsuccessful validation will prohibit access to a protected system. BitLocker was briefly called Secure Startup prior to Windows Vista being released to manufacturing. BitLocker is available on: Initially, the graphical BitLocker interface in Windows Vista could only encrypt the operating system volume. Starting with Windows Vista with Service Pack

neg: Dell MediaDirect Vista (it also works on Windows 7 and Windows 8.1). Each version has separate editions that can only be installed on certain computer models. This is achieved by using folder and file names in the installation software that matches the BIOS SystemID. Version 3 has a dual-boot option where the software can utilize a minimal load of the operating system which speeds boot time and simplifies operation. Released Sep. 1, 2005, is compatible with Microsoft Windows XP and the following Dell systems: Dell MediaDirect Dell MediaDirect is a software application that is published by Dell, Inc. and is pre-installed on

neg: NTLDR additional layer was added specifically for that platform: custom boot manager code presenting text menu allowing the user to choose from one or more operating system and its options configured in "boot.ini" configuration file, prepended by special StartUp module which is responsible for some preparations such as switching the CPU to the protected mode. When a user chooses an operating system from the boot menu, the following command-line arguments are then passed to the part of the "osloader.exe" common to all processor architectures: In Windows releases starting from Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008, NTLDR has been split off back

neg: USB flash drive firmware is recommended in order to boot from it. Transcend is the only manufacturer of USB flash drives containing such feature. Furthermore, for installation of Windows XP, using USB flash drive with storage limit of at most 2 GB is recommended in order to boot from it. In Windows Vista and later versions, ReadyBoost feature allows flash drives (from 4 GB in case of Windows Vista) to augment operating system memory. Flash drives are used to carry applications that run on the host computer without requiring installation. While any standalone application can in principle be used this way, many programs

neg: Windows Setup effect until the release of Windows Vista. The general process is: All versions of Windows NT up to Windows Server 2003, except for Windows XP Home Edition, prompt the user to enter an Administrator password. On Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows Server 2003, the Recovery Console is included to repair damaged installations. It allows the user to repair disk and boot record errors, and copy missing or corrupted files to the destination folders. Windows Vista and subsequent operating systems all utilize Windows Preinstallation Environment (Windows PE) as the installation environment. Windows PE features a graphical user interface with mouse

neg: Windows NT startup process section codice_20 and a corresponding driver name is given. But those are not used in this step. After all boot files are loaded by the boot loader, the message "Setup is starting Windows" is displayed and the kernel starts. Just like a normal install, it starts the drivers and loads the only service which is codice_21. It runs in kernel mode and starts a GUI still in text mode. From now on, all the drivers are NT based and BIOS interrupts are not used anymore. The user is asked to choose a file system layout. The selected partition is formatted

neg: Live File System Live File System Live File System is the term Microsoft uses to describe the packet writing method of creating discs in Windows Vista and later, which allows files to be added incrementally to the media. These discs use the UDF file system. The "Live File System" option is used by default by AutoPlay when formatting/erasing a CD/DVD -R or -RW. Older Windows versions do not have support for reading the latest UDF versions. If users create DVD/CDs in Windows Vista using UDF 2.50, these may not be readable on other systems, including Windows XP and older (pre-Mac OS 10.5) Apple

neg: Windows startup process available, such as codice_34, which starts Windows in 386 enhanced mode, and codice_35, which starts Windows in standard mode A startup sound was added in Windows 3.1. In Windows NT, the boot loader is called NTLDR. It is responsible for accessing the file system on the boot drive, for starting ntoskrnl.exe and for loading boot-time device drivers into memory. Once all the Boot and System drivers have been loaded, the kernel (system thread) starts the Session Manager Subsystem (smss.exe), which in turn starts winlogon, which loads the graphical identification and authentication library. After a user has successfully logged into the

