käynnistysohjelmien

Käynnistysohjelma, known in English as a bootloader, is a special program whose primary function is to load the operating system when a computer is turned on. It resides in a specific location on the storage device, typically the master boot record (MBR) or the GUID Partition Table (GPT) for modern systems. When the computer powers on, the BIOS or UEFI firmware initializes hardware and then looks for and executes the bootloader.

The bootloader's task is to locate the operating system kernel on the disk and load it into memory. It may also present a menu allowing the user to choose which operating system to boot if multiple are installed. In some cases, it can also load additional modules or drivers required for the operating system to start correctly. Examples of common bootloaders include GRUB (GRand Unified Bootloader) for Linux systems and the Windows Boot Manager for Microsoft Windows. The process is crucial for the overall startup sequence of any computer system.