I'm running 2008 R2 and have been working with WDS for a while. At the begining I changed the setting in WDS to not require users to press F12 a second time when booting from the network. The problem is I can't switch it back. So in WDS I go to the boot tab and I switched both Known and Unknown to "Require the user to press the F12 key to continue the PXE boot" Then I startup the test laptop and press F12 and I see the the prompt to press F12 again, but this is ignored and the WDS server continues to load and displays the available boot images. I have tried "restarting" WDS - no good I tried "stopping" then "starting" WDS - no good I tried setting the options for both "known" and "unknown" to not require F12 (which is what already happens) then I "stop" then "start" WDS. I then go back and change the "known" and "unkown" back to REQUIRE F12 and I again "stop" then "start" WDS - No good STILL So I found the 2 files involved in ...\boot\x86 and ..\boot\x64 and tried renaming pxeboot.n12 to pxeboot.STOPn12. Then when WDS boots it repeatedly says TFTP booting ....\boot\x64\pxeboot.n12 and since it can't find it it keeps trying. But it should not be trying at all. Now I know I could probably rename pxeboot.com to pxeboot.n12 and it might work, but I should not have to bypass the GUI option of simply selecting my desired result I have done a quick scan of google and judging by the titles all the links talk about using PXE boot which is technically working. I would love any suggestions or help, this is rather irritating?

Hi, In Windows Server 2008 R2, to skip pressing F12 on PXE boot, we have three methods to do so: Method 1: Configure it from GUI Window. 1. Launch WDS in Windows Server 2008 R2. 2. Right click the WDS server and choose Properties. 3. On the Boot tab, choose Always continue the PXE boot for known clients or unknown clients as necessary. Method 2: Use WDSUtil command line utility to configure it. 1. If you want to specify the boot program based on Architecture, please use the command below. WDSUTIL /Set-Server /BootProgram:<Relative Path> /Architecture: {x86|ia64|x64} For example: WDSUTIL /Set-Server /BootProgram:boot\x86\pxeboot.n12 /Architecture: x86 2. If you want to specify the boot program for the prestaged client computers, please use the command below. WDSUTIL /Set-Device /Device: <computer name> /BootProgram: <Relative path> For example: WDSUTIL /Set-Device /Device: Computer1 /BootProgram:boot\x86\pxeboot.n12 Method 3: Rename the n12 boot program pxeboot.n12 to the default boot program name pxeboot.com. 1. Under the directory of RemoteInstall\Boot\<Architecture>, rename the default boot program pxeboot.com to pxeboot.com.old. 2. Rename n12 boot program pxeboot.n12 to pxeboot.com. Therefore, if you would like to switch it back, please check the above settings. Hope it helps. Tim Quan TechNet Subscriber Support in forum If you have any feedback on our support, please contact tngfb@microsoft.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Please remember to click “Mark as Answer” on the post that helps you, and to click “Unmark as Answer” if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.

Seems to have fixed itself after a few days. I guess this was a fluke until I see otherwise

Ok, so the problem isn't gone. I think why I thought it was gone is I used another server. However, I uninstalled WDS from my Domain Controller and installed it on my Backup DC. LEft the default settings to ASK for the F12 confirmation, but the stupid thing keeps ignoring the second F12 prompt. Looking at the last responce I can only guess one of two things. Either 1. Prestaged computers ignore F12 confirmation despite what I selected or 2. The setting to skip F12 confirmation is contained in DNS somewhere. I'll try the prestaged method described, but seriously this can't be right. EDIT: Prestaged method is not even an option if I would have to set it for every computer named.

Ok, now it appears I can get it to work on a Desktop machine, but the LAptop machine ignores the F12 prompt. Even when I tried renaming the pxeboot.n12 to pxeboot.com How is that possible?

Hi, Does the laptop use F12 for network booting? Tim Quan TechNet Subscriber Support in forum If you have any feedback on our support, please contact tngfb@microsoft.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Please remember to click “Mark as Answer” on the post that helps you, and to click “Unmark as Answer” if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.

Yes it does. I was talking with some other techs here and one asked if perhaps I pressed F12 repeatedly and that perhaps the laptop had F12 in the buffer which is causing this issue. I'll try that too.

Ok, so I confirmed on another model HP laptop that the F12 conformation is being bypassed. Any ideas why laptops would bypass the confirmation?

Hi, As the desktop is working, we can include that the WDS server is working properly. The problem lies in the laptop side. Please contact the manufacturer of the laptop to see whether they have encountered similar issues before. Some BIOS has configuration to control whether the system automatically attempts a network boot during POST or the user must press F12 during POST to attempt a network boot. Tim Quan TechNet Subscriber Support in forum If you have any feedback on our support, please contact tngfb@microsoft.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Please remember to click “Mark as Answer” on the post that helps you, and to click “Unmark as Answer” if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.