Talk:Windows Vista Startup Process

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Cwolfsheep 15:54, 8 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] I'm just a bit confused

How exactly does this whole system differ from NTLDR? It just seems to me like they renamed the binary, changed the configuration file format, and made it compatible with EFI. Now, the last of those is rather significant, but does it really need a whole article to say "Windows Vista and Windows Longhorn Server will support booting from EFI?"—Kbolino 08:19, 23 September 2006 (UTC)

In the new scheme, the "loading" part of the process is handled by a separate file (winload.exe); besides requiring an obvious change of name (since what replaces NTLDR does not "load" any more), it opens wide arrays of new possibilities to branch to other things than just WinLoading, and does not require any more hacks like the use of chain-loading of variants of SetupLdr.bin to launch the recovery console, or the various /win9xxx flags. The design is an order of magnitude more clean. Antoinel 14:24, 19 February 2007 (UTC)

Does the new boot process preclude chainloading a Vista partition? If so, why?

I do not understand the question. The new scheme, like the older, certainly can boot Vista (and even recent xp/2003) kernel directly from various partitions, and certainly can chain-load arbitrary boot records, including one that mimics the VBR from another partition. A different problem is to boot a volume which is not marked as active, something which has traditionnaly been difficult with MS booting programs. Antoinel 14:24, 19 February 2007 (UTC)

Apprently it does preclude chainloading (i.e. putting something else on the MBR). It is briefly mentioned here http://www.windowsbbs.com/showthread.php?t=55415 (found via http://blogs.sun.com/moinakg/ )

It is certainly possible to boot Vista with a different code in the MBR that the one MS put without asking while installing the operating system. Of course the disk signature should be preserved, but again this is not a new requirement. Antoinel 14:24, 19 February 2007 (UTC)

Further rumour suggests you *might* be able to use something else on the MBR if you are not using BitLocker/TPM - http://www.multibooters.co.uk/cloning.html

Fact is that with TPCA, the full content of the MBR is part of the chain of trust; so if one OS is in control of the TCPA chip, and registered the OS version of the MBR, it is now impossible to install any other software there without defeating the whole chain. There is nothing specific to Vista here. Antoinel 14:24, 19 February 2007 (UTC)