|
• |
/3GB |
|
• |
Increases the size
of the user process address space from 2 GB to 3 GB (and therefore
reduces the size of system space from 2 GB to 1 GB). Giving
virtual-memory- intensive applications such as database servers a
larger address space can improve their performance. For an
application to take advantage of this feature, however, two
additional conditions must be met: the system must be running
Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows NT 4 Enterprise Edition,
Windows 2000 Advanced Server or Datacenter Server and the
application .exe must be flagged as a 3-GB-aware application.
Applies to 32-bit systems only. |
|
• |
/BASEVIDEO |
|
• |
Causes Windows to
use the standard VGA display driver for GUI-mode operations. |
|
• |
/BAUDRATE= |
|
• |
Enables
kernel-mode debugging and specifies an override for the default baud
rate (19200) at which a remote kernel debugger host will connect.
Example: /BAUDRATE=115200. |
|
• |
/BOOTLOG |
|
• |
Causes Windows to
write a log of the boot to the file %SystemRoot%\Ntbtlog.txt. |
|
• |
/BOOTLOGO |
|
• |
Use this switch to
have Windows XP or Windows Server 2003 display an installable splash
screen instead of the standard splash screen. First, create a
16-color (any 16 colors) 640x480 bitmap and save it in the Windows
directory with the name Boot.bmp. Then add "/bootlogo /noguiboot" to
the boot.ini selection. |
|
• |
/BREAK |
|
• |
Causes the
hardware abstraction layer (HAL) to stop at a breakpoint at HAL
initialization. The first thing the Windows kernel does when it
initializes is to initialize the HAL, so this breakpoint is the
earliest one possible. The HAL will wait indefinitely at the
breakpoint until a kernel-debugger connection is made. If the switch
is used without the /DEBUG switch, the system will Blue Screen with
a STOP code of 0x00000078 (PHASE0_ EXCEPTION). |
|
• |
/BURNMEMORY= |
|
• |
Specifies an
amount of memory Windows can't use (similar to the /MAXMEM switch).
The value is specified in megabytes. Example: /BURNMEMORY=128 would
indicate that Windows can't use 128 MB of the total physical memory
on the machine. |
|
• |
/CHANNEL= |
|
• |
Used on
conjunction with /DEBUGPORT=1394 to specify the IEEE 1394 channel
through which kernel debugging communications will flow. This can be
any number between 0 and 62 and defaults to 0 if not set. |
|
• |
/CLKLVL |
|
• |
Causes the
standard x86 multiprocessor HAL (Halmps.dll) to configure itself for
a level-sensitive system clock rather then an edge-triggered clock.
Level-sensitive and edge-triggered are terms used to describe
hardware interrupt types. |
|
• |
/CMDCONS |
|
• |
Passed when
booting with into the Recovery Console (described later in this
chapter). |
|
• |
/CRASHDEBUG |
|
• |
Causes the kernel
debugger to be loaded when the system boots, but to remain inactive
unless a crash occurs. This allows the serial port that the kernel
debugger would use to be available for use by the system until the
system crashes (vs. /DEBUG, which causes the kernel debugger to use
the serial port for the life of the system session). |
|
• |
/DEBUG |
|
• |
Enables
kernel-mode debugging. |
|
• |
/DEBUGPORT= |
|
• |
Enables
kernel-mode debugging and specifies an override for the default
serial (usually COM2 on systems with at least two serial ports) to
which a remote kernel-debugger host is connected. Windows XP and
Windows Server 2003 also support debugging through accept IEEE 1394
ports. Examples: /DEBUGPORT=COM2, /DEBUGPORT=1394. |
|
• |
/EXECUTE |
|
• |
This option
disables no-execute protection. See the /NOEXECUTE switch for more
information. |
|
• |
/FASTDETECT |
|
• |
Default boot
option for Windows. Replaces the Windows NT 4 switch /NOSERIALMICE.
The reason the qualifier exists (vs. just having NTDETECT perform
this operation by default) is so that NTDETECT can support booting
Windows NT 4. Windows Plug and Play device drivers perform detection
of parallel and serial devices, but Windows NT 4 expects NTDETECT to
perform the detection. Thus, specifying /FASTDETECT causes NTDETECT
to skip parallel and serial device enumeration (actions that are not
required when booting Windows), whereas omitting the switch causes
NTDETECT to perform this enumeration (which is required for booting
Windows NT 4). |
|
• |
/INTAFFINITY |
|
• |
Directs the
standard x86 multiprocessor HAL (Halmps.dll) to set interrupt
affinities such that only the highest numbered processor will
receive interrupts. Without the switch, the HAL defaults to its
normal behavior of letting all processors receive interrupts. |
|
• |
/KERNEL=/HAL= |
|
• |
Enable you to
override Ntldr's default filename for the kernel image
(Ntoskrnl.exe) and/or the HAL (Hal.dll). These options are useful
for alternating between a checked kernel environment and a free
(retail) kernel environment or even to manually select a different
HAL. If you want to boot a checked environment that consists solely
of the checked kernel and HAL, which is typically all that is needed
to test drivers, follow these steps on a system installed with the
free build:
|
• |
Copy the
checked versions of the kernel images from the checked build CD
to your \Windows\System32 directory, giving the images different
names than the default. For example, if you're on a
uniprocessor, copy Ntoskrnl.exe to Ntoschk.exe and Ntkrnlpa.exe
to Ntoschkpa.exe. If you're on a multiprocessor, copy
Ntkrnlmp.exe to Ntoschk.exe and Ntkrpamp.exe to Ntoschkpa.exe.