neg: Technical features new to Windows Vista offload rudimentary tasks to the GPU, allow users to install drivers without requiring a system reboot, and seamlessly recover from rare driver errors due to illegal application behavior. At the core of the operating system, many improvements have been made to the memory manager, process scheduler, heap manager, and I/O scheduler. A Kernel Transaction Manager has been implemented that can be used by data persistence services to enable atomic transactions. The service is being used to give applications the ability to work with the file system and registry using atomic transaction operations. Windows Vista features a completely re-written audio stack

neg: Live File System systems unless a third-party UDF reader driver is installed. To ensure compatibility of disks created on Windows Vista, UDF 2.01 or lower should be selected. Live File System Live File System is the term Microsoft uses to describe the packet writing method of creating discs in Windows Vista and later, which allows files to be added incrementally to the media. These discs use the UDF file system. The "Live File System" option is used by default by AutoPlay when formatting/erasing a CD/DVD -R or -RW. Older Windows versions do not have support for reading the latest UDF versions. If users

neg: CONFIG.SYS order to copy the corresponding CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files alongside with the system files. FreeDOS implements a similar feature with its FDCONFIG.SYS configuration file. PTS-DOS uses CONFIG.PTS. Both CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT can be found included in the root folder of Windows 95, and Windows 98 boot drives, as they are based on DOS. Typically, these files are left empty, with no content, as they are not strictly required to run Windows programs from these versions. Windows ME does not even parse the CONFIG.SYS file during the Windows boot process, loading those settings from the Windows Registry instead: Under FlexOS, CONFIG.SYS

neg: Initial ramdisk the shell, utilities and their supporting libraries are typically compiled with space optimizations enabled (such as with gcc's "-Os" flag) and linked against klibc, a minimal version of the C library written specifically for this purpose. Installers for Linux distributions typically run entirely from an initramfs, as they must be able to host the installer interface and supporting tools before any persistent storage has been set up. Tiny Core Linux and Puppy Linux can run entirely from initrd. Since Windows Vista, Windows can boot from a WIM disk image file, for which the file format is officially published; it is

neg: Windows NT startup process format. In codice_4 the second file is codice_8 and in codice_5 the second file is codice_10. Both codice_8 and codice_10 have embedded file system drivers for basic access on FAT, NTFS and ISO 9660. Differently from regular *.SYS drivers, the boot loader uses BIOS interrupts to access the boot disk. It also contain a built-in INI parser and CAB decompressor. After the installer starts running, it prints the string "Setup is inspecting your computer's hardware configuration...". codice_13 is called and the system information is stored in memory. Then it displays blue screen in VGA text mode with the title "Windows

neg: Windows startup process to Windows, the startup sound is played, the shell (usually codice_30) is loaded from the [boot] section of the codice_20 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 codice_32 switch, Windows boots to safe mode, and with the codice_33 switch, Windows boots to safe mode with networking. The latter switch only works properly with Windows 95. In Windows 3.1, additional options are

neg: Robocopy Explorer by right-clicking on Robocopy.exe, selecting Properties, then clicking on the Details tab. Robocopy Robocopy, or "Robust File Copy", is a command-line directory and/or file replication command. Robocopy functionally replaces Xcopy, with more options. It has been available as part of the Windows Resource Kit starting with Windows NT 4.0, and was first introduced as a standard feature in Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008. The command is robocopy. Robocopy is noted for capabilities above and beyond the built-in Windows copy and xcopy commands, including the following: Robocopy does not copy open files. Any process may open files for exclusive

neg: Robocopy Robocopy Robocopy, or "Robust File Copy", is a command-line directory and/or file replication command. Robocopy functionally replaces Xcopy, with more options. It has been available as part of the Windows Resource Kit starting with Windows NT 4.0, and was first introduced as a standard feature in Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008. The command is robocopy. Robocopy is noted for capabilities above and beyond the built-in Windows copy and xcopy commands, including the following: Robocopy does not copy open files. Any process may open files for exclusive read access by withholding the codice_6 flag during opening. Even Robocopy's "Backup mode"

