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I'm trying to change the OS on a client machine from a server using Microsoft Deployment Toolkit. The deployment has to be fully automated (can't touch the client to even press any key). For a PXE boot, if I initially set the network card as first boot device on the client, it will then enter a boot loop since the client will always enter the network to boot. Either I need to force the client to somehow PXE boot only once or change the boot order programmatically during deployment. Really need some help with this.

bad_coder
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HarshitG
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  • Depending on the manufacturer i.e. Dell, HP they have remote bios tools that you can deploy silently. – jrider May 23 '18 at 14:58
  • I tried using HPBiosConfigUtility but it doesn't work on my HP laptop – HarshitG May 23 '18 at 15:34
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    [This](https://www.thomaseadie.com/changing-bios-boot-options-on-hp-computers-remotely/) might be what you are looking for. – jrider May 23 '18 at 15:37

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On HP machines, you can set the wake on lan boot source.
If you set this to PXE then you can keep your hard drive as the default boot device.
You would need to wake your PC's of course instead of manually pressing the power buttons.

Johan Claes
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  • I'm looking for a programmable way to change the boot order. Waking up the PC is not something I can use because the client will already be running and I'll have to force it to reboot remotely. – HarshitG May 23 '18 at 15:20
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For UEFI machines you could use bcdedit /default command to change the default boot entry.

Caveat: the IDs differ per machine, so you would have to enumerate them first.

Official documentation: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/windows-commands/bcdedit

Baton Xutzl
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