Win8 Windows-to-go appears to have a feature called “respecialize” that is
a) undocumented and b) interferes in unpredictable ways with background
driver and device installation.
Anyone have any clues as to what this win8 annoyance is, how it works,
where it might be documented, how one could go about disabling it
(legitimately)?
Mark Roddy
Well, respecialize (who NAMED this?) is “documented”… sort of in the way that so many things are “documented”… it’s mentioned here and there in an FAQ. For example:
http:
I see VMWare had to implement some sort of “work around” for this…
All I can say is that I’m good with Google, but aside from that, I have no insight whatsoever to offer.
Heck, it took me a couple of minutes to remember what feature the name “Windows-to-go” equates to…
Peter
OSR</http:>
>who NAMED this?
Good question.
The combination of “respecialize” and “haz” makes me think it might have
been Ali G.
mm
-----Original Message-----
From: xxxxx@lists.osr.com
[mailto:xxxxx@lists.osr.com] On Behalf Of xxxxx@osr.com
Sent: Tuesday, February 19, 2013 7:14 AM
To: Windows System Software Devs Interest List
Subject: RE:[ntdev] Respecialize makes my VM haz a sad.
Well, respecialize (who NAMED this?) is “documented”… sort of in the way
that so many things are “documented”… it’s mentioned here and there in an
FAQ. For example:
http:
I see VMWare had to implement some sort of “work around” for this…
All I can say is that I’m good with Google, but aside from that, I have no
insight whatsoever to offer.
Heck, it took me a couple of minutes to remember what feature the name
“Windows-to-go” equates to…
Peter
OSR
—
NTDEV is sponsored by OSR
OSR is HIRING!! See http://www.osr.com/careers
For our schedule of WDF, WDM, debugging and other seminars visit:
http://www.osr.com/seminars
To unsubscribe, visit the List Server section of OSR Online at
http://www.osronline.com/page.cfm?name=ListServer</http:>
Yeah I found the technet “mention”. But this is just another win8 disaster
that appears to be undocumented. I mean really, who needs to understand how
system boot works or how it is been changed from one major release to the
next?
Google is no help.
Mark Roddy
On Tue, Feb 19, 2013 at 10:13 AM, wrote:
> Well, respecialize (who NAMED this?) is “documented”… sort of in the way
> that so many things are “documented”… it’s mentioned here and there in an
> FAQ. For example:
>
> http:
>
> I see VMWare had to implement some sort of “work around” for this…
>
> All I can say is that I’m good with Google, but aside from that, I have
> no insight whatsoever to offer.
>
> Heck, it took me a couple of minutes to remember what feature the name
> “Windows-to-go” equates to…
>
> Peter
> OSR
>
>
> —
> NTDEV is sponsored by OSR
>
> OSR is HIRING!! See http://www.osr.com/careers
>
> For our schedule of WDF, WDM, debugging and other seminars visit:
> http://www.osr.com/seminars
>
> To unsubscribe, visit the List Server section of OSR Online at
> http://www.osronline.com/page.cfm?name=ListServer
></http:>
Is it that “helpful” feature to trim the set of boot-load drivers?
Yes it does seem to be involved with that as well. Basically I want to know
how to disable it. I can detect that sysprep is running, but that is only
part of the puzzle, After sysprep runs and reboots the vm, sometimes the
next boot is “special” too, allowing my drivers to get installed, but not
letting their associated devices load. In that case some other process is
performing the malfunction, not sysprep.
The odd thing is that the image we start from is always the same identical
bits (which is the whole point of what we are doing)
, sometimes we get into the respecialize mess, sometimes we don’t.
Mark Roddy
On Tue, Feb 19, 2013 at 10:29 AM, wrote:
> Is it that “helpful” feature to trim the set of boot-load drivers?
>
> —
> NTDEV is sponsored by OSR
>
> OSR is HIRING!! See http://www.osr.com/careers
>
> For our schedule of WDF, WDM, debugging and other seminars visit:
> http://www.osr.com/seminars
>
> To unsubscribe, visit the List Server section of OSR Online at
> http://www.osronline.com/page.cfm?name=ListServer
>
There is a registry value that can be put to the service key to prevent that.
I wish Microsoft haven’t introduced this kludge, but had a “provisional boot load” type instead. It would load all such drivers at INT13 phase (along with “true” boot load), and then, when it entered the runtime, would unload any unused binaries.
“There is a registry value that can be put to the service key to prevent
that”
Am I supposed to guess?
Anyway, I think I’ve found out how to disable the interesting new
“respecialize” boot feature. But you will have to guess 
Mark Roddy
On Tue, Feb 19, 2013 at 1:40 PM, wrote:
> There is a registry value that can be put to the service key to prevent
> that.
>
> I wish Microsoft haven’t introduced this kludge, but had a “provisional
> boot load” type instead. It would load all such drivers at INT13 phase
> (along with “true” boot load), and then, when it entered the runtime,
> would unload any unused binaries.
>
> —
> NTDEV is sponsored by OSR
>
> OSR is HIRING!! See http://www.osr.com/careers
>
> For our schedule of WDF, WDM, debugging and other seminars visit:
> http://www.osr.com/seminars
>
> To unsubscribe, visit the List Server section of OSR Online at
> http://www.osronline.com/page.cfm?name=ListServer
>
>Anyway, I think I’ve found out how to disable the interesting new
“respecialize” boot feature. But you will have to guess
“I can teach you, but I have to chaaaarge”
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/hardware/ff546326(v=vs.85).aspx
See BootFlags explanation.