Boot from LAN is really useful if you have lots of computers. This article will guide you how to install OS through Network boot.

Introduction

Since the early versions of AIO Boot, this tool has supported booting from the LAN. It supports you to do a lot of work such as installing OS, running tools to Ghost, managing partitions, backup and recovery.

You just need a computer to replace the other bootable devices like USB, HDD and DVD… Of course, clients need to have a local area network connection with the server and have network boot support. If you boot from USB, boot loader and operating systems will use the files on USB. If you boot from the LAN, the boot loader and operating systems will download the necessary files from the LAN. The advantage of network booting is that you will not need to attach boot devices to clients (except cables). If the data transfer rate in your LAN is slower than the read/write speed of boot devices such as USB, HDD or DVD, the speed is the downside of this method.

AIO Boot supports Windows installation from network boot. You can install Windows by integrating ISO and using the Windows Installer or booting into WinPE and installing Windows manually. Most Linux distributions like Ubuntu, Debian, Linux Mint, Arch Linux are also supported.

Configure PXE server

To boot from LAN, you need to have a PXE server, a DHCP server, and a server to share files. You just need a computer to do all this.

AIO Boot uses Tiny PXE Server to create PXE server and DHCP server. Run AIOCreator.exe, select Run PXE and select mode to run Tiny PXE Server.

AIO Boot uses iPXE as boot loader, which supports both legacy BIOS and UEFI (32-bit and 64-bit) modes.

Tiny PXE Server will run and be preconfigured.

If the configuration is not correct, reconfigure it.

  1. Option 54 (DHCP Server): The IP address of the computer running Tiny PXE Server. This list contains the IP addresses of network adapters (including VirtualBox and VMware). You need to select the correct IP address in the same local area network of the clients.
  2. Filename: Boot file of iPXE, you can choose another boot file in the /AIO folder if the current file does not work on the client.
    • Legacy: undionly.kpxe, undionly.kkpxe, ipxe.pxe and intel.pxe.
    • UEFI 64-bit: ipxe64.efi, snponly64.efi and intel64.efi.
    • UEFI 32-bit: ipxe32.efi, snponly32.efi and intel32.efi.
  3. After reconfiguring, click the Offline and Online buttons for the changes to take effect.

For Linux distributions like Ubuntu, Debian, I use FreeNFS to create NFS servers. You do not need any further configuration.

Share Folder or Drive

If the files you need are already on the client, just use it. But if the files are not on the client computer, of course you need to get it from another computer. You can download it from the Internet but the speed will be much slower than the local area network.

First, copy all the necessary files to a folder and then share it. Or share a drive. See the Guide to Share a Folder or Drive from Microsoft.

Here are the steps I share the AIO Boot drive:

  1. Right-click on the AIO Boot drive and select Properties.
  2. Switch to the Sharing tab.
  3. Select Advanced Sharing…
  4. Check the Share this folder box.
  5. Enter a name for the Share name.
  6. Click OK.
  7. The Network Path is what I need to get, here is \\Whoami\g.

Install Windows

Since AIO Boot v0.9.7.5, you can install Windows from network boot using the Windows Installer. Here are step by step:

  1. Run AIOCreator.exe and integrate Windows ISO file into AIO Boot. Only support Windows 7, 8, 8.1, Windows 10, does not support Windows XP.
  2. Share AIO Boot Drive.
  3. Run PXE and boot into PXE on clients.
  4. This is the iPXE menu of AIO Boot. Access the WinPE & Setup menu and boot into the Windows menu that you integrated in step 1.

  5. Enter the Network Path you shared in step 2 when asked. You can enter Network Path|Username|Password if the server has Username and Password. For Windows 8, 8.1, and Windows 10, if you use a Microsoft account to sign in, it is also your computer’s username and password.
  6. Enter the username and password that you used to share the AIO Boot drive. Or you can Turn off password protected sharing. The password is not displayed when you type it at the password prompt.
  7. If the information is correct, the Windows Installer will appear. You can then install Windows from Network boot using the same steps as using a USB or DVD.

If the program reports that the Network Path is incorrect, it may be due to several other reasons:

  • Windows 7 may not support your network drivers. Try Windows 10 or Windows 8.1.
  • Connection blocked by Firewall, try disabling it. My connection is blocked by Bitdefender, I disabled the firewall in Bitdefender and everything works.

