How to Deploy Windows 11 or 10 Over the Network Using PXE Boot

In this article, we’ll look at how to deploy Windows 11 or 10 on computers over the network without using bootable USB flash drives. The idea is that the vast majority of PCs and laptops support network booting through a network adapter with PXE (Preboot eXecution Environment) support. Such a network adapter can boot from a PXE server, run the WinPE bootloader, and install the Windows image over the network.

To make this work, you need to deploy and configure PXE, DHCP, and TFTP servers on the local network. The target computers can then obtain the required network configuration and bootloaders from these services. We’ll look at two simple portable tools to install Windows 11 over the network: iVentoy and Tiny PXE Server. This guide will help you to deploy Windows on devices both with UEFI and BIOS firmware.

In this article, we’ll show how to quickly set up a PXE server on any available computer, whether it runs Windows or Linux, and use it to perform network-based Windows installations on computers in the same LAN using simple tools available to virtually any user.

Install Windows over the Network with iVentoy PXE server

Today, in my opinion, the simplest tool for network OS deployment is iVentoy. It includes everything needed to quickly run an OS deployment server and provides built-in DHCP, PXE, TFTP, and HTTPBoot services. It can be used to run a network deployment server on both Windows and Linux systems.

Let’s look at how to quickly configure iVentoy and use it to run a Windows installation from a PXE server on the local network.

Download the Windows version of iVentoy from the official GitHub repository: https://github.com/ventoy/PXE/releases. Extract the contents of the archive (iventoy-win64-free.zip) to a local folder. The tool is portable and doesn’t require installation.

Copy the ISO files containing the Windows installation images you need to the/ISO folder. These images will then be available for installation over the network.

Run the iventoy_64.exe executable as an administrator.

On the first launch, allow the app to access the network through Windows Defender Firewall. The following ports are used by the iVentoy server by default:

The iVentoy web interface will then open, where you can configure the PXE server settings.

By default, iVentoy has its own DHCP server enabled. If a DHCP server is already deployed in your LAN, you must disable the built-in one. Go to Configuration -> Boot Configuration, set DHCP Server Mode to External, and disable secondary DHCP.

Next, configure two DHCP options on your existing DHCP server: Boot Server Host Name and Bootfile Name. For example, on a MikroTik router, these options can be configured via IP ->DHCP Server -> Networks. Open the DHCP server settings and set the following options:

• Next Server: the IP address of the computer running iVentoy
• Boot File Name: iventoy_loader_16000

Next, go to the Boot Information tab and start the iVentoy server by clicking the green Play button.

You can now connect a new computer to the same LAN and select network/PXE boot during device startup (you may need to enable PXE or LAN boot support in the device’s BIOS/UEFI first)

The computer should obtain an IP address and the location of the PXE server from your DHCP server. It should then boot from the iVentoy server over the network and display the text-based boot menu. The menu will contain a list of the ISO images that you copied to the \iso\ folder. Choose the ISO image that you want to boot from and proceed with the Windows installation.

A usual clean installation of Windows should then be performed.

Overall, iVentoy is a simple and convenient tool for installing operating systems via PXE boot over the network. However, the free version of iVentoy has a limit of 20 simultaneous clients (which is already quite a lot), and, more importantly. More importantly, it is only licensed for home or non-commercial use. For other scenarios, you need to purchase a license ($79).

Next, we will look at how to deploy your own PXE server using the completely free tool.

How to Install Windows over Network Using Tiny PXE Server

Let’s look at another completely free tool for deploying your own PXE server:  Tiny PXE Server.

We will need:

• Windows 10 or 11 installation ISO image (it is easier to create it using the Windows Media Creation Tool, according to the post).
• Windows PE image — you can use your own WinPE image, extract it from an MS DART recovery image, get an original WinPE using Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit (Windows ADK), or use a pre-built image like Hiren’s BootCD PE.
• Tiny PXE Server (https://github.com/erwan2212/tinypxeserver/blob/main/pxesrv.zip).

Creating a Windows PE Boot Image Using ADK

Download the Windows ADK for Windows 11 and the Windows PE add-on for the Windows ADK following the links https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/get-started/adk-install.

When choosing the Windows ADK installation options, select the Deployment Tools only.

