Installation stops when you use a Windows 2000 RIS Server to deploy Windows XP Professional and Windows Server 2003 clients

When you use a Microsoft Windows 2000 Remote Installation Services (RIS) server to deploy Microsoft Windows XP Professional or Microsoft Windows Server 2003, the installation may stop responding and display a blank screen immediately after the last Client Installation Wizard page is displayed.

The Windows XP and the Windows Server 2003 versions of NTLDR (the OSChoice.exe file) use a data structure that is slightly larger than the version that is used by the Windows 2000 RIS server. This difference can lead to unpredictable behavior if the computer�s BIOS contains stored data in the memory location that the Windows XP or Windows Server 2003 loader expects to be free.

Microsoft recommends that you use a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 RIS server to deploy Windows XP clients. Improvements in Windows Server 2003 make it easier to manage deployment and migration. RIS has been extended to give you greater flexibility and precision when you deploy specific configurations across the network.

Note Microsoft supports the deployment of Windows Server 2003 clients only from a Windows Server 2003 RIS server.

To work around the problem of deployment of a Windows XP client from a Windows 2000 RIS server, copy the OSChoice.exe and StartROM.com files from the Windows XP CD-ROM to the Windows 2000 RIS server. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Extract the OSChoice.exe and StartROM.com files from the Windows XP CD-ROM.
2. Start the Windows 2000 RIS server in safe mode.
3. Open the %systemroot%\System32\reminst folder on the Windows 2000 RIS server.
4. Rename OSChoice.exe and StartROM.com to OSChoice.bak and StartROM.bak respectively.
5. Copy the files that you extracted from the Windows XP CD-ROM to the %systemroot%\System32\reminst folder on the Windows 2000 RIS server.
6. Open the RemoteInstall\OSChooser\i386 folder on the Windows 2000 RIS server.
7. Rename NTLDR and StartROM.com to NTLDR.bak and StartROM.bak respectively.
8. Copy the files that you extracted from the Windows XP CD-ROM to the RemoteInstall\OSChooser\i386 folder of the Windows 2000 RIS server, and then rename OSChoice.exe to NTLDR.
9. Restart the Windows 2000 RIS server in normal mode.

For additional information about how to deploy Windows XP from a Windows 2000 RIS Server, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed in the "Applies to" section.