| /PAE |
This has NTLdr
load NtKrnlpa.exe, which is the version of
the x86 kernel that is able to take
advantage of Intel Physical Address Extensions (PAE),
even when a system does not have more than 4Gb
of physical memory. PAE permits an x86
system to have up to 64Gb of physical
memory, but an operating system must be specially
coded to use memory beyond 4Gb (the
standard x86 limit). The PAE-version
of the Win2K kernel presents 64-bit
physical addresses to device drivers, so this
switch is helpful for testing device driver
support for large memory systems. |
| /NOPAE |
This switch forces NTLdr to
load the non-PAE version of the Win2K
kernel, even if the system is detected as
supporting x86 Physical Address Extensions
(PAE) and has more than 4Gb of
physical memory. |
| /NOLOWMEM |
This switch
requires that the /PAE switch be
present and that the system have more than 4Gb
of physical memory. If these conditions hold,
then the PAE-enabled version of the Win2K
kernel, NtKrnlpa.exe, will not use the
first 4Gb 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 compatability with large memory
systems. |
| /NOGUIBOOT |
When this option is specified, the VGA
video driver responsible for presenting bit
mapped graphics
during
Win2K's boot process is not initialized.
The driver is used to display boot progress
information, as well as to print the Blue Screen
crash screen, so disabling it will disable Win2K's
ability to do those things as well. |
| /FASTDETECT |
When you
dual boot WinNT 4.0 and Win2K, the Win2K
version of NTDetect.com is used during the
boot process. In Win2K, detection of
parallel and serial devices is performed by plug-and-play
device
drivers, but WinNT 4.0 expects NTDetect.com
to perform the detection. Thus, specifying /FASTDETECT
causes NTDetect.com to skip parallel and
serial device enumeration for a boot into Win2K,
whereas ommitting the switch has NTDetect.com
perform enumeration for a boot into WinNT 4.0.
For Win2K boots the switch is present and
for boots into WinNT 4.0 the switch is
omitted. |
| /BOOTLOG |
Specifying this switch will result
in Win2K writing a log of the boot to the
file %SystemRoot% \NTBtLog.txt.The log has
entries that detail which drivers load and do not
load during the boot process. Here is example
output from a log (note that the log file is un
UNICODE) :
Microsoft
(R) Windows NT (R) Version 5.0
Loaded
driver \WINNT\System32\ntoskrnl.exe
Loaded
driver \WINNT\System32\hal.dll
Loaded
driver \WINNT\System32\bootvid.dll
Loaded
driver pci.sys
Loaded
driver isapnp.sys
Loaded
driver intelide.sys |
| /SAFEBOOT: |
You should
never have to specify this option manually, since
NTLdr does it for you when you use
the F8
menu to perform a safe boot. Following the colon
in the option you must specify an additional
switch :
| MINIMAL |
|
Safe boot without network
support. Win2K only loads drivers
and services that are specified by name
or group in HKLM \System
\CurrentControlSet \Control \SafeBoot
\Minimal. |
| NETWORK |
|
Safe boot with network
support. Win2K only loads drivers
and services that are specified by name
or group in HKLM \System
\CurrentControlSet \Control \SafeBoot
\Network. |
| DSREPAIR |
|
The DSREPAIR (Directory
Services Repair) switch causes Win2K
to boot into a mode where it restores the
Active Directory from a backup medium you
present. |
| ALTERNATESHELL |
|
This tells Win2K to
use the program specified by HKLM
\System \CurrentControlSet \SafeBoot
\AlternateShell as the graphical
shell, rather than to use the default
which is Explorer.exe. |
|
/PERFMEM=
/PERFPAGES= |
These flags are not likely to be
supported in the final release of Win2K,
as they are used to have WinNT 4.0 reserve
physical memory for the purposes of Basic Block
Testing (BBT). They should not be specified
together.
See
transcript at
Microsoft dated 02/02/99.
| PERFMEM |
|
Physical memory to reserve
in Mb |
| PERFPAGES |
|
Physical memory to reserve
in number of pages |
|
| /INTAFFINITY |
This new
switch directs the multiprocessor HAL (HALMPS.dll)
to set interrupt affinities so that only the
highest numbered processor in an SMP will
receive interrupts. Without the switch the HAL
defaults to its normal behavior of letting all
processors receive interrupts. |
/MAXPROCS
PERCLUSTER= |
It seems that the multiprocessor HAL
in Win2K (HALMPS.dll) has the
ability to work with multiprocessors that are
made up of tightly-coupled clusters of smaller
multiprocessors. For example, if you had an 8-way
system that was made up of 2 4-way clusters, the
processor IDs of each processor would have
to be specified in a cluster-oriented manner by
the HAL. The maximum cluster size is 4 and
the default is 0 (system is not based on clusters). |
| /TIMERES= |
Default
resolution is 7.8ms. On the multiprocessor
HAL (HALMPS.dll) this option will
set the resolution of the system timer. The
argument is a number interpreted in 100's of
nanoseconds, but the rate will be set to the
closest resolution the HAL supports
that is not larger than the one requested. The HAL
supports the following resolutions :
| 100's of
nanoseconds |
|
Milliseconds |
| 9766 |
|
.98 |
| 19532 |
|
2.0 |
| 39063 |
|
3.9 |
| 78125 |
|
7.8 |
|
| /YEAR= |
Specifying this option causes 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 NT kernel. Note :
this option is only available on WinNT 4.0,
Service Pack 4 and later, and Win2K. |
| /USE8254 |
This switch
is intended for systems with older BIOS's.