Then install the Windows PE add-on for the Windows ADK in the same way.

After the installation is complete, run the Deployment and Imaging Tool from the Windows Start menu. Or use the command:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\Assessment and Deployment Kit\Deployment Tools\DandISetEnv.bat"

Then copy files for WinPE to your target folder:

copype amd64 C:\tools\winpe

Then generate a bootable WinPE ISO image:

MakeWinPEMedia /ISO C:\tools\winpe c:\tools\WinPE.iso

Running a PXE boot server on Windows with TinyPXE

Then configure your PXE server:

1. Extract pxesrv.zip to C:\tools\pxesrv.
2. Go to C:\tools\pxesrv\files and create a text file pxe_menu.txt with the following contents:

   #!ipxe
   set boot-url http://${dhcp-server}
   #================ Main Menu =================
   menu iPXE boot menu
   item WinPEISO WindowsPE ISO
   choose target && goto ${target}
   #============ Main Menu Options =============
   :WinPEISO
   sanboot ${boot-url}/iso/WinPE.iso
   boot

   

3. Copy the WinPE.iso file you got earlier to the C:\tools\pxesrv\files\iso directory.
4. Mount the Windows 11 installation ISO image to your virtual drive Windows and share it over the network (if you want, you may allow anonymous access to it, but this is optional).
5. Run pxesrv.exe as administrator.
6. Enable the HTTPd option.
7. If you already have a DHCP server on the network (for example, on a router or a corporate DHCP server running on another host) and don’t want to change its configuration, enable the ProxyDHCP option in the Tiny PXE Server settings. This allows Tiny PXE Server to provide network clients with additional DHCP options alongside those provided by the primary DHCP server.
8. Your Tiny PXE Server can also act as the primary DHCP server in your network. In this case, disable the ProxyDHCP option. Make sure that the IP address of your computer is specified in the Option 54 DHCP Server and Next-Server fields. The IP Pool start field shows the beginning of the DHCP address range, so make sure that the range is not busy in your network.
9. In the Boot File section, specify ipxe.pxe (for BIOS devices) or ipxe-x86_64.efi (for UEFI devices);
10. In the Filename if user-class=gPXE or IPXE field, enter the name of the menu file you created earlier: pxe_menu.txt
11. Start your PXE server by clicking Online.
    

So, your tiny PXE/TFTP/HTTP server is up and running.  If the Windows Firewall is enabled on your host, allow inbound traffic for the pxesrv.exe process over DHCP, PXE, HTTP, TFTP, and SMB protocols (to test your configuration, you can temporarily disable the Windows Firewall).

Install Windows 11 Over the Network Using Tiny PXE Server

Next, boot the computer on which you want to install Windows from the PXE server. This computer must be connected to the same LAN as the host running the PXE server.
Select PXE as the primary boot device in the BIOS/UEFI settings of the computer.

After running PXE firmware, the computer will find the DHCP server on the network, get an IP address with additional DHCP options, and show the available options in the iPXE menu.

The computer will boot up over the network in the WinPE environment.

Could not describe SAN devices: Operation not supported
Could not boot image: Operation not supported https://ipxe.org/err/3c2220

As it turned out, there was a bug with the virtual machine UEFI firmware on my VMware ESXi host:

This error indicates that your UEFI firmware has a bug that prevents the installation of the iSCSI boot firmware table (iBFT). Switch to booting in "legacy" BIOS mode rather than UEFI mode.

The next step is to map a shared folder containing your Windows 11 ISO image over SMB.

Run the wpeinit command to initialize the network in WinPE and then mount the shared folder containing the Windows distribution:

Net use E: \\192.168.103.202\E

(192.168.103.202 is the IP address or name of the PXE server host on which the installation image is located, and E is the name of the shared folder).
Enter the user credentials that are allowed to access the Windows computer with the PXE server.

Start the Windows Setup by running the setup.exe command.

In this article, we’ve covered two simple ways to install Windows on computers over the network using PXE boot. This approach makes it possible to quickly deploy Windows (whether a clean installation or deploy a custom Windows image with preinstalled software) on a fleet of new computers in a local network without using bootable USB flash drives. It can also be used to install Windows on devices where the USB ports are disabled.