If you only use a single computer to initialize the PXE server, you only need to enter the Network Path once. AIO Boot v0.9.8.7 supports reading Network Path from /AIO/networkpath.txt. Just add the Network Path to this file, you can add multiple Network Paths by adding multiple lines. The tool will try one by one.

\\yourcomputername\sharename

If your computer has an account and password, add them behind the Network Path separated by a vertical bar (“|”).

\\yourcomputername\sharename|youraccount|yourpassword

If you then initialize the PXE server on another computer, this means that the Network Path, user name, and password have changed. Just enter the new information in /AIO/networkpath.txt.

The above steps will help you to install Windows easily. There is another method that you can use for many other purposes. That’s using WinPE. See instructions for installing Windows from WinPE for more details.

  1. Download WinPE and integrate it into the AIO Boot as instructed in the Readme.txt file.
  2. Boot into WinPE from network boot.
  3. Use the net use command to connect to the drive or folder you have shared. Here I will attach the Network Path to the Z: drive.
    net use Z: \\Whoami\g
  4. Now you can mount Windows ISO files or use the dism command to install Windows. From WinPE, you can run diskpart command to partition before installation. Or run the tools from the folder you have shared, or Ghost…

Linux

AIO Boot also supports booting and installing many Linux distributions such as Ubuntu, Debian, Linux Mint, CentOS, Arch Linux… Just run AIOCreator.exe and integrate the Linux distributions. Then boot from the LAN, it will appear in the iPXE menu if it is supported.

Here is an incomplete list of Linux distributions that support booting from a LAN:

  • 4MParted
  • 4MRecover
  • Antergos
  • Antivirus Live CD
  • Apricity OS
  • Arch Bang
  • Arch Linux
  • BakAndImgCD
  • BlackArch Linux
  • BlueStar Linux
  • CentOS
  • CoreOS
  • Debian
  • Elive
  • Fedora
  • G-DATA Boot-Medium
  • gNewSense
  • JonDo Linux
  • Kali Linux
  • KaOS
  • MiniTool Partition Wizard 9.1
  • PIXEL for PC and Mac
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux
  • SliTaz
  • SysRescue
  • TheSSS
  • Ubuntu
  • Webconverger

AIO Boot also supports many other tools like Acronis, Norton Ghost, PartitionGuru, Terabyte…

If you do not have computers for testing, you can test this feature through VMware Workstation. Wish success!

Join the Conversation

106 Comments

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  1. Reply

  2. Hi, i have done exact steps as told, after some time ive entered the required information of username and pass in cmd and it kept bootlooping and restarting the whole process, after some time it just stopped and kept givign no boot filename received error, any help?

    Reply

  3. When I try to install win server 2008, it gives error
    “cd/dvd driver missing”
    have 2 option “browse” “scan”

    what should I do now?

    Reply

  4. I like this tool (PXE style not USB) a lot. it works as expected for Windows. For Linux on the other hand it doesn’t work. I have a few Linux ISO’s which I would like to integrate. But only one of them is “supported”.

    Ubuntu server 22.04 is not supported
    Debian 11 is only supported with the live disk.
    HoloISO (based on Arch) is not supported.

    It is also not possible to just feed the ISO to the machine.

    Is there a solution for this?

    Reply
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  6. Hi!

    I’m trying to install Win10 32bit with this tool. After the ISO load I get to the “Entering bootmgr.exe with parameters…” but the system reboots and start all over again.

    Reply

  7. Hi, Thanks for the tools. It’s very good.
    However I have a problem loading my customized Live Arch iso.
    So, it loads ok into the system. Everything works.
    Buuuttt… My configuration within the iso is not loaded. It’s gone.
    How’s that happened and how to fix that?
    If I make bootable usb from the same iso, all my configuration is loaded and applied.
    But when I make it loadable using pxe, it automatically extracted the iso and although it will load just fine, but all configuration is lost.
    Help please… Thanks.

    Reply
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  8. I tried it yesterday
    Windows iso popup in the menu of second laptop
    But the linux distro(solus) doesn’t popup
    Can u plz tell me how to fix it

    Reply
    1. Reply

      1. Its on the menu when i select linux
        Someone commented earlier to use syslinux as bootloader
        Have to check that :3

        Reply

        1. Ok found it
          It seems solus doesn’t support ipxe booting
          U might want to remove it from the drop down menu under linux 😀

          Reply
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  10. Boot Manager
    Boot Option Menu
    1 Network Boot-IPV4 : 20-89-84C3-E 1-Fc 2 Network Boot – IPV6 : 20-89-84-C3 -E1-FC show like this how to solve this

    Reply

  11. I’m using the latest version and trying to install Windows 10 64bit over network. I’ve entered the network path, user and password into the networkpath.txt file like \\server\share|username|password

    But the installation still ask to enter network path, it seems the network path not working although it’s working fine if I enter the network path manually.

