Assessment Platform Command-Line Syntax

Applies To: Windows 8, Windows 8.1

AXE.exe is a command-line tool that's installed with the Windows® Assessment Toolkit. You can use this set of command-line options to automate jobs from a script and minimize resource usage. A job is one or more assessments run at one time on a computer. You can't use the command-line options to compose a job. You should create, modify, and save a job by using the Windows Assessment Console. By default, jobs are saved to the %USERPROFILE%\Documents\Windows Assessment Console\Jobs folder.

By default, AXE.exe is installed to:

%PROGRAMFILES%\Windows Kits\8.0\ Assessment and Deployment Kit\Windows Assessment Toolkit\<architecture>

Where <architecture> is either x86 or amd64.

Command-Line Options

The base syntax for using the Assessment Platform from the command line is:

AXE.exe jobfile [AXE_options]

The following table provides a description for how you can use each option. These options aren't case-sensitive.

Option	Description
Help or /?	Displays information about available AXE.exe command-line options.
JobFile	Specifies the job file that you want to run. The path of the job file can be a relative path. If the job is in the directory that you're running AXE.exe from, no path is required. By default, when you create a job in the Windows Assessment Console, it's saved in the %USERPROFILE%\Documents\Windows Assessment Console\Jobs folder. Note This option is required if no other parameter that performs an action is specified. Example: AXE C:\Assessments\MyJobs\Job1.jobx
/Timeout<seconds>	Specifies the amount of time, in seconds, that the job will wait for another job to finish before it exits with an error. The default is zero, which means that the job will exit immediately if another job is already running. This is an optional parameter. Example: AXE C:\Assessments\myJobs\Job1.jobx /Timeout 30
/NoPublish	Specifies not to publish the results file to the location that's specified in the job file. When you use this option, the results are saved to the default location, %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Axe\Results. Example: AXE C:\Assessments\myJobs\Job1.jobx /NoPublish
/PublishPath<Directory>	Specifies the path of a folder to publish the results file to. This overrides the publication path, <ResultsPublishPath>, that's specified in the job file. This parameter is ignored if it's combined with /NoPublish. Example: AXE C:\Assessments\myJobs\Job1.jobx /PublishPath C:\Assessments\myResults
/RemoveRestart	Specifies that any existing, pending job-restart task should be removed. Note The /JobFile option isn't needed when you use this option. When you run a job, the assessment creates a task to restart the job if there's a system failure, like a loss of power. When you use this option, the task is removed from the Task Scheduler. If no job-restart task is pending, the assessment will return an error to inform you that the task doesn't exist. Example: AXE /RemoveRestart
/NoWarnings	Suppresses warning messages. This is an optional parameter. Example: AXE C:\Assessments\myJobs\Job1.jobx /NoWarnings
/Pause	Pauses AXE.exe after the job finishes, to wait for you to press a key. You can then see any errors or other information in the console before AXE.exe exits and the console closes. Example: AXE C:\Assessments\myJobs\Job1.jobx /Pause
/JobParameter Param=<value>	Specifies a value to override a job parameter that may exist in the job manifest. This is an optional parameter. You can use it up to 100 times to specify multiple job parameters. If duplicate job parameter names appear, the assessment uses the last one. The /PublishPath option takes precedence over setting the <ResultsPublishPath> job parameter with this option. Example: AXE C:\Assessments\myJobs\Job1.jobx /JobParameter iterations=1
/DisplayLog<path_to_AXE_ETL_log_file>	Displays the content of the Event Trace Log (ETL) files that AXE.exe uses for logging. You must specify the path of the AXE.exe ETL files. The location of the log files appears in the console when a job runs. The file name may contain wildcard characters. The default location of the log file is %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Axe\Logs\<GUID>, where <GUID> is the GUID that's generated randomly for each new job. The job results file in the <SessionLogFiles> node also contains the full location. This node specifies all of the log files. Note All of the ETL files are automatically converted into a single AxeLog.txt file that's saved in the results directory. You can open this file by using Notepad. Example: AXE /DisplayLog <path_to_file>

Benefits:

• Running a job at the command prompt uses fewer resources and has less impact on performance metrics.

• You can use command-line options to automate a job.

• Command-line options provide additional parameters that aren't available in the Windows Assessment Console.

Limitations:

• The job that you run can't be one of the preconfigured jobs or one of the single assessments that the Windows Assessment Toolkit provides.

• You can't create or modify a job by using AXE.exe. You must use the Windows Assessment Console.

See Also

Concepts

Windows Assessment Console Overview

Other Resources

Windows Assessment Toolkit Technical Reference