neg: Boot File System Boot File System The Boot File System (named BFS on Linux, but BFS also refers to the Be File System) was used on UnixWare to store files necessary to its boot process. It does not support directories, and only allows contiguous allocation for files, to make it simpler to be used by the boot loader. Besides the UnixWare support, Martin Hinner wrote a bfs kernel module for Linux that supports it. He documented the file system layout as part of the process. The Linux kernel implementation of BFS was written by Tigran Aivazian and it became part of the standard

neg: Development of Windows Vista quiet about what was being worked on, as their marketing and public relations focus was more strongly focused on Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003, which was released in April 2003. Occasional builds of Longhorn were leaked onto popular file sharing networks such as IRC, BitTorrent, eDonkey and various newsgroups, and so most of what is known about builds prior to the first sanctioned development release of Longhorn in May 2003, is derived from these builds. Most builds of Longhorn and Vista were identified by a label that was always displayed in the bottom-right corner of the desktop. A typical

neg: File locking determine what process is locking a file, and displays a list of processes as well as choices on what to do with the process (kill task, unlock, etc.) along with a list of file options such as delete or rename. On some Unix-like systems, utilities such as and can be used to inspect the state of file locks by process, by filename, or both. On Windows systems, if a file is locked, it's possible to schedule its moving or deletion to be performed on the next reboot. This approach is typically used by installers to replace locked system files. In

neg: MS-DOS gained market acceptance. Windows 9x used the DOS boot process to launch into protected mode. Basic features related to the file system, such as long file names, were only available to DOS when running as a subsystem of Windows. Windows NT runs independently of DOS but includes NTVDM, a component for simulating a DOS environment for legacy applications. MS-DOS compatible systems include: Microsoft manufactured IBM PC DOS for IBM. It and MS-DOS were identical products that eventually diverged starting with PC DOS version 6.1. Digital Research's DR-DOS is sometimes regarded as a clone of MS-DOS, but it did not follow

neg: TrueCrypt for tc-play, is available on several Linux distributions. TrueCrypt supports Windows, OS X and Linux operating systems. Both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of these operating systems are supported, except for Windows IA-64 (not supported) and Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard (runs as a 32-bit process). The version for Windows 7, Windows Vista, and Windows XP can encrypt the boot partition or entire boot drive. There is an independent, compatible implementation, tcplay, for DragonFly BSD and Linux. The Dm-crypt module included in default Linux kernel supports a "TrueCrypt" target called "tcw" since Linux version 3.13. Individual ciphers supported by TrueCrypt

neg: Windows NT startup process the following: With this finished, control is then passed from the boot loader to the kernel. The initialization of the kernel subsystem and the Windows Executive subsystems is done in two phases. During the first phase, basic internal memory structures are created, and each CPU's interrupt controller is initialized. The memory manager is initialized, creating areas for the file system cache, paged and non-paged pools of memory. The Object Manager, initial security token for assignment to the first process on the system, and the Process Manager itself. The System idle process as well as the System process are created at

neg: WTV (Windows Recorded TV Show) WTV (Windows Recorded TV Show) WTV (Windows Recorded TV Show) is a proprietary video and audiovisual file container format, developed by Microsoft used for storing TV content recorded by Windows Media Center. It is used in Windows Vista starting with Windows Media Center TV Pack 2008, and all Windows Media Center editions of Windows 7. The WTV format is the successor to the earlier DVR-MS file format that was used in Windows XP Media Center Edition. Multiple data streams (audio and video) are wrapped in a container with the file extension WTV. Video is encoded using the MPEG-2 and MPEG-4

neg: Unified Extensible Firmware Interface In that case, booting Linux on UEFI systems is the same as on legacy BIOS-based systems. The 64-bit versions of Windows Vista SP1 and later can boot from disks with a partition size larger than 2 TB. EFI defines two types of services: "boot services" and "runtime services". Boot services are available only while the firmware owns the platform (i.e., before the codice_2 call), and they include text and graphical consoles on various devices, and bus, block and file services. Runtime services are still accessible while the operating system is running; they include services such as date, time and NVRAM