The kernel filename must be an 8.3-style short name. |
|
• |
Copy the
checked version of the appropriate HAL needed for your system
from \I386\Driver.cab on the checked build CD to your
\Windows\System32 directory, naming it Halchk.dll. To determine
which HAL to copy, open \Windows\Repair\Setup.log and search for
Hal.dll; you'll find a line like \WINDOWS\system32\
hal.dll="halacpi.dll","1d8a1". The name immediately to the right
of the equals sign is the name of the HAL you should copy. The
HAL filename must be an 8.3-style short name. |
|
• |
Make a copy of
the default line in the system's Boot.ini file. |
|
• |
In the string
description of the boot selection, add something that indicates
that the new selection will be for a checked build environment
(for example, "Windows XP Professional Checked"). |
|
• |
Add the
following to the end of the new selection's line:
/KERNEL=NTOSCHK.EXE /HAL= HALCHK.DLL |
Now when the
selection menu appears during the boot process you can select the
new entry to boot a checked environment or select the entry you were
using to boot the free build. |
|
• |
/LASTKNOWNGOOD |
|
• |
Causes the system
to boot as if the LastKnownGood boot option was selected. |
|
• |
/MAXMEM= |
|
• |
Limits Windows to
ignore (not use) physical memory beyond the amount indicated. The
number is interpreted in megabytes. Example: /MAXMEM=32 would limit
the system to using the first 32 MB of physical memory even if more
were present. |
|
• |
/MAXPROCSPERCLUSTER= |
|
• |
For the standard
x86 multiprocessor HAL (Halmps.dll), forces cluster-mode Advanced
Programmable Interrupt Controller (APIC) addressing (not supported
on systems with an 82489DX external APIC interrupt controller). |
|
• |
/MININT |
|
• |
This option is
used by Windows PE (Preinstallation Environment) and causes the
Configuration Manager to load the Registry SYSTEM hive as a volatile
hive such that changes made to it in memory are not saved back to
the hive image. |
|
• |
/NODEBUG |
|
• |
Prevents
kernel-mode debugging from being initialized. Overrides the
specification of any of the three debug-related switches, /DEBUG,
/DEBUGPORT, and /BAUDRATE. |
|
• |
/NOEXECUTE |
|
• |
This option is
only available on 32-bit versions of Windows when running on
processors supporting no-execute protection. It enables no-execute
protection (also known as Data Execution Protection - DEP), which
results in the Memory Manager marking pages containing data as
no-execute so that they cannot be executed as code. This can be
useful for preventing malicious code from exploiting buffer overflow
bugs with unexpected program input in order to execute arbitrary
code. No-execute protection is always enabled on 64-bit versions of
Windows on processors that support no-execute protection. There are
several options you can specify with this switch:
|
• |
/NOEXECUTE=OPTIN Enables DEP for core system
images and those specified in the DEP configuration dialog. |
|
• |
/NOEXECUTE=OPTOUT Enables DEP for all images
except those specified in the DEP configuration dialog. |
|
• |
/NOEXECUTE=ALWAYSON Enables DEP on all images. |
|
• |
/NOEXECUTE=ALWAYSOFF Disables DEP. |
|
|
• |
/NOGUIBOOT |
|
• |
Instructs Windows
not to initialize the VGA video driver responsible for presenting
bitmapped graphics during the boot process. The driver is used to
display boot progress information, so disabling it will disable the
ability of Windows to show this information. |
|
• |
/NOLOWMEM |
|
• |
Requires that the
/PAE switch be present and that the system have more than 4 GB of
physical memory. If these conditions are met, the PAE-enabled
version of the Windows kernel, Ntkrnlpa.exe, won't use the first 4
GB of physical memory. Instead, it will load all applications and
device drivers, and allocate all memory pools, from above that
boundary. This switch is useful only to test device driver
compatibility with large memory systems. |
|
• |
/NOPAE |
|
• |
Forces Ntldr to
load the non-Physical Address Extension (PAE) version of the Windows
kernel, even if the system is detected as supporting x86 PAEs and
has more than 4 GB of physical memory. |
|
• |
/NOSERIALMICE=[COMx | COMx,y,z...] |
|
• |
Obsolete Windows
NT 4 qualifier-replaced by the absence of the /FASTDETECT switch.
