windows setup switches
including undocumented ones ...
here
are setup switches used with windows installations. you'll see as you scroll
through these, some of these can come in very handy. have fun with them and
drop me a line if you have any questions or need help with any of them. i have
listed switches that work with windows95 and windows98 first, and then i left
the switches that only work with windows98 for last.
windows95/98 setup switches
/? - this switch provides a brief summary of the available setup switches and the correct command line syntax to use them.
/c - this switch bypasses running smartdrive.
/d - this switch bypasses using your existing windows configuration (such as your current system.ini and win.ini files).
/l - use this switch if you have a logitech mouse and want it enabled during setup.
/n - this switch causes setup to run without a mouse.
-s - use this switch to use an alternate setup.inf file.
/t:<dir> - this switch lets you specify where setup copies its temporary files. warning: any existing files in this folder are deleted.
/u - this switch specifies the unique product identifier (upi). it is included for OEMs who install windows95 on their computers. a 'normal' setup should not need this switch.
/id - this switch bypasses checking for the minimum disk space required to install windows.
/ig - allows setup to run on some older gateway and micron computers with an early BIOS.
/ih - this switch causes setup to run scandisk in the foreground. note: when you use the /? switch to see a summary of available setup switches, it may state that the /ih switch skips the registry check. this is incorrect. the /nr switch should be used to skip the registry check.
/im - causes setup to ignore the conventional memory check.
/iq - if you use the /is switch to bypass scandisk or scandisk fails, setup checks your drive for cross-linked files. the /iq switch prevents setup from doing this.
/ir - this switch tells windows setup to not attempt to write to the boot sector. this switch is only to be used in the case where you cannot disable the built in virus protection on your system. if you use this switch, your computer will not reboot at the end of setup. to make your computer bootable, you must boot your computer with the startup disk, sys the hard disk, then boot your computer normally so that setup can finish. many award BIOS do not allow you to disable the built in virus protection through the cmos settings. according to award, this limitation is not a limitation of the award bios itself, rather it is a limitation that has been implemented by the motherboard manufacturer.
award BIOS with the following date and serial numbers (award BIOS version 4.50g, 4.50gp, or 4.50pg) are known to have this problem:
- 4/13/95: 2A5L7F09, 214X2002, 2C403AB1
- 4/6/95: 2A5L7F09
- 9/26/94: 2C419S23
award BIOS version 4.5pa (10/21/95) also seems to have this problem. the BIOS date and serial number appear at the bottom of the screen after power on.
/is - this switch causes setup not to run scandisk.
/it - this switch bypasses checking for the presence of terminate-and-stay-resident programs (TSRs) that are known to cause problems with windows setup. note: it has been reported that the /it switch does not work when setup is run from windows 3.x. if subst.exe is running, a warning appears. In msdos, the warning does not appear if the switch is used.
/IW - this switch allows you to bypass the license agreement screen and must be in capital letters.
/p - this switch causes setup to pass string(s) directly to detection manager (or sysdetmg.dll). setup does not interpret the content of the string. the string can contain one or more detection options. the /p switch is not used by itself.
- the string can contain one or more detection switches separated by a semicolon (;). for example, if you want to use "/p f" and "/p i" you type "setup /p f;i" (without quotation marks).
- some switches are simply on/off switches. the absence of the switch implies off; the presence of the switch turns it on. a minus sign (-) appended immediately after a switch turns it off.
- some switches take parameters in the form of <c>=<params>. if there is more than one parameter to a switch, the parameters are separated by a comma (,).
- there must not be any spaces in the detection option string.