neg: LOGO.SYS LOGO.SYS LOGO.SYS is a core system file used by Windows 9x operating systems to display its boot-up message. It is present and used in the Windows 95, Windows 98, and Windows ME products. It is not present in the Windows NT family of operating systems, such as Windows XP. There are three variants of the file: LOGO.SYS is in fact an 8-bit RLE-encoded Windows bitmap file with a resolution of exactly 320×400 pixels at 256 colors. This is displayed in the otherwise little-used 320x400 VGA graphics mode, a compromise to allow the display of a 256-color image with high vertical

neg: BootVis Windows XP's boot or resume period. BootVis can also invoke the optimization routines built into Windows XP, such as defragmenting the files accessed during boot, to improve startup performance. This optimization is automatically done by Windows at three-day intervals. Because the Global Logger session used by BootVis is triggered by registry entries, it runs every time that the entries appear in the registry, which has resulted in some users seeing large quantities of hard drive being used for the trace.log file (in C:\WINDOWS\System32\LogFiles\WMI). Upon rebooting the file will shrink but will grow again as the computer runs. The user can

neg: Security and safety features new to Windows Vista Also, only processor-enforced DEP is used in x86-64 versions of Windows Vista for greater security. New digital rights management and content-protection features have been introduced in Windows Vista to help digital content providers and corporations protect their data from being copied. The inclusion of new digital rights management features has been a source of criticism of Windows Vista. Windows Vista introduces "Mandatory Integrity Control" to set integrity levels for processes. A low integrity process can not access the resources of a higher integrity process. This feature is being used to enforce application isolation, where applications in a medium integrity level,

neg: Features new to Windows Vista saved query string and the results presented as a virtual folder. Windows Vista also supports query composition, where a saved search (called a "scope") can be nested within the query string of another search. Windows Vista also features an enhanced file content search for non-indexed locations, whereby the files being scanned are processed by the same IFilters that would be used for indexing, therefore offering more consistent results between indexed and non-indexed searches as well as the ability for third parties to add support for additional file formats to have their content searched. Windows Sidebar is a new panel which

neg: EasyBCD bootloader (used since Windows Vista) and the NTLDR bootloader (used by legacy versions of Windows, from Windows NT to Windows XP) in the MBR from within Windows by simply clicking a button. EasyBCD also offers a feature to back up and restore the BCD (boot configuration data) configuration files for recovery and testing purposes. In the "Diagnostics Center," it is possible to reset a corrupt BCD storage and automatically create the necessary entries for the current operating system, as well as search for and replace missing/corrupt boot files. This latter feature can be taken advantage of to install the Windows

neg: NTFS volume mount point quite similar to regular POSIX mount points found in Unix and Unix-like systems, they only support local filesystems. On Windows Vista and later, NTFS symbolic links can be used to link local directories to remote SMB network paths. Symbolic links do not work at boot, so it's impossible to redirect e.g.: Nevertheless, it is possible to redirect: NTFS volume mount point NTFS volume mount points are specialized NTFS filesystem objects which are used to mount and provide an entry point to other volumes. Mount points can be created in a directory on an NTFS file system, which gives a reference

neg: Windows NT startup process standard. Although it is "Level 1", the file names don't have the file version appended to it. The boot image is of the "no emulation" type, 1 sector long (2048 bytes) and is loaded at segment 0x7c0. It can be extracted from an ISO image by using a file-extraction program such as 7-Zip or WinZip. The ISO image is also not hybridized like ISO images from most Linux distributions and therefore it does not contain any master boot record (MBR) which makes it unable to boot by just copying the image over a block device such as a pen drive.