Disables serial mouse detection of the specified COM ports. This
switch was used if you had a device other than a mouse attached to a
serial port during the startup sequence. Using /NOSERIALMICE without
specifying a COM port disables serial mouse detection on all COM
ports. See Microsoft Knowledge Base article Q131976 for more
information. |
|
• |
/NUMPROC= |
|
• |
Specifies the
number of CPUs that can be used on a multiprocessor system. Example:
/NUMPROC=2 on a four-way system will prevent Windows from using two
of the four processors. |
|
• |
/ONECPU |
|
• |
Causes Windows to
use only one CPU on a multiprocessor system. |
|
• |
/PAE |
|
• |
Causes Ntldr to
load Ntkrnlpa.exe, which is the version of the x86 kernel that is
able to take advantage of x86 PAEs. The PAE version of the kernel
presents 64-bit physical addresses to device drivers, so this switch
is helpful for testing device driver support for large memory
systems. |
|
• |
/PCILOCK |
|
• |
Stops Windows from
dynamically assigning IO/IRQ resources to PCI devices and leaves the
devices configured by the BIOS. See Microsoft Knowledge Base article
Q148501 for more information. |
|
• |
/RDPATH= |
|
• |
Specifies the path
to a System Disk Image (SDI) file, which can be on the network, that
the system will use to boot from. Often used in conjunction with the
/RDIMAGEOFFSET= flag to indicate to NTLDR where in the file the
system image starts. |
|
• |
/REDIRECT |
|
• |
Introduced with
Windows XP. Used to cause Windows to enable Emergency Management
Services (EMS) that reports boot information and accepts system
management commands through a serial port. Specify serial port and
baudrate used in conjunction with EMS with redirect= and
redirectbaudrate= lines in the [boot loader] section of the Boot.ini
file. |
|
• |
/SAFEBOOT: |
|
• |
Specifies options
for a safe boot. You should never have to specify this option
manually, since Ntldr specifies it for you when you use the F8 menu
to perform a safe boot. (A safe boot is a boot in which Windows only
loads drivers and services that are specified by name or group under
the Minimal or Network registry keys under HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SafeBoot.)
Following the colon in the option you must specify one of three
additional switches: MINIMAL, NETWORK, or DSREPAIR. The MINIMAL and
NETWORK flags correspond to safe boot with no network and safe boot
with network support, respectively. The DSREPAIR (Directory Services
Repair) switch causes Windows to boot into a mode in which it
restores the Active Directory directory service from a backup medium
you present. An additional option you can append is (ALTERNATESHELL),
which tells Windows to use the program specified by the HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\
SafeBoot\AlternateShell value as the graphical shell rather than to
use the default, which is Windows Explorer. |
|
• |
/SCSIORDINAL: |
|
• |
Directs Windows to
the SCSI ID of the controller. (Adding a new SCSI device to a system
with an on-board SCSI controller can cause the controller's SCSI ID
to change.) See Microsoft Knowledge Base article Q103625 for more
information. |
|
• |
/SDIBOOT= |
|
• |
Used in Windows XP
Embedded systems to have Windows boot from a RAM disk image stored
in the specified System Disk Image (SDI) file. |
|
• |
/SOS |
|
• |
Causes Windows to
list the device drivers marked to load at boot time and then to
display the system version number (including the build number),
amount of physical memory, and number of processors. |
|
• |
/TIMERES= |
|
• |
Sets the
resolution of the system timer on the standard x86 multiprocessor
HAL (Halmps.dll). The argument is a number interpreted in hundreds
of nanoseconds, but the rate is set to the closest resolution the
HAL supports that isn't larger than the one requested. The HAL
supports the following resolutions: Hundreds of nanoseconds
Milliseconds (ms) 9766 0.98 19532 2.00 39063 3.90 78125 7.80 The
default resolution is 7.8 ms. The system timer resolution affects
the resolution of waitable timers. Example: /TIMERES=21000 would set
the timer to a resolution of 2.0 ms. |
|
• |
/USERVA= |
|
• |
This switch is
only supported on Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. Like the /3GB
switch, this switch gives applications a larger address space.
Specify the amount in MB between 2048 and 3072. This switch has the
same application requirements as the /3GB switch and requires that
the /3GB switch be present. Applies to 32-bit systems only. |
|
• |
/WIN95 |
|
• |
Directs Ntldr to
boot the Consumer Windows boot sector stored in Bootsect.w40. This
switch is pertinent only on a triple-boot system that has MS-DOS,
Consumer Windows, and Windows installed. See Microsoft Knowledge
Base article Q157992 for more information. |
|
• |
/WIN95DOS |
|
• |
Directs Ntldr to
boot the MS-DOS boot sector stored in Bootsect.dos. This switch is
pertinent only on a triple-boot system that has MS-DOS, Consumer
Windows, and Windows installed. See Microsoft Knowledge Base article
Q157992 for more information. |
|
• |
/YEAR= |
|
• |
Instructs the
Windows core time function to ignore the year that the computer's
real-time clock reports and instead use the one indicated. Thus, the
year used in the switch affects every piece of software on the
system, including the Windows kernel. Example: /YEAR=2001. (This
switch was created to assist in Y2K testing.) |
