The Hidden Purpose of Windows' winstart.bat
The little-known winstart.bat batch file
Raymond Chen explains the little-known winstart.bat file in Windows 95, which runs during system startup before the GUI loads. Unlike autoexec.bat, it loads TSRs only for Windows programs, not for MS-DOS virtual machines. This feature actually dates back to Windows 3.1, as documented in the Resource Kit. The article includes diagrams and a table illustrating how TSRs are visible in different virtual machines.
It’s like leaving your house, walking down the street, and halfway down the block, realizing that you’re now walking inside a movie studio set.
- EvanAnderson
The architecture the DOS-based windows line, and particularly the versions that had the virtual machine manager and ran in 32-bit protected mode, is such an interesting crufty archaeological dig. The OS's are bristling with hacks to make things work in resource-constrained environments, all while having ridiculous amounts of compatibility. There's a certain perverse elegance in it.
NT, being a "real" OS (with memory protection, kernel/user separation, access control, etc), seems so much more obvious (and boring) in its design compared to the earlier DOS-based Windows series. The "adults" came in and showed the kids how to make a grown-up operating system.
I don't miss the instability of the older DOS-based Windows OS's, for sure. I wouldn't want to go back there. For their time, though, they really did punch above their weight.
Edit: I didn't mean "adults" in any negative sense. I think MSFT took advantage of an opportunity for some very senior and opinionated talent.
- userbinator
We booted an operating system and then booted another operating system around it, so that the original operating system was now running inside a virtual machine controlled by the second operating system.
Decades later, this was again brought to attention by https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperjacking and subsequently Microsoft themselves "reinvented" the concept as a Windows feature: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/design/de...
- nonfamous
Nice little metaphor in the footnote, there:
>>> Think about that: We booted an operating system and then booted another operating system around it, so that the original operating system was now running inside a virtual machine controlled by the second operating system. It’s like leaving your house, walking down the street, and halfway down the block, realizing that you’re now walking inside a movie studio set.
- layer8
Here’s hoping that we’ll have the technology to digitize human brains before Raymond Chen dies.
- joshuat
Always enjoy a Raymond Chen article