When you are performing Microsoft Windows 95 or Microsoft Windows 98 upgrades, the Winnt32.exe file and several other related files are copied locally, and Winnt32.exe is restarted from the local drive. This prevents several potential problems that can occur as the result of network congestion or hardware problems.

Windows 95/Windows 98 does not place Winnt32.exe in the paging file. If a problem with the network occurs or the response is slow, Winnt32 cannot be reloaded unless the files are copied locally. This is the default setting. If you use the /nodownload switch when you start Winnt32.exe, it is not restartable.

There may be cases when the /nodownload switch is necessary so that Winnt32.exe is not restarted automatically. One example may