3 ms·

It's coming from the same people that call "boot" the volume where the operating system resides and "system" the volume that is booted: http://www.multibooters

by jaclaz 4y ago

It's coming from the same people that call "boot" the volume where the operating system resides and "system" the volume that is booted: http://www.multibooters.co.uk/system.html http://www.multibooters.co.uk/system.html And that of course puts 32 bits executables in SysWoW64 and 64 bit executables in System32.

squarefoot 3y ago
Not to mention the backslash.
Dalewyn 3y ago
It kind of makes sense if you give it some thought, though. The system boots from the "system" partition, and then the system boots the operating system in the "boot" partition. system32 holding 64-bit binaries in 64-bit Windows is 300% backwards compatibility to accomodate legacy hard-code, though.
- jaclaz 3y ago
  Yes and no. Compare: >The system boots from the "system" partition, and then the system boots the operating system in the "boot" partition. With: The operating system boots from the "boot" partition, and then it is loaded from the "system" partition. Or: The boot files are in the "boot" volume, the operating system files are on the "system" volume. In any case, you shouldn't put a folder containing the BCD (Boot Configuration Data) in a \boot folder and the BOOTMGR on a volume that you call "system" or you don't call the "other" volume "boot". About SysWow64/System32 sure it has been done for compatibility reasons but while System32 had to be kept, the name of the "new" folder could have been better chosen, like (say) Old32Sys, or Legacy32, or similar. Of course both represent not a problem, the naming is not intuitive and allows for a quick laugh, that's all.
  - Dalewyn 3y ago
    >The operating system boots from the "boot" partition That's why the "Boot" tag moves to whichever partition is host to the running OS. The "system", as in the boot loader, is not the OS, is separate from the OS, and initializes before the OS. >About SysWow64/System32 sure it has been done for compatibility reasons but while System32 had to be kept, the name of the "new" folder could have been better chosen, like (say) Old32Sys, or Legacy32, or similar. The name stems from the Windows on Windows[1] subsystem, or WoW for short, which serves to execute 16-bit executables on 32-bit Windows NT. The most famous component of this subsystem is NTVDM[2]. Windows 32-bit on Windows 64-bit[3], or WoW64 for short, is the 32-bit practical equivalent to WoW for 64-bit Windows NT. Whereas WoW relied heavily on virtualization and emulation, WoW64 instead presents a 32-bit system library that 32-bit programs are silently redirected to. As an aside, C:\Windows\System is still around for backwards compatibility even in 64-bit Windows. It houses 16-bit binaries.[4] [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_on_Windows https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_on_Windows [2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_DOS_machine#Windows_NTVDM https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_DOS_machine#Windows_NT... [3]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WoW64 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WoW64 [4]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_folder#List_of_special_folders https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_folder#List_of_special...
    - jaclaz 3y ago
      On Bios, the BIOS executes code in the MBR (Master Boot Record) that chainloads the PBR (Partition Boot Record) of the active (or boot) flagged partition in the partition table. The code in the PBR (Partition Boot Record) chainloads a file named BOOTMGR (which is a boot manager) that looks at what to boot in a file residing in the \boot folder called BCD (Boot Configuration Data). Q:How do you call the partition (volume) where this stuff is? A:System
      - Dalewyn 3y ago
        I know how Windows Boot Manager (aka WBM, BOOTMGR) works. :P EFI or BIOS loads WBM, which resides in the EFI system partition or active partition (also tagged "System") as applicable, which then reads the Boot Configuration Data (aka BCD) also located in that partition. Windows itself is located in a separate partition from WBM and BCD.[1] WBM then boots a specified Windows installation from a given partition, which is tagged as "Boot". If desired, WBM can also chainload into another bootloader (eg: NTLDR, Windows 9x bootloader, GRUB, etc.) to boot something other than Windows NT6 and up.[2] [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Boot_Manager https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Boot_Manager [2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Booting_process_of_Windows_NT#Operating_system_selection https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Booting_process_of_Windows_NT#...

by jaclaz 4y ago

squarefoot 3y ago

Not to mention the backslash.

Dalewyn 3y ago

It kind of makes sense if you give it some thought, though. The system boots from the "system" partition, and then the system boots the operating system in the "boot" partition. system32 holding 64-bit binaries in 64-bit Windows is 300% backwards compatibility to accomodate legacy hard-code, though.

jaclaz 3y ago
Yes and no. Compare: >The system boots from the "system" partition, and then the system boots the operating system in the "boot" partition. With: The operating system boots from the "boot" partition, and then it is loaded from the "system" partition. Or: The boot files are in the "boot" volume, the operating system files are on the "system" volume. In any case, you shouldn't put a folder containing the BCD (Boot Configuration Data) in a \boot folder and the BOOTMGR on a volume that you call "system" or you don't call the "other" volume "boot". About SysWow64/System32 sure it has been done for compatibility reasons but while System32 had to be kept, the name of the "new" folder could have been better chosen, like (say) Old32Sys, or Legacy32, or similar. Of course both represent not a problem, the naming is not intuitive and allows for a quick laugh, that's all.
- Dalewyn 3y ago
  >The operating system boots from the "boot" partition That's why the "Boot" tag moves to whichever partition is host to the running OS. The "system", as in the boot loader, is not the OS, is separate from the OS, and initializes before the OS. >About SysWow64/System32 sure it has been done for compatibility reasons but while System32 had to be kept, the name of the "new" folder could have been better chosen, like (say) Old32Sys, or Legacy32, or similar. The name stems from the Windows on Windows[1] subsystem, or WoW for short, which serves to execute 16-bit executables on 32-bit Windows NT. The most famous component of this subsystem is NTVDM[2]. Windows 32-bit on Windows 64-bit[3], or WoW64 for short, is the 32-bit practical equivalent to WoW for 64-bit Windows NT. Whereas WoW relied heavily on virtualization and emulation, WoW64 instead presents a 32-bit system library that 32-bit programs are silently redirected to. As an aside, C:\Windows\System is still around for backwards compatibility even in 64-bit Windows. It houses 16-bit binaries.[4] [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_on_Windows https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_on_Windows [2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_DOS_machine#Windows_NTVDM https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_DOS_machine#Windows_NT... [3]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WoW64 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WoW64 [4]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_folder#List_of_special_folders https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_folder#List_of_special...
  - jaclaz 3y ago
    On Bios, the BIOS executes code in the MBR (Master Boot Record) that chainloads the PBR (Partition Boot Record) of the active (or boot) flagged partition in the partition table. The code in the PBR (Partition Boot Record) chainloads a file named BOOTMGR (which is a boot manager) that looks at what to boot in a file residing in the \boot folder called BCD (Boot Configuration Data). Q:How do you call the partition (volume) where this stuff is? A:System
    - Dalewyn 3y ago
      I know how Windows Boot Manager (aka WBM, BOOTMGR) works. :P EFI or BIOS loads WBM, which resides in the EFI system partition or active partition (also tagged "System") as applicable, which then reads the Boot Configuration Data (aka BCD) also located in that partition. Windows itself is located in a separate partition from WBM and BCD.[1] WBM then boots a specified Windows installation from a given partition, which is tagged as "Boot". If desired, WBM can also chainload into another bootloader (eg: NTLDR, Windows 9x bootloader, GRUB, etc.) to boot something other than Windows NT6 and up.[2] [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Boot_Manager https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Boot_Manager [2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Booting_process_of_Windows_NT#Operating_system_selection https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Booting_process_of_Windows_NT#...