Geoff Chappell - Software Analyst
The hal option specifies an executable to load as the Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL).
To have the BCDEDIT tool set the hal option for the currently running operating system, run the command
bcdedit /set hal filename
where filename names the proposed HAL.
To set this option at the Edit Boot Options Menu, add
/hal=filename
which is also the syntax for the option as a BOOT.INI switch in earlier Windows versions.
The hal option overrides the loader’s default selection of the HAL, but is itself overridden by detecthal:
halacpi.dll or halmacpi.dll | if detecthal is true |
filename | if hal evaluates as filename |
hal.dll | otherwise |
The loader appends the filename to the path for the “system32” subdirectory of the systemroot directory for the selected operating system. However, it seems that the file is required to be in the directory, as opposed to being on some deeper path. The mechanisms are indirect and are presently beyond the scope of this note.