Open Command Prompt During OSD in SCCM

This article describes how to open command prompt during OSD. By enabling the command support (testing only) in the boot image properties, you can press the F8 key opens CMD prompt during OSD.

When you install Configuration Manager for the first time in your environment, a new set of boot images are generated to support OS deployment or recovery operations. By default, command support is not enabled on these boot images, and you’ll have to enable it manually.

If you’re using custom boot images for OS deployment, make sure you edit these boot images instead of the default ones and turn on the F8 command prompt feature.

Benefits of enabling CMD prompt access during OSD?

1. By gaining access to a command prompt during OSD, you can launch CMTrace.exe for troubleshooting. You can then review the smsts.log in real time and find out what’s causing the task sequence to fail.
2. You can run powercfg commands against the installed OS when doing an OS deployment task sequence.
3. After launching the command prompt, you can copy the SMSTS log file to a network share during task sequence failure.

How to Launch Command Prompt During OSD

You can add the command-line support to the boot images during OSD by following these steps:

1. In the Configuration Manager console, navigate to Software Library\Overview\Operating Systems\Boot Images. Select the boot image for which you want to enable the CMD prompt support, and in the top ribbon select Properties.

2. On the Boot image properties window, select the Customization tab. Check box the option “Enable command support (testing only).”

3. Click Apply to save the changes. When asked, ‘Do you want Configuration Manager to update the distribution points now?‘ Click Yes. This will distribute the new copy of the boot image to all your DPs. Close the boot image properties window.

After updating the boot images on the distribution points, initiate a PXE boot on the client computer. Once the task sequence loads, press the F8 key to launch a command prompt window.

Tip: If you don’t see the command prompt appear after pressing the F8 key, redistribute the boot images to the DP.

Enable command support for Boot image using PowerShell

Let me show you another handy method to enable the CMD Prompt for your boot images with PowerShell. This can be done using Set-CMBootImage cmdlet that is typically used to modify an OS boot image via PowerShell.

Launch PowerShell from the ConfigMgr Console and run the following command to enable command support (F8) for the boot image. Replace the ID with your boot image ID before running the command.

Set-CMBootImage -Id MCM00002 -EnableCommandSupport $true

Note: The above command only enables the command support (testing only) on the boot image. You will have to update the boot image on all the distribution points once.

To disable the command support for the boot image, run the below PowerShell command.

Set-CMBootImage -Id MCM00002 -EnableCommandSupport $false

Remember to update the boot image on all the distribution points after making the above changes.

To conclude, launching the Command Prompt during OSD can be a valuable tool for diagnosing and resolving deployment issues quickly. I hope this guide helps!!