neg: Development of Windows Vista with long horns. The boot screen is also the same as Windows XP, but has "lh" replacing "xp". The "lh" represents "Longhorn". Build 5048 (built on April 1, 2005) was the official WinHEC 2005 preview build, described as the Longhorn Developer Preview, and made available to WinHEC attendees on April 24, 2005. It was the only build from this time period that was made available by Microsoft; it was not officially distributed outside of WinHEC, but the build quickly appeared on file sharing networks. The Aero visual style made its first appearance in this build, and the Desktop Window Manager

neg: Windows NT startup process Configuration Data (BCD), a complex firmware-independent database for boot-time configuration data. Its predecessor, codice_5, does so by reading the simpler codice_28. If the boot.ini file is missing, the boot loader will attempt to locate information from the standard installation directory. For Windows NT and 2000 machines, it will attempt to boot from codice_29. For Windows XP and 2003 machines, it will boot from codice_30. Both databases may contain a list of installed Microsoft operating systems that may be loaded from the local hard disk drive or a remote computer on the local network. NTLDR supports operating systems installed on disks

neg: Boot File System kernel sources on 28 October 1999 (Linux version 2.3.25). The original BFS was written at AT&T Bell Laboratories for the UNIX System V, Version 4.0 porting base in 1986. It was written by Ron Schnell, who is also the author of Dunnet (game). BFS was the first non-S5 (System V) Filesystem written using VFS (Virtual Filesystem) for AT&T UNIX. Boot File System The Boot File System (named BFS on Linux, but BFS also refers to the Be File System) was used on UnixWare to store files necessary to its boot process. It does not support directories, and only allows contiguous

neg: Advanced Computing Environment ARC conventions for naming boot devices before Windows Vista. Further, SGI used a modified version of the ARC firmware (which it calls ARCS) in its systems. All SGI computers which run IRIX 6.1 or later (such as the Indy, Octane, "etc.") boot from an ARCS console (which uses the same drive naming conventions as Windows, accordingly). In addition, most of the various RISC-based computers designed to run Windows NT used versions of the ARC boot console to boot NT. Among these computers were: It was also predicted that Intel IA-32-based computers would adopt the ARC console, although only SGI ever

neg: Features new to Windows Vista processed. At the end of the operation, the errors are presented to the user with resolution options (if available). If two files have the same name, an option is available to rename the file; in previous versions of Windows, the only options were to either replace the destination file or cancel the process. The user can also choose to apply the same action to further conflicts, if any. Also, for the first time in Windows, processing of dates when moving trees is somewhat consistent. Until now, every folder and subfolder obtained all three dates new to the time of operation.

neg: Windows Resource Protection Windows Resource Protection Windows Resource Protection is a feature in Windows Vista that replaces Windows File Protection. It protects registry keys and folders in addition to critical system files. The way it protects resources differs entirely from the method used by Windows File Protection. Windows Resource Protection works by registering for notification of file changes in Winlogon. If any changes are detected to a protected system file, the modified file is restored from a cached copy located in a compressed folder at %WinDir%\System32\dllcache. Windows Resource Protection works by setting discretionary access control lists (DACLs) and access control lists (ACLs) defined

neg: ZAP File ZAP File A .ZAP File (Zero Administration Package) is a text file, which allows the publishing of an application to a user on a Microsoft Windows system (Windows 2000, XP Professional, Windows Vista, or Windows 7 Professional), for applications for which a .MSI file does not exist. It is used in Active Directory Domains and is installed using a Group Policy. A .ZAP file can be as simple or as complicated as the System Administrator wishes to make it. There are only two required fields in a .ZAP file, an Application Name (called a Friendly Name) and a Setup Command

neg: Hard link output of codice_2. On Microsoft Windows, hard links can be created using the codice_3 command on Windows NT 6.0 and later systems (such as Windows Vista), and in earlier systems (Windows XP, Windows Server 2003) using codice_4. The Windows API from Windows 2000 onwards includes a CreateHardLink() call to create hard links, DeleteFile() is used to remove them, and GetFileInformationByHandle() can be used to determine the number of hard links associated with a file. Hard links require an NTFS partition. Starting with Windows Vista, hard links are used by Windows Component Store (WinSxS) to keep track of different versions of

