MDT 2010 New Feature #8: No more visible command windows when booting Lite Touch Windows PE
In MDT 2008, the Windows PE startup process was something close to this:
- Windows PE started CMD.EXE to run STARTNET.CMD.
- STARTNET.CMD started WPEINIT.EXE.
- WPEINIT.EXE initialized networking and optional components, then ran “WSCRIPT.EXE X:\Deploy\Scripts\LiteTouch.wsf”.
- LiteTouch.wsf started a minimized CMD.EXE, for troubleshooting, then runs the Welcome or Deployment Wizard.
That meant that there was always a command window visible on the screen, as well as another minimized one that could be used for troubleshooting. Some didn’t like that cluttered look, so they hooked in utilities to hide these command windows.
With MDT 2010, that will no longer be necessary. The startup process has been modified:
- Windows PE starts BDDRUN.EXE.
- BDDRUN.EXE starts WPEINIT.EXE.
- WPEINIT.EXE initialized networking and optional components, then ran “WSCRIPT.EXE X:\Deploy\Scripts\LiteTouch.wsf”.
- LiteTouch.wsf runs the Welcome or Deployment Wizard.
That means no command windows at all:
Well, what if you really want a command prompt so that you can do some troubleshooting (e.g. checking if a network driver has been installed)? Simple, press the F8 key and one will be started for you. (This command prompt should behave like the one in ConfigMgr 2007: as long as you have a command prompt open, the machine won’t reboot. However, there is a problem with that in MDT 2010 Beta 2 so the machine will reboot even with the command prompt open. That should be fixed before the final release of MDT 2010.)
