A filter driver that is loaded during an initial part of the boot process enable operating systems that are not capable of booting from central storage to be booted from central storage. According to this technique, an initial set of operating system files is loaded into system memory from a local storage volume. The initial set of files includes a small subset of all of the operating system files and includes a boot loader, a kernel, boot time drivers, a file system driver, and a filter driver. The filter driver takes control over the loading of the remainder of the operating system files, so that these files are loaded from central storage instead of the local storage volume.