What is meant by booting a computer?
To boot (as a verb; also “to boot up”) a computer is to load an operating system into the computer’s main memory or random access memory (RAM). Once the operating system is loaded (and, for example, on a PC, you see the initial Windows or Mac desktop screen), it’s ready for users to run applications. Sometimes you’ll see an instruction to “reboot” the operating system. This simply means to reload the operating system (the most familiar way to do this on PCs is pressing the Ctrl, Alt, and Delete keys at the same time). On larger computers (including mainframes), the equivalent term for “boot” is “initial program load” (IPL) and for “reboot” is “re-IPL.” Boot is also used as a noun for the act of booting, as in “a system boot.” The term apparently derives from bootstrap which is a small strap or loop at the back of a leather boot that enables you to pull the entire boot on. There is also an expression, “pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps,” meaning to leverage yourself to success