    Please help me to get it work well. Thanks.

    Reply

  12. Hello, thanks for great tool :). I’m using AIOCreator 9.8.17 and trying to install Windows 10 ISO. I don’t want to be asked Network Path during installation, I added my network path into /AIO/networkpath.txt but it’s not working as expected, it worked if I enter network path manually during installation. Any suggestions please, thanks in advance!

    Reply
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  14. Reply
    1. Reply

    2. for people who have the error # 1003, close all PXE and AIO programs , open cmd and execute the command “net stop HTTP”
      then open everything again and try, it should work

      Reply

  15. i have 2 pc connected to same network through router, and i am trying to boot other one via PXE but it shows no dhcp offers.
    in the log windows of AIO boot, ip send showing is 0.0.0.0 and no response, please suggest me the appropriate steps an help me out.
    extra info: Base OS windows 7,
    Need to install windows 10 through network on other pc.
    AIO installed in C drive.

    Reply
    1. Reply
  16. Reply

  17. Hi,

    We are getting issue in to net boot porteus os using AIO . So please help me out to resolve issue.

    Reply

  18. Hello, where AIOcreator.exe can be found. In downloads there only is AIO_boot_extractor for usb drives, which i dont need. I need the AIOcreator for PXE boot. Thanks.

    Reply

    1. Okay nvm, i just used one of my commonly unused abilities – I read installation instructions.Sorry and thanks.

      Reply
    2. Reply

  19. If you are stuck at the splash screen. I found a fix, maybe not for everyone. If loading linux, you have to change the bootloader to syslinux.

    Reply

  20. I need some help here, I was trying to boot the windows 10 ISO. I followed all the steps above, integrated the ISO well. After booting from the PXE on a client machine, selecting “WinPE & Setup” -> then selecting the Windows 10 menu, I can see that boot.wim has processed from the WinSetup folder and then nothing happens. blank screen with a white cursor on top left. What am I missing? I have also shared the AIOBOOT drive properly.

    Reply

    1. Try this, open the /AIO/menu.ipxe file and delete these two lines:

      console --x 1024 --y 768
console --picture ${boot-url}/grub/themes/splash.png
      Reply

      1. tried, nothing happens – same as before. finishes the boot.wim loading from WinSetup folder, and then nothing happens.

        Reply
  21. Reply
    1. Reply

      1. So AIO Boot uses FreeNFS to support Linux booting, and to boot Windows-based images it uses Windows Share aka SMB…

        Reply

  22. I couldn’t get my laptop to boot from USB–something wrong with my key, and I have no cbrom drive. This tool allowed me to get windows installed on my laptop. It was pretty easy! Thanks a lot for creating this.

    Reply
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  24. Thanks for your tool
    Am getting a error httpd Exception: connection closed gracefully
    httpd Disconnect :ID=XXXX
    after copying boot.wim in client

    Reply

    1. Same here.

      I’m using Legacy Mode with a Windows 10 iso that is unattended. After I pick the ISO in Grub2 I get a underscore blinking to infinity… Any help would be great!

      This is the Log in Tiny PXE:
      11:14:17 HTTPd:Server : Returning /Tools/MS/boot.sdi
      11:14:17 HTTPd:Client: 192.168.0.40 [GET] /Files/WinSetup/FinalWin10Automaatic/boot.wim
      11:14:17 HTTPd:Server : Returning /Files/WinSetup/FinalWin10Automaatic/boot.wim
      11:14:23 HTTPd:Exception: , Connection Closed Gracefully.
      11:14:23 HTTPd:DisConnect: TID=8908

      Reply

  25. I’m having trouble booting into a Linux live CD with iPXE, specifically Debian 7 XFCE. It boots to a login screen. Some searching has told me that it needs to be configured to boot in live or single user mode, but I haven’t been able to change that configuration.

    Reply

    1. Any idea why Debian 7 live would boot to a login screen over the network as opposed to the regular live installation desktop?