neg: Comparison of Windows Vista and Windows XP file was copied from a network share to each desktop. For XP, it took 2 minutes and 54 seconds, for Vista with SP1 it took 2 minutes and 29 seconds. The Vista implementation of the file copy is arguably more complete and correct as the file does not register as being transferred until it has completely transferred; in Windows XP, the file completed dialogue box is displayed prior to the file actually finishing its copy or transfer, with the file completing after the dialogue is displayed. This can cause an issue if the storage device is ejected prior to the

neg: NTLDR this active partition. In a more convoluted scenario the active partition can contain a Vista boot sector for the newer Vista boot manager with an <nowiki>{ntldr}</nowiki> entry pointing to another partition with a NTLDR boot sector. When booting, the loader portion of NTLDR does the following in order: NTLDR's first action is to read the Boot.ini file. NTLDR allows the user to choose which operating system to boot from at the menu. For NT and NT-based operating systems, it also allows the user to pass preconfigured options to the kernel. The menu options are stored in "boot.ini", which itself is

neg: Windows NT startup process loader loads the contents of the file (which is a compressed version of a physical memory dump of the machine) into memory and restores the computer to the state that it was prior to hibernation. Next, the boot loader looks for a list of installed operating system entries. If more than one operating system is installed, the boot loader shows a boot menu and allow the user to select an operating system. If a non NT-based operating system such as Windows 98 is selected (specified by an MS-DOS style of path, e.g. C:\), then the boot loader loads the associated

neg: Windows Registry actually not stored on disk, but maintained in memory by the system kernel in order to map all the other subkeys. Applications cannot create any additional subkeys. On Windows NT, this key contains four subkeys, "SAM", "SECURITY", "SYSTEM", and "SOFTWARE", that are loaded at boot time within their respective files located in the %SystemRoot%\System32\config folder. A fifth subkey, "HARDWARE", is volatile and is created dynamically, and as such is not stored in a file (it exposes a view of all the currently detected Plug-and-Play devices). On Windows Vista and above, a sixth and seventh subkey, "COMPONENTS" and "BCD", are mapped

neg: QuickPlay above 2.3) have additional gaming and karaoke functions. QuickPlay software versions 3.0 and newer included in notebooks shipping with Windows Vista, solely retain the Windows-only component, as the "Direct" component is no longer implemented due to unresolved compatibility issues. Instead, users must first boot Windows Vista and log into their user accounts before the Windows-only version of the QuickPlay software can be run. This occurs regardless of whether QuickPlay is launched externally (via a notebook button or IR remote button) when the notebook is off, or when Windows Vista is running. QuickPlay software has been replaced by the HP MediaSmart

neg: Condusiv Technologies SanDisk, Samsung and LG. Condusiv OEM products include ExpressCache, which exploits a small-density SSD as a cache for a larger-capacity HDD, thus improving boot times and applications launch. The company also has several technologies such as HyperFast, a solid-state drive optimizer, HyperBoot, a boot-time optimization technology; and InvisiTasking, which enables any process to run invisibly in the background. Another technology introduced by the company in 2009 is IntelliWrite, an advanced file-system driver designed to leverage Windows’ file system “Best Fit” file-write design in order to write a file in a non-fragmented state. IntelliWrite is designed to prevent most fragmentation before

neg: Wubi (software) able to repair, re-mount, and boot from the Windows NTFS drive until Microsoft Windows has successfully booted, repaired the drive, and then shut down cleanly. If the Windows system could not be booted after the corruption to repair the filesystem, the user would also not be able to boot Ubuntu. Performance related to hard-disk access is also slightly slower on a Wubi install, more so if the underlying disk image file is fragmented, as the disk image file in the Windows filesystem contains a Linux filesystem whereas without Wubi only the Linux filesystem is used that has direct hardware access.

