Tiny PXE Server

Installing Windows NT 6.*

My preferred method for installing Windows NT 6.* (Windows 7/8/8.1 etc) is booting into a custom WinPE (MistyPE) and running setup.exe - either from a mounted .iso or a network share. The main limitation in using this method is the requirement for using a 32-bit WinPE to run the 32-bit Windows installer or a 64-bit WinPE to run the 64-bit Windows installer. There are other methods that can be used to overcome this limitation.

Configuring the Server
Connect to the network share
Run setup.exe
Alternative Method

Configuring the Server

Setup Tiny PXE Server to include MistyPE (or an alternative WinPE build - including boot.wim from Windows installation media, WinRE, etc) using the instructions in the WinPE section of this guide (copying boot.wim, boot.sdi, boot\BCD, etc - filename=pxeboot.n12 in config.ini).

Using Windows 7 as an example, copy the contents of your Windows 7 installation DVD to C:\pxesrv\files\win7 (edit paths to reflect your own setup). Now share the C:\pxesrv\files\win7 directory as sharename win7.

Start pxesrv.exe.

Connect to the network share

Network boot the Client PC - loading WinPE.

Start network services if they are not started automatically (MistyPE does not run the Wpeutil InitializeNetwork command at startup).

Server setup (information required for connecting to the server share win7) -

IP Address - 192.168.2.1
Computer Name - SERVER
Account - Admin
Admin Account password - mypassword

To connect to a network share from WinPE the following command syntax is used -
net use DRIVE: \\REMOTE_COMPUTER\SHARE /u:ACCOUNT "PASSWORD"

Where -

DRIVE: - mount point to be used (e.g. Z:). Alternatively use * to allocate an available drive letter.

REMOTE_COMPUTER - IP (v4) address of the computer containing the share (e.g. 192.168.2.1) - or alternatively use the Computer (NetBIOS) Name.

SHARE - name of network share on the REMOTE_COMPUTER (e.g. win7).

ACCOUNT - a valid account/username for the REMOTE_COMPUTER (e.g. Admin)

PASSWORD - password for connecting to the account name used above. If password has not been set then use empty quotes "".

E.g.

net use Z: \\192.168.2.1\win7 /u:Admin "mypassword"
net use * \\SERVER\win7 /u:Admin "mypassword"

Run setup.exe

Assuming there were no issues connecting to the network share in the preceding step, and the share was mounted as Z:, run the following command from a command prompt -

Z:\setup.exe

Alternative Method

There are a range of alternatives to running setup.exe - my preferred method is using Wimlib-ImageX (download here) - a Linux version is also available. Add Wimlib-Imagex.exe (and dependencies) to your WinPE build - or add them to the win7 share if this is more convenient.

Follow the instructions in the Connect to the network share section. We'll assume here that the share is mounted as Z:.

You will need to prepare the hard disk on the client system before running Wimlib-Imagex.exe - create an active primary partition for the Windows installation if required. diskpart.exe in WinPE can be used to prepare the disk - it will automatically add the code required to load BOOTMGR (the windows boot loader) to the volume boot record when formatting the volume. We'll assume in the instructions below that the volume to be used for the Windows Operating System is mounted as C:

Apply the contents of Z:\sources\install.wim to your local volume using the syntax below -
wimlib-imagex.exe apply [WIM] [IMAGE_NUMBER] [TARGET]

Where -

apply - wimlib command used to extract the contents of a .wim file to another location.

WIM - .wim file (e.g. Z:\sources\install.wim).

IMAGE_NUMBER - .wim files can contain multiple images - use this to specify which image to apply to the target (e.g. 5).

TARGET - the volume to apply the contents of your .wim file to (e.g. C:\).

E.g.

wimlib-imagex.exe apply Z:\sources\install.wim 5 C:\

After applying the Windows OS to volume C: you will need to create boot files. Use bcdboot.exe with the following command (edit to reflect your own setup) -

bcdboot.exe C:\windows /s C:\

Sample batch file for applying Z:\sources\install.wim and running bcdboot (edit to reflect your own setup) -
@echo off SETLOCAL SET IMAGE_NUMBER=5 SET WIMLIB="%~dp0wimlib-imagex.exe" SET WIM=Z:\sources\install.wim ::Drive needs to use syntax #: SET TARGET=C: :_menu cls echo. ECHO Drive (%TARGET%) selected ECHO WIM - %WIM% echo. echo This script will atempt to - echo * Apply WIM (image %IMAGE_NUMBER%) to %TARGET% echo * run "bcdboot %TARGET%\windows /s %TARGET%" command ECHO. set choice= set /p choice=Y or N to continue. if '%choice%'=='y' goto _continue if '%choice%'=='Y' goto _continue if '%choice%'=='n' goto _end if '%choice%'=='N' goto _end goto _menu :_continue cls echo Apply %WIM% (image %IMAGE_NUMBER%) to %TARGET% ECHO. %WIMLIB% apply %WIM% %IMAGE_NUMBER% %TARGET%\ echo. echo. echo. pause cls echo running "bcdboot %TARGET%\windows /s %TARGET%" command echo. bcdboot %TARGET%\windows /s %TARGET% :_end cls echo. echo. echo. pause ENDLOCAL exit

Document date - 28^th February 2017(DRAFT)