Wpeutil Command-Line Options

The Windows PE utility (Wpeutil) is a command-line tool that enables you to run various commands in a Windows PE session. For example, you can shut down or restart Windows PE, enable or disable a firewall, set language settings, and initialize a network.

Wpeutil Command-Line Options

Wpeutil uses the following conventions.

wpeutil {command}[argument]

For example,

Wpeutil shutdown
Wpeutil enablefirewall
Wpeutil SetMuiLanguage de-DE

Command	Description
CreatePageFile [/path=<path>] [/size=<size>]	Creates a page file to a specified path and size. You must specify at least one argument, path, or size. For example, wpeutil CreatePageFile /path=C:\pagefile.sys.
Disableextendedcharactersforvolume <path on target volume>	Disables extended character support for DOS-compatible file names (8.3 format) for the volume containing <path on target volume>. <path on target volume > must specify the root of the volume, for example C:\. If disabled, all files that have been created with extended characters will be converted to a short filename. This command only applies to NTFS volumes.
DisableFirewall	Disables a firewall. Does not require any arguments.
Enableextendedcharactersforvolume <path on target volume>	Allows 8.3 format file names to contain extended characters on the volume containing <path on target volume >. <path on target volume > must specify the root of the volume, for example C:\. This command only applies to NTFS volumes. Note If you are installing an operating system in a language that has extended characters that are enabled by default, such as ja-jp or ko-kr, using a copy of Windows PE in a language that does not have extended characters enabled, such as en-us, the installation will result in a chkdsk error during first boot. Enabling this option before installing to that volume will prevent chkdsk from running.
EnableFirewall	Enables a firewall. Does not require any arguments.
InitializeNetwork	Initializes network components and drivers, and sets the computer name to a randomly-chosen value.
ListKeyboardLayout<LCID>	Lists the supported keyboard layouts (Name and ID) for a given Locale ID (LCID) value. For a list of valid Locale IDs, see List of Locale ID (LCID) Values. For example, wpeutil ListKeyboardLayouts 0x0409 -or- wpeutil ListKeyboardLayouts 1033
Reboot	Restarts the current Windows PE session.
SetKeyboardLayout <keyboard layout ID>	Sets the keyboard layout in the current Windows PE session. To obtain a list of supported keyboard layouts, run ListKeyboardLayouts <LCID>. To set the keyboard for EN-US, use wpeutil SetKeyboardLayout 0409:00000409
SetMuiLanguage <language-name>[;<language-name>]	Sets the language. <language-name> uses the international language code format (for example, EN-US for the U.S. English language). You can specify multiple languages in priority order, by separating them with a semicolon. For example, wpeutil SetMuiLanguage de-DE;en-US
SetUserLocale <language-name>[;<language-name>]	Sets the user locale. <language-name> uses the international language code format (for example, EN-US for the U.S. English language). You can specify multiple languages in priority order, by separating them with a semicolon. For example, wpeutil SetUserLocale de-DE;en-US
Shutdown	Shuts down the current Windows PE session.
UpdateBootInfo	Updates information about the method used to boot Windows PE. Information is stored in the registry in the key HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control. The results of this operation might change after loading additional driver support.