Customising bootstrap.ini in MDT

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The bootstrap.ini file is responsible for storing the network configuration information for the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit.

By default it will have a reference to your deployment share or shares, however you can use it to specify additional information.

To edit the bootstrap.ini file:

  1. Open the Deployment Workbench (Start -> All Programs -> Microsoft Deployment Toolkit -> Deployment Workbench)
  2. Right click on your deployment share and select ‘Properties’
  3. Select the ‘Rules‘ tab
  4. Click on the ‘Edit bootstrap.ini’ button to open the file.
  5. Edit as required and save.

To automatically authenticate to the network share you would use the following details:

[Default]
UserID=UserAccount
UserDomain=DomainName
UserPassword=Password123

To automatically point to a local distribution point you can use the ‘defaultgateway’ option. This will allow you to choose a site according to the gateway assigned in DHCP. This can be done by using the following settings:

[Settings]
Priority=Default, DefaultGateway
[Default]
UserID=UserAccount
UserDomain=DomainName
UserPassword=Password123

[DefaultGateway]
192.168.1.1=SITE1
192.168.2.1=SITE2

[SITE1]
DeployRoot=\\SITE1SERVER\DeploymentShare$

[SITE2]
DeployRoot=\\SITE2SERVER\DeploymentShare$

To disable the welcome message at the start of the deployment wizard, add the following line to the ‘default’ section. Please note, this also needs to be added to the CustomSettings.ini configuration.

[Default]
SkipBDDWelcome=YES