Automating dual boot Deployments - Part Two - Native Boot

Windows Native Boot is a technology introduced in Windows 7 that allows a computer to boot directly into a virtual hard drive or VHD. My work leverages this functionality to load the KACE Boot Environment (KBE) on a Bootcamp partition. This provides the ability to perform a scripted installation from the K2000 appliance on the Bootcamp partition.

Many of the steps below are taken from the following MSDN article that details the Native Boot technology.
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/hardware/commercialize/manufacture/desktop/boot-to-vhd--native-boot--add-a-virtual-hard-disk-to-the-boot-menu

The process of creating the VHD containing the KBE requires that we first use the Bootcamp Assistant to create a Bootcamp partition and install Windows. This will help ensure that the partition is formatted correctly for the Apple hardware. 

After the Windows installation is complete we can create the VHD and apply our boot environment. In order to do this you will need the boot.wim file for that environment. To get a copy of this file for the Quest K2000:

1. Login to the K2000 web interface
2. Navigate to Deployments, Boot Environments
3. Select the appropriate boot environment
   Note: I have found that a standard Windows 10 boot environment will boot to Apple hardware with the necessary drivers for deployment. If that is not the case in your environment you will have to build a custom KBE.
4. On the boot environment detail page click the link to download a bootable ISO for this boot environment.
5. Open the downloaded ISO file.
6. Browse to the Sources folder in the ISO.
7. Copy the boot.wim file to your computer.

Now that you have the boot.wim file we can create the VHD and apply the WIM image to it.

Creating the virtual hard drive

1. Open a command prompt as administrator
2. Run diskpart and execute the following commands
1. create vdisk file=c:\vhdboot.vhd maximum=5000 type=fixed
   Note: I create the file at the root of the system drive to avoid and path issues. We also don't need a very large disk image and 5GB is still more than we need.
2. attach vdisk
3. create partition primary
4. format quick label=vhd
5. assign letter=v
6. exit

There should now be a V: drive on your computer that maps to the virtual hard drive. 

Applying the WIM

The next step is to apply the WIM to that drive. While still in the administrative command prompt run this command:

dism /apply-image /imagefile:c:\boot.wim /index:1 /applydir:v:\

This command assumes that you placed the boot.wim file at the root of the C: drive. 

Booting to the Virtual Drive

Now that the image has been applied to the VHD we can add it to the boot menu and boot to the OS on the drive. While still in the administrative command prompt:

1. v:
2. cd \windows\system32
3. bcdboot v:\windows

There should now be an entry in the boot configuration database that points to the V: drive. To verify this you can run bcdedit to list the boot options. When the computer is restarted you should see an options for Windows Pre-installation environment. Booting to that option should load the KACE Boot Environment.

In my next post I will describe how to manipulate the KBE to automatically deploy a desired scripted install.