      There’s no user/password combination that works, so I’m stuck there. I’ve looked at the .cfg file that gets made when integrating the .iso file, specifically that it has boot=live, but don’t know what could be wrong there.

      Reply
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          2. Sorry, I forgot to test it.
            Open the file /AIO/menu.ipxe, find and append the highlighted paragraph as shown below as in the following code:

            :linuxcnc-2.7-wheezy
set path_file /Files/Linux/linuxcnc-2.7-wheezy
set nfspath /Linux/linuxcnc-2.7-wheezy
kernel ${boot-url}${path_file}/live/vmlinuz boot=live components netboot=nfs nfsroot=${nfs-server}:${nfspath} initrd=initrd.img config nosplash lapic rootdelay=5
initrd ${boot-url}${path_file}/live/initrd.img || goto failed
boot || goto failed

  26. hello,

    fisrt of all this tool is amazing..:D
    i am trying to install windows 7 64 bit using PXE but when i get to part where i am supposed to insert the network path it gives me an error and asks me to add the netowrk path again, only work for windows 10 from your post and i quote “Windows 7 may not support your network drivers.”, is there a way to solve this problem?

    Reply
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  27. Thank you for updating so quickly.

    I’ve downloaded the new version, and I am trying to get it to work, but I can’t seem to. I’ve entered the network path, user and password into the networkpath.txt file like so:

    \\server\share|username|password
    I’ve also tried
    \\server\share | username | password

    When I enter the path manually when the dialog pops up, it works just fine – so there shouldn’t be anything wrong with the share setup. I’ve tried with both Windows 7 and Windows 10 installs.

    Please tell me if there is any more information I can provide to you that will help.

    Reply

    1. Oh, wait… do I have to do the integration process again for it to work, or should it work with existing setups? I’ve not tried integrating it again, but I will do in a moment.

      Daniel

      Reply

      1. Yep, just had to do the integration process over again, works like a charm now. Thanks!

        Reply
        1. Reply

        2. Daniel , did you had to do this over an IP ? or the server name ? did you use a space after the sharename ? i cannot make this working, and just wonder how did you made it work.

          Reply

          1. legacy19:
            I am able to use both IP and computer name, BUT – I did not get it to wori by using TinyPXE server as DHCP. I set up another DHCP server using a Pfsense virtual machine and then Proxydhcp enabled in Tiny PXE server. That works every time.

            If you don’t want to use pfsense you can also use an old router or Windows-based DHCP server software. Just make sure to enable proxydhcp once the dhcp server is set up.

            This may not be true for everyone, but that is the only way I’ve been able to get it working 100%.

          2. I used a folder C:\AIO and shared it under “\\PC-name\aio”
            To access this I tried the whole time “\\PC-name\aio” but did not work,
            Then I just tried “\\PC-name” and voa lá, found.
            Hope this helps some of you.

      2. You need to re-integrate with version 0.9.8.7. Then you just need to change the Network Paths without having to re-integrate them.

        Reply

        1. Thank you. Yep, got it working after re-integrating.

          Another question though, although I am not sure this is within your control.

          When booting certain WinPE-based images over PXE, I’m getting a 0xc0000017 error saying “There isn’t enough memory available to create a ramdisk device”. This happens on a Lenovo Thinkpad W530 with 32GB RAM. The same image – Bob Ombs WinPE – works fine in a Virtualbox VM booting over PXE with only 4GB of RAM. I guess wimboot is to blame?

          Reply
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    3. Dear Daniel, I got the same issue with you although I’m using latest version 9.8.17. I can find that the installation got the networkpath.txt file from AIO but it still prompt the “network path” dialog. Do you have any advice to handle this matter? Thank you in advance!

      Reply

  28. Hi!

    This is excellent. I am just wondering – is there a way to “hardcode” the network path? I use Aioboot on a dedicated machine, and the network path never changes. It is somewhat tiresome to enter the same network path, username and password over and over again. Is there somewhere I can write this stuff in so that it automatically connects to the share?

    Reply
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      1. Thank you, looking forward to it. May I ask what the name of the application that executes the “Network path”-dialog is? Maybe I can create a temporary solution.

        Reply
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          3. Hi again. version 0.9.7 has been really nice, but I have encountered a few issues regarding auto mounting Windows install share. From what I can see in the Tiny PXE server log and other logs, it seems like the installprogram doesnt ask for an IP address until after the lmsify program tries to mount the share. The auto mounting program seems to be “too quick” 😉 So it usually works great, but sometimes it will fail and bring up the “Network Path” dialog, even though the share is up and running.

