I don't know how useful this actually is but I thought I would share it with you guys anyway.
You seem to like useless information... Right??
This trick threw me for a loop. I was watching a junior admin install Windows Vista from a CD and he turned to me smirked and said
"Want to see something cool?"
I shrugged my shoulders and he hit a key combination and brought up a command prompt over the gui that was installing Vista....
I said "Whaaaaat?"
We went back and forth like that for a little bit until I asked him what he uses it for. He shrugged his shoulders this time and he didn't know but he likes that it makes him look cool.
You can open a game of Pinball or Solitaire during an install. Sound appealing to anyone? That's what I call multi-tasking :) So Shift + F10 will get you to the command prompt during an install like the shot below. It works on XP as well.
It only works from the GUI portion and not the white text on blue background parts. I googled it and saw some speculation on using it to inject drivers or folders during your install. But isn't that what Nlite is for?? :) Microsoft themselves said the following:
In some cases, it may be helpful to have access to a command prompt during GUI-mode Setup for the purposes of troubleshooting, copying drivers, starting and stopping services, starting tools such as Task Manager, or other for other needs.To gain access to a command prompt during GUI-mode Setup, press SHIFT+F10.
_TheLearnsSomethingNewEverydayAdmiN_
