Install Dell Command Configure in WinPE

Dell Command | Configure can be of great use in the WinPE environment. It allows you to configure and/or query the BIOS before an operating system is laid down. This is easy to do.

The first thing is to determine the architecture of the WinPE environment. This will determine which Dell Command | Configure to use. If you use a 64-bit machine, you will have two folders under %PROGRAMFILES(X86)%\Dell\Command Configure\. They are x86 and x86_64. Depending on the WinPE architecture, you will use the appropriate directory. The first thing you will do is to copy the contents of the chosen directory to a UNC path. The files in that directory are what will be used to execute the CCTK.exe.

I used to have a complete PowerShell script written to do all of the steps, but I have gotten away from that and gone more task sequence steps so I don't have to maintain a .PS1 file. Below is a screenshot of the configuration I use for installing this.

I first map a T: drive to the UNC path containing the files. I arbitrarily chose T:. All of the commands listed below are entered and executed through the Run Command Line task sequence.

Here is a screenshot of the directory. I used to have to also explicitly enter credentials with the net use command, but with recent windows updates, that no longer works. Now all I enter is net use t: \\<UNC Path>.

The next thing is copying the above files and directory to the x: drive. The x: drive contains the WinPE operating system. I create a folder in the root named CCTK. To do the copy, I use the following command.

xcopy.exe "t:\*.*" "x:\CCTK\" /E /C /I /H /R /Y /V

Next comes the HAPI driver. This is necessary to interface CCTK with the Dell system hardware. Here is the command for running HAPI. This will be different if it is being executed in an x86 environment. Instead of hapint64.exe, it would be hapint.exe.

x:\CCTK\HAPI\hapint64.exe -i -k C-C-T-K -p X:\CCTK\HAPI\

Finally, I unmap the mapped t: drive by using the following command line.

net use t: /delete

This is an example of using the CCTK.exe to clear the BIOS password after the utility is installed.

NOTE: You can update the CCTK for the WinPE environment. To do so, execute the Dell Command | Update which will also update the Dell Command | Configure utility. Once that is updated, recopy the contents as described above to the designated UNC path.