SMSSInit Subphase
What Happens in This Subphase
The SMSSInit subphase begins when the kernel passes control to the session manager process (Smss.exe). During this subphase, the system initializes the registry, loads and starts the devices and drivers that are not marked BOOT_START, and starts the subsystem processes. SMSSInit ends when control is passed to Winlogon.exe.
Visual Cues
There are no explicit visual cues for the start of SMSSInit, but the blank screen that appears between the splash screen and the logon screen is part of SMSSInit. It ends before the logon screen appears.
SMSSInit Performance Vulnerabilities
Video drivers are a common source of performance problems in the SMSSInit subphase. The video driver must be initialized first in the system session and then in the user session. Reduction of video driver initialization time leads to a direct wall-clock reduction in boot time.
Initialization in the user session is typically much faster than in the system session because Windows performs common initialization tasks during the system session.
So if the SMSSInit Phase takes too long, try to get an graphic card driver update.
