You Experience Long Startup Times When You Start WinPE by Means of a Remote Installation Services Server

Multiple client computers may take a long time to start in a Microsoft Windows Preinstallation Environment (WinPE). This long startup time may occur when clients start from a Windows 2000-based server or from a server that uses Windows Server 2003 Remote Installation Services (RIS).

This behavior occurs when Startnet.cmd runs the Factory.exe and Netcfg.exe commands on each client. Although the initial startup processes run as expected, eventually all clients slow down when they run the parameters in the Startnet.cmd file. This behavior occurs even when the client startup processes are staggered.

This behavior occurs when multiple clients try to access the Setupapi.log file on the Remote Installation Services server at the same time. All clients that start in a WinPE use files on the Remote Installation Services server. When multiple clients run Factory.exe and Netcfg.exe, they try to write information to the same log file, and because Setupapi holds the file open, other clients have to wait to log their information before they continue.

WARNING: If you use Registry Editor incorrectly, you may cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that you can solve problems that result from using Registry Editor incorrectly. Use Registry Editor at your own risk. To work around this behavior, follow these steps to disable Setupapi logging.

1. On the Remote Installation Services server, start Registry Editor. To do this, click Start, click Run, type Regedit in the Open box, and then click OK.
2. Click the
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
   registry key.
3. On the File menu, click Load Hive.
4. Locate the \i386\System32\Config folder in the WinPE image on the Remote Installation Services server:
5. Click Software, and then click Open.
6. Give the hive a temporary name.
7. Locate and then double-click the following registry key:
   <Temporary_hive_name>\Microsoft\Windows\Currentversion\Setup
8. On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click DWORD Value.
9. Name the new value "LogLevel", and then press ENTER.
10. Double-click the LogLevel entry, verify that Hexadecimal is selected, and then type 101 in the Value data box.
11. Click OK.
12. Verify that the LogLevel entry now has a value of 0x00000101.
13. Click to select Temporary_hive_name.
14. On the File menu, click Unload Hive.
15. Click Yes, and then quit Registry Editor.
16. Set the Setupapi.log file to read-only. To do this, follow these steps:
    1. Locate the WinPE image on the Remote Installation Services server.
    2. Open the I386 folder in the WinPE image, right-click Setupapi.log, and then click Properties.
       
       Note This file is not present until you successfully start from the WinPE image for the first time.
    3. Click the General tab, and then click to select the Read-only check box.

Note When you disable Setupapi logging, you may experience increased performance when you start from a WinPE image by means of a Remote Installation Services server. Keep in mind that other factors eventually affect performance when you start multiple clients. For example, in your environment, you may be able to start 12 to 15 clients at the same time and complete all startup processes in 2 to 3 minutes. If you increase the number of clients to 25 or 30, you may notice decreased performance because of other constraints on resources such as network bandwidth, disk controller throughput, or other external factors. For additional information about how to enable logging, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: