Here's what I'm thinking about the winload.efi problem:
1. winload.efi lives under \Windows\System32 on WinPE, Windows, and WinRE.
2. It's not part of the EFI partition files.
3. It's not part of \Windows\Boot, or \Windows\System32\SecureBootUpdates files.
4. Secure Boot variables are equally available to WinPE, Windows, and WinRE to read.
If you can boot Windows, why can't WinRE boot? It's the same variables for everyone.
5. Is there another WinRE security policy that blocks WinRE winload.efi?
6. Is this actually not a Secure Boot problem, but some weird BCD issue?
I have seen people complain about failed Windows installs due to winload.efi errors. It takes while, but after some point, Windows reboots itself to continue the installation and then fails. The install was working until the reboot, so it could boot the first time but not the next.
To me, that points to some policy or config setting (BCD?) that changed in between the two boots.
1. winload.efi lives under \Windows\System32 on WinPE, Windows, and WinRE.
2. It's not part of the EFI partition files.
3. It's not part of \Windows\Boot, or \Windows\System32\SecureBootUpdates files.
4. Secure Boot variables are equally available to WinPE, Windows, and WinRE to read.
If you can boot Windows, why can't WinRE boot? It's the same variables for everyone.
5. Is there another WinRE security policy that blocks WinRE winload.efi?
6. Is this actually not a Secure Boot problem, but some weird BCD issue?
I have seen people complain about failed Windows installs due to winload.efi errors. It takes while, but after some point, Windows reboots itself to continue the installation and then fails. The install was working until the reboot, so it could boot the first time but not the next.
To me, that points to some policy or config setting (BCD?) that changed in between the two boots.
My Computer
At a glance
Windows 7
- OS
- Windows 7




