MDT LiteTouchPE_x64.iso ethernet is used by Kernel debug

Jérôme Godbout 0 Reputation points
2025-06-16T19:57:02.68+00:00

Hi,

I'm trying to use Microsoft Deployment Tool (MDT) to capture and clone Windows machine in production for a clients, so the image get generalized properly.

I face many challenge into the capture, I have a working server, I made the deployment instance, with a task that should do sysprep and capture. I have made my Machine I want to reproduce by installing the OS, went into the adit mode before oobe to install the needed software, I shutdown the machine into oobe with sysprep. I made the USB dongle with LiteTouch_x64.iso from MDT. But I cannot have any Wifi to connect to the server to capture, even if I inject the proper Wifi driver, the wifi system . So I did try over the ethernet, but the ethernet port is already used by the Microsoft kernel debug as index 0. I did try to disable the debug mode into the USB dongle with bcdedit /store d:\Boot\BCD /set {default} debug no but the ethernet is still taken by the kernel debug. I did valiate the interface ans default is using {default} when I enum the bcdedit. My question is how to prevent Kernel debug from using the ethernet port or having a working wifi with the MDT LiteTouchPE_x64.iso image?

I did try to enforce the local capture to the USB dongle, but the wizard only take network url and ask form credentials, even when I try to force skip this it doesn't like to capture to local drive. I can start a console into the WinPE by pressing F8 and do a manual capture of the drive by making a dism /Capture-Image /ImageFile:D:\RinnoWinMate.wim /CaptureDir:C:\ /Name:"RinnoWinMate" /Compress:Max /CheckIntegrity but I would prefer a usb dongle where I can click on the task and perform the capture to the web server directly. How does people do to have a working network within the WinPE? I have the Intel driver that match my device into the out of the box and they are copied to the images. I did also injected devcon.exe to see if I can disable the virtual debug device, without any luck.

This should not be this complicated to capture a reference device. What am I missing???

Windows for business | Windows Client for IT Pros | User experience | Other
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  1. Beatrix 960 Reputation points Independent Advisor
    2025-06-18T04:01:17.93+00:00

    Hi,

    It’s possible that WinPE’s kernel debug feature is binding to your Ethernet adapter, which can prevent MDT from accessing the network. You can try disabling it with the following steps:

    Boot into the LiteTouchPE_x64 environment.

    Press F8 to open the Command Prompt.

    1. Run: devmgmt.msc

    In Device Manager, expand Network adapters, locate Microsoft Kernel Debug Network Adapter, right-click it, and select Disable.

    Close Device Manager and reboot the system.

    This should free up the Ethernet adapter so MDT can use it.

    Also, make sure to update your deployment share after adding drivers. This ensures that your USB or WDS boot image includes the latest drivers and boot configurations. If you're using WDS or PXE, don’t forget to replace the boot images there with the updated versions.

    Hope this helps!


  2. Jérôme Godbout 0 Reputation points
    2025-06-26T16:53:46.2433333+00:00

    The only solution so far is to add a USB to ethernet adapter to the machine while doing the capture and restore and leaving the kernel debug on the built-in ethernet port. Everything else has failed. Event Copilot has no clue how to fix that. devcon doesn't work, bcdedit doesn't seem to be working either.

    I guess we will add a usb dongle to the manufacturing process. The MDT things is old and very bad. Should have a WinPE image or WinRE image with network drivers working for both the Wi-Fi and ethernet, also give us an option for the Kernel Debug to avoid this. The task system in MDT is akward at best. Cloning a PC and install it into manufacture shouldn't be this complexe and required a tons of configuration like this does. Damn I miss Linux and Mac OS when I have to use those MDT and WinPE tools.

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