How is the system configured for PXE booting?

Getting PXE boot working end-to-end requires setting up the surrounding network infrastructure, not just the boot image itself. Two services are essential: a DHCP server, which tells network clients where to find the boot files, and a TFTP server, which actually delivers the boot image and related files to those clients over the network.

This infrastructure can be built in a few different ways depending on the environment: on a Windows Server platform using Windows Deployment Services (WDS), on a regular Windows 10/11 computer using manually configured DHCP options and a TFTP root folder, or with a dedicated third-party tool such as Serva, which bundles DHCP and TFTP configuration into a single lightweight application and is often the fastest way to get a test or small-scale PXE environment running. Regardless of the method, the prepared BOOT.WIM (along with supporting files such as BOOT.SDI) needs to be placed in the TFTP server's \Boot directory, and a BCD (Boot Configuration Data) file must be created to define how the boot manager loads the WinPE image — including the RAMDISK, BOOTMGR, and OSLoader settings. Once DHCP, TFTP, and the BCD file are correctly configured, client machines that boot with PXE enabled will automatically download the boot files and load directly into Active@ KillDisk.

For more information on launching Active@ KillDisk directly over the network, please refer to our User Guide.