Add Device Drivers on an Online Windows PE Image

Applies To: Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2

Note

This content applies to Windows 7. For Windows 8 content, see Windows Deployment with the Windows ADK.

You can add out-of-box drivers to a running Windows® PE environment by using the Drvload tool. Drvload uses one or more driver .inf files as inputs. To add a driver to an offline Windows PE image, use the Deployment Image Servicing and Management (DISM) tool.

If the driver .inf file requires a reboot, Windows PE will ignore the request. If the driver .sys file requires a reboot, then the driver cannot be added with Drvload.

Warning

Online driver installation will consume scratchspace. If you run out of memory during installation, you can increase the scratchspace using DISM /Set-ScratchSpace option.

To add a device driver to an online Windows PE image

  • At a command prompt, type

    drvload.exe <inf_path>
    

    where inf_path is the path to a device driver. You can specify multiple paths by separating each inf_path entry with a comma.

See Also

Concepts

Drvload Command-Line Options