          4. Windows Share does not depend on Tiny PXE Server, because it can operate without Tiny PXE Server.
            Lmbify only performs the connection after the network service is ready. I’m not sure it will work if the connection is delayed for a few seconds.

          5. Thank you for your quick reply. I see

            I will have to do some more digging. On my current setup at home it usually works 10/10 times, but on this new setup it’s very hit and miss, and only works with certain Windows versions. Works to mount it manually, but won’t do it automatically. Tried with both IP and computer name (e.g. \\PXESERVER\).

            Thank you, I will try some more and come back if I have any information on the topic.

          6. Hello,
            AIO boott is really cool.
            I wanted to ask if the program Lmsify is open source or if you can publish it? I would really like to know how the program works?
            Is that possible?

            Greetings jamefane

  29. Hi,
    I setup everything according to the tutorial, however I never get to the network path option. During my setup it seems to skip this step.

    I tried using the following; Legacy boot option, W7 Pro x64 and W10 x64 iso.

    Any suggestions on why it won’t show the network path option?

    Tom

    Reply
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  30. When I insert Windows XP ISO or setupfile on it, its show in the MENU Editor, but not show in the client installation system, except Window XP all OS show properly, so that I cant install Windows XP through it. Please help

    Reply
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  31. Hello Tu Nguyen your tool is working very well! I want to make a question, is it possible to insert an autounattend.xml file into the AIO directory so that all Windows 10 ISOs can load this preconfigured file? Otherwise, you must insert the file into all ISO’s one by one. Sorry about my English.

    Reply
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      1. It did not work, I tried to put the file in all directories that have bootmgr, it does not recognize, for now the only way and insert the file inside each iso.

        Reply
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  32. Upon entering Windows 7 Install, it will ask for the network path, username and password after everything is inputted. It will give me an error that says it can’t reach the network path.

    Other OS like 10, 8.1 is working fine.

    Reply
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  33. Hello. I don’t know how to set the tinypxe server up. After running, the client pc shows an error message “*ipaddress*\grub\themes\splash.png” and I followed every step of this guide, also, there IS a Splash.png file in my external Shared HDD so, if you can, please help me :3

    Reply
      • Open the file /AIO/menu.ipxe.
      • Add the # sign at the beginning of the following lines:
      #console --x 1024 --y 768
#console --picture
      Reply

  34. Hi Tu Nguyen

    Your tool is working great !
    My Question is i want to set aio as PXE server and put them on auto start , write now its take manual steps as Open Application , click on Run PXE , select mode legacy and then check on BINL.
    can you please suggest me how to set up this on auto mode

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  36. I got PXE server to load, however I cannot get passed the network path step.

    I get “network path is incorrect or does not exist” on the system I am trying to boot. However if I try the path on a seperate PC that is loaded with windows it finds the path just fine.

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          1. I was thinking this too, however now I am having issues accessing the shared folder through any computer. I suspect something is not working correctly with my shared folder now.

      2. Reply

        1. Hi Nguyen,

          Have the same issue above.

          Upon entering Windows 7 Install, it will ask for the network path, username and password after everything is inputted. It will give me an error that says it can’t reach the network path.

          Reply

    2. Try turning off the Windows Firewall. If that doesn’t work, make a new user such as “aioboot” and “password” as the password.

      Reply

  37. I tried to run PXE tool to boot my second system from LAN and if I choose UEFI 64 in settings, I have an error message: PXE-E79: NBP is too big to fit in free base memory. If I choose legacy option the boot is successful. Any way around to boot in UEFI mode?

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    1. hi Dave
      i cannot understand how can i make it work with openwrt or LEDE
      could you please guide me or have some tutorial?

      Reply

      1. Currently due to the lack of time I am not able to do the tutorial, but if you want to convert your router to the AIO server, first of all you need to ensure that the router does not run out of space for additional software.
        I recommend reading about exroot tutorials

        If you have a router ready for further work, I invite you to read the instructions on the website (there is also information about exroot):
        https://wiki.openwrt.org/doc/howto/tftp.pxe-server

        This is a guide for the older version of PXE, which allows you to run fewer operating systems, but if you study the differences between the systems you should come to this as well as install a newer version of iPXE, which can easily handle windows (including UEFI)

        During installation, pay attention to the differences in the directory structure that OpenWrt has and the standard Debian / Linux

        Reply
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