neg: Windows NT startup process string "Press any key to boot from CD." and waits for user input. If none is detected for some seconds, then it boots the next device, and so on. This behavior is essential for booting the second stage of the installer, which starts from the hard disk. Both codice_4 and codice_5 are composed of two binary files concatenated. They also can be found on the installation CD as compressed CAB files. The first file is codice_6, which is a flat binary file that just loads the second file. The second file is a regular EXE file in the Portable Executable

neg: Features new to Windows Vista for Windows Vista was developed with the SDL methodology, and all existing code was reviewed and refactored to improve security. Some of the most significant and most discussed security features included with Windows Vista include User Account Control, Kernel Patch Protection, BitLocker Drive Encryption, Mandatory Integrity Control, Digital Rights Management, TCP/IP stack security improvements, Address Space Layout Randomization and Encrypting File System and cryptography improvements. Additionally, Windows Vista includes a range of parental controls, which give owners of a computer a set of tools to limit what other accounts on a computer can do, and an improved Windows Firewall which

neg: MSSTYLES using different methods, by means of manual replacement and automation by executable files. Many popular and freely distributed theme-patching executable files can be found online. Windows Vista and Windows 7 also use .msstyles files for skinning (like the Aero.msstyles file), however the format of these files is completely different, so .msstyles files are not transferable between Windows Vista and Windows XP. This version of .msstyles file contains PNG images and metadata. There is a manual way to replace three DLL files (uxtheme.dll, shsvcs.dll and themeui.dll) to use unsigned custom visual styles in Windows Vista. MSSTYLES MSSTYLES is a Microsoft file

neg: File system system shares these concepts with Plan 9. Windows makes use of the FAT, NTFS, exFAT, Live File System and ReFS file systems (the last of these is only supported and usable in Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2016, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, and Windows 10; Windows cannot boot from it). Windows uses a "drive letter" abstraction at the user level to distinguish one disk or partition from another. For example, the path C:\WINDOWS represents a directory WINDOWS on the partition represented by the letter C. Drive C: is most commonly used for the primary hard disk drive partition, on which

neg: Macintosh and has posted it for download on their website. On April 5, 2006, Apple announced the availability of the public beta of Boot Camp, software that allows owners of Intel-based Macs to install Windows XP on their machines; later versions added support for Windows Vista and Windows 7. Classic was discontinued in Mac OS X 10.5, and Boot Camp became a standard feature on Intel-based Macs. Starting in 2006, Apple's industrial design shifted to favor aluminum, which was used in the construction of the first MacBook Pro. Glass was added in 2008 with the introduction of the unibody MacBook Pro.

neg: Features new to Windows Vista the Media Foundation topology loader to create a full media playback pipeline. DXVA 1.0 is emulated using DXVA 2.0. Windows Imaging Component (WIC) is a new extensible imaging framework that allows applications supporting the framework to automatically get support of installed codecs for graphics file formats. Windows Presentation Foundation applications also automatically support the installed image codecs. Third party developers can write their own image codecs for their specific image file formats. By default, Windows Vista ships with the JPEG, TIFF, GIF, PNG, BMP and HD Photo codecs. Codecs for RAW image formats used generally by high-end digital cameras are

neg: Trash (computing) folders seen on each partition in Windows Explorer. From Windows XP onwards, with NTFS, different users cannot see the contents of each other's Recycle Bins. Prior to Windows Vista, a file in the Recycle Bin is stored in its physical location and renamed as "D<original drive letter of file><#>.<original extension>". A hidden file called "info2" ("info" in Windows 95 without the Windows Desktop Update) stores the file's original path and original name in binary format. Since Windows Vista, the "meta" information of each file is saved as "$I<number>.<original extension>" and the original file is renamed to "$R<number>.<original extension>". When the