valid detection switches for the /p switch:
a - this switch enables safe detection. it tells each detection module to try safer detection methods. safer detection methods may not detect devices correctly. the default during setup is enabled. the default in other cases is disabled. example: setup /p a
b - this switch enables 'prompt before' mode. it prompts you before a detection module is called so that you can step through each detection module manually and decide if you want to skip it. the default is disabled. example: setup /p b
c - this switch enables class detection. class detection is a mechanism for finding hints for a certain class of devices. for example, adapter class detection looks for hints in the config.sys and system.ini files for cdrom drivers. if it does not find any, setup displays a cdrom check box asking if you have a cdrom drive. the default during setup is enabled. the default when you use the 'add new hardware' tool and docking/undocking detection is disabled. example: setup /p c
c- - setup /p c- disables safe class detection. for example, this switch tells setup to always search on all network adapter cards, sound cards, and cdrom drives. example: setup /p c-
d=<name> - this switch detects the listed detection modules only, where <name> is a detection module name or a device class name. detection module names (such as DetectPIC and DetectAHA154x) are found in the msdet.inf file. device class names can be SCSIAdapter, net, and so on. example: setup /p d=DetectPIC
e - this switch enables setup mode detection. the default during setup is enabled. the default in other cases is disabled. example: setup /p e
f - this switch enables 'clean registry' mode. it forces detection to clean the root branch of the registry before starting. this switch is ignored when setup is run in the windows 95/98 graphical user interface. the default is disabled. example: setup /p f
g=<n> - this switch specifies the verbose level, where <n> is 0 to 3. this switch controls how verbose the built-in progress bar is. at maximum level (3), it shows all the resources of the detected devices along with the progress bar. this switch can help to identify which detection module causes a certain problem. for example, if your mouse stops responding (hangs) during detection but the system continues, there is no way to determine from the log files which module hung the mouse. by turning this option on and constantly moving the mouse during setup, you can determine which module is running when the mouse hangs. the default is disabled (0). example: setup /p g=3
i - this switch tells setup not to report the existence of a plug and play BIOS. it is useful on computers that have a plug and play BIOS that is not reported in the machine.inf file "\\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Detect\IgnorePnPBIOS=1". example: setup /p i
j - this switch tells setup to undo the results of the "setup /p i" switch. this switch should only be used after a computer that required "setup /p i" has updated its plug and play BIOS. example: setup /p j note: in windows 98, the "/p j" switch is required to enable ACPI support. windows 98 maintains a BIOS list for ACPI computers, so as BIOS manufacturers create a new valid ACPI BIOS, this is the mechanism for causing windows 98 to recognize it.
l=<n> - this switch specifies the logging level for detlog.txt, where <n> is 0 to 3. the default is maximum logging (3). example: setup /p l=0
m - this switch enables mini-windows mode. this is enabled only when setup is run under msdos. example: setup /p m
n - this switch enables 'no recovery' mode. this option can be used to turn off the Windows 95 Setup recovery mechanism (for example, this switch prevents the creation of the detcrash.log file). the default is disabled. example: setup /p n
o=<traceoutput> - this switch specifies the trace output. the information is written to the tracelog.txt file in the current directory. this option is available only in the debug version of sysdetmg.dll. example: setup /p o
p - this switch enables performance logging. it writes performance timing information to the detlog.txt file. the default is disabled. example: setup /p p
r - this switch enables 'recovery' mode. it causes detection to use the detcrash.log file, if found, for recovery. if this switch is not enabled, detection ignores and deletes detcrash.log even if it is found. this switch is used if safe recovery is selected during setup, otherwise it is not used. example: setup /p r
s=<name> - this switch skips the listed detection modules or classes of detection modules, where <name> is a detection module name or a device class name. detection module names (such as DetectPIC and DetectAHA154x) are in the msdet.inf file. device class names are SCSIAdapter, net, and so on. example: setup /p s=DetectPIC
t=<n> - this switch specifies the trace level, where <n> is 0 to 9. the default is disabled (0). this option is available only in the debug version of sysdetmg.dll. example: setup /p t=9
v - this switch enables 'verify only' mode. detection has two stages:
1. verify existing devices in the registry.
2. detect new devices.
this switch tells detection to perform only stage 1. this switch is used by the PCMCIA wizard to verify legacy devices in the registry. the default is disabled. example: setup /p v
x=<res list> - this switch excludes the listed resources from detection, where <res list> is one of four possibilities:
- io(xxx-yyy,xxx-yyy,...)
- mem(xxxxx-yyyyy,xxxxx-yyyyy,...)
- irq(x,y,z,...)
- dma(x,y,z,...)
this switch protects resources so that no detection
modules can access them. example:
setup /p x=io(300-30f,240-24f)
windows98 setup switches
/m - this switch bypasses the playing of the setup sound files.
/na - this switch bypasses the program check and can use the following values:
0: default
1: no windows based program check, but msdos based program are blocked.
2: no msdos based program check, windows based programs are blocked.
3: no windows based or msdos based program check.
/nd - this switch ignores the presence of a migration.dll file and is used to force windows98 to over-write newer files. note: files that use the ",,,32" flag in the .inf file still force win98 setup to keep the newer files.
/nf - do not prompt to remove the floppy disk from the drive (for bootable cdroms).
/nh - this switch bypasses running the hwinfo.exe program at 0 percent files and RunOnce.
/nm - this switch bypasses the minimum hardware requirement test. this tests for a minimum of a 486/66DX processor and 16 megabytes of memory and the presence of a math coprocessor.
/nr - skips running scanreg during setup.
/nx - does not check the version of setupx that is running.
/ie - this switch bypasses the windows98 startup disk wizard screens. if this switch is used, the windows\command\ebd folder is not created.
/iv - this switch bypasses displaying the setup screens during an upgrade within windows.