We were using WinPE 2.1 as the PXE automation environment for imaging our PCs. Last year we upgraded the server to 2k8 and DS to SP6 so we switched to WinPE 4.0. Overall this has been successful and we now use WinPE 4 for the majority of our builds, although we do still have the Win PE 2.1 automation environment available.
When building PCs at some of our remote sites over very weak WWAN links it is not practical to pull the WinPE automation environment over the network via PXE. To overcome this I copied the PXE image to USB sticks and we boot from them, and once into the automation environment DS then runs the script. This worked perfectly with WinPE 2.1, and still does.
However I cannot get this to work with WinPE 4 and I am at a loss as to why.
I have a simple job that runs a script that merely says "pause" as a basic test. If I allow the PC to boot from PXE with the WinPE 4 automation environment it boots and runs the script, with a cmd window waiting for a key to be pressed. However if I load the same PXE image onto a USB and boot from it, although the agent shows a successful connection, the script never runs. The connection is closed and the PC reboots without running the script. Error 1 during script execution is reported in the DS console.
Does anyone have any ideas why this is not working? I've run out of ideas and I can't scratch the bald spot much more - it's big enough as it is!
Error 1 is apparently permissions but I can't see how you can lack the permissions to pause...?!