Plug and Play Boot Process

During the real-mode boot process, devices use only static configurations; no dynamic resource allocation or arbitration is provided. When a user adds a new device to the system, no software attempts to enable the device until the protect mode Configuration Manager has been able to set up the device successfully. One possible exception to this is that a Plug and Play BIOS may enable plug & play devices which are required for booting the system.

The boot process goes through four phases:

1. BIOS in control (Phase 0)
2. MS-DOS compatibility driver and TSR loading (Phase 1)
3. VMM32.VXD real-mode initialization (Phase 2)
4. Operating system in Control in protected mode (Phase 3)