Windows® Internals, Sixth Edition, Part 2

Specifies settings for the debugger when kernel debugging is enabled. AutoEnable enables the debugger when a breakpoint or kernel exception, including kernel crashes, occurs.

debugtype

Serial, 1394, USB

Specifies whether kernel debugging will be communicated through a serial, FireWire (IEEE 1394), or USB 2.0 port. (The default is serial.)

emsbaudrate

Baud rate in bps

Specifies the baud rate to use for EMS.

emsport

COM port number

Specifies the serial (COM) port to use for EMS.

extendedinput

Boolean

Enables boot applications to leverage BIOS support for extended console input.

firstmegabytepolicy

UseNone, UseAll, UsePrivate

Specifies how the low 1 MB of physical memory is consumed by the HAL to mitigate corruptions by the BIOS during power transitions.

fontpath

String

Specifies the path of the OEM font that should be used by the boot application.

graphicsmodedisabled

Boolean

Disables graphics mode for boot applications.

graphicsresolution

Resolution

Sets the graphics resolution for boot applications.

initialconsoleinput

Boolean

Specifies an initial character that the system inserts into the PC/AT keyboard input buffer.

integrityservices

Default, Disable, Enable

Enables or disables code integrity services, which are used by Kernel Mode Code Signing. Default is Enabled.

locale

Localization string

Sets the locale for the boot application (such as EN-US).

noumex

Boolean

Disables user-mode exceptions when kernel debugging is enabled. If you experience system hangs (freezes) when booting in debugging mode, try enabling this option.

novesa

Boolean

Disables the usage of VESA display modes.

recoveryenabled

Boolean

Enables the recovery sequence, if any. Used by fresh installations of Windows to present the Windows PE-based Startup And Recovery interface.

recoverysequence

List

Defines the recovery sequence (described above).

relocatephysical

Physical address

Relocates an automatically selected NUMA node’s physical memory to the specified physical address.

targetname

String

Defines the target name for the USB debugger when used with USB2 debugging {debugtype, usb}.

testsigning

Boolean

Enables test-signing mode, which allows driver developers to load locally signed 64-bit drivers. This option results in a watermarked desktop.

traditionalksegmappings

Boolean

Determines whether the kernel will honor the traditional KSEG0 mapping that was originally required for MIPS support. With KSEG0 mappings, the bottom 24 bits of the kernel’s initial virtual address space will map to the same physical address (that is, 0x80800000 virtual is 0x800000 in RAM). Disabling this requirement allows more low memory to be available, which can help with some hardware.

truncatememory

Address in bytes

Disregards physical memory above the specified physical address.

Table 13-4. BCD Options for the Windows Boot Loader (Winload)

BCD Element

Values

Meaning

advancedoptions

Boolean

If false, executes the default behavior of launching the auto-recovery command boot entry when the boot fails; otherwise, displays the boot error and offers the user the advanced boot option menu associated with the boot entry. This is equivalent to pressing F8.

bootlog

Boolean

Causes Windows to write a log of the boot to the file %SystemRoot%\Ntbtlog.txt.

bootstatuspolicy

DisplayAllFailures, IgnoreAllFailures, IgnoreShutdownFailures, IgnoreBootFailures

Overrides the system’s default behavior of offering the user a troubleshooting boot menu if the system did not complete the previous boot or shutdown.

bootux

Disabled, Basic, Standard

Defines the boot graphics user experience that the user will see. Disabled means that no graphics will be seen during boot time (only a black screen), while Basic will display only a progress bar during load. Standard displays the usual Windows logo animation during boot.

clustermodeaddressing

Number of processors

Defines the maximum number of processors to include in a single Advanced Programmable Interrupt Controller (APIC) cluster.

configflags

Flags

Specifies processor-specific configuration flags.

dbgtransport

Transport image name

Overrides using one of the default kernel debugging transports (Kdcom.dll, Kd1394, Kdusb.dll) and instead uses the given file, permitting specialized debugging transports to be used that are not typically supported by Windows.

debug

Boolean

Enables kernel-mode debugging.

detecthal

Boolean

Enables the dynamic detection of the HAL.

driverloadfailurepolicy

Fatal, UseErrorControl