It instructs the NT HAL to use the 8254
timer chip as its base timer.
See
KB Q169-9-01 for
more information. |
| /MAXMEM= |
This option will limit NT to
using only the amount of memory you specify. The
number is interpreted as Mb. |
| /BURNMEMORY= |
This option
will cause NT to "forget" about
the amount of memory specified, which limits
memory like /MAXMEM. The value specified
is interpreted as Mb. NT will
discard the amount of physical memory you have
indicated as unusable. |
| /ONECPU |
This option will have NT only
enable one CPU in a multiprocessor system. |
| /NUMPROC= |
Only the
number of CPUs specified will be enabled.
Example: /NUMPROC=2 on a 4-way system will cause
2 of the 4 processors to be unused by NT. |
| /SOS |
Causes NT to print
information about which drivers are being loaded
as the system boots. |
| /BASEVIDEO |
Causes NT
to use the standard VGA display driver
when moving to GUI mode. |
| /NODEBUG |
Prevents kernel-mode debugging from
being initialized. Overrides the specification of
any of the three debug-related switches, /DEBUG, /DEBUGPORT and /BAUDRATE. |
| /CRASHDEBUG |
If you
include this switch, the kernel debugger is
loaded when the system boots, but remains
inactive unless a crash occurs. This allows the COM
port that you specify (or COM1 by default) to be
available for other use while the system is
running. |
| /DEBUG |
Enables kernel-mode debugging. |
| /DEBUGPORT= |
Enables
kernel-mode debugging and specifies an override
for the default serial port (COM1) to which a
remote debugee is connected. |
| /BAUDRATE= |
Enables kernel-mode debugging and
specifies an override for the default baud rate (19200)
at which a remote debugee will connect. |
| /BREAK |
Causes the HAL
to stop at a breakpoint at HAL
initialization. The first thing that the NT
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 debugger
connection is made. If the switch is used without
the /DEBUG switch the system will Blue
Screen with STOP code 0x00000078 PHASE0_EXCEPTION. |
/KERNEL=
/HAL= |
These options specify overrides of NTLdr's
selection of the file named NTOSKrnl.exe
in %SystemRoot% \System32 as the kernel's
image file and of the file named HAL.dll
as the HAL image
file.
They are extremely useful for alternating between
a checked kernel environment and a free kernel
environment. If you wish to boot into 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 (retail
NT) :
| 1. |
Copy the checked version of
the kernel from the checked build
distribution CD to your %SystemRoot%
\System32 directory, naming it NTOSkChk.exe.
If you are on a uniprocessor then copy NTOSKrnl.exe,
otherwise on a multiprocessor copy NTKrnlMP.exe.
Note that the kernel file name must be a 8.3-style
short names. |
| 2. |
Copy the checked version of
the HAL from the checked build
distribution CD to your %SystemRoot%
\System32 directory, naming it HalChk.dll.
To determine which HAL to copy, go
into your %SystemRoot% \Repair
directory and open Setup.log in
Notepad. Search for HAL.dll and
you will find a line like \WINNTF\system32\hal.dll="halmps.dll","1a01c".
The name to the right of the equal sign
is the name of the HAL you should
copy. |
| 3. |
Make a copy of the default
line in the system's Boot.ini. |
| 4. |
Add the following parameters
:
/KERNEL=NTOSKCHK.EXE /HAL=HALCHK.DLL |
|
| /3GB |
This switch
made its debut in WinNT 4.0 Service Pack 3
and is supported on all later releases of NT.
With /3GB : 2Gb user memory + 2Gb system
memory
Without
/3GB : 3Gb user memory + 1Gb system memory
Giving
virtual memory intensive applications like
database servers a larger address space can
improve their performance. Note, however that for
an application to take advantage of this feature
two additional conditions must hold : the system
must be part of the NT Enterprise suite (SP3
is not) and the application must be flagged as a 3Gb-aware
application.
See
KB Q171-7-93 for
more information. |
| /WIN95 |
This switch is only pertinent on a
triple-boot system that has DOS, Win9x
and WinNT installed. Specifying the /WIN95
switch directs NTLdr to boot the Win9x
boot sector stored in BootSect.w40.
See
KB Q157-9-92 for
more information. |
| /WIN95DOS |
This switch
is only pertinent on a triple-boot system that
has DOS, Win9x and WinNT
installed. Specifying the /WIN95DOS switch
directs NTLdr to boot the DOS boot
sector stored in BootSect.dos.
See KB Q157-9-92 for
more information. |
| /PCILOCK |
Stops WinNT from dynamically
assigning IO/IRQ resources to PCI devices
and leaves the devices configured by the BIOS.
See
KB Q148-5-01 for
more information. |
/NOSERIALMICE
=[COMx
| COMx,y,z...] |
Disables
serial mouse detection of the specified COM
port(s). Use this switch if you have a component
other than a mouse attached to a serial port
during the startup sequence. If you use /NOSERIALMICE
without specifying a COM port, serial
mouse detection is disabled on all COM
ports.
See
KB Q131-9-76 for
more information. |
| /SCSIORDINAL: |
Adding a new SCSI device to a
system with an on-board SCSI controller
can cause the controller's SCSI ID to
change, so you use this switch to direct WinNT
to the SCSI ID of the controller.
See
KB Q103-6-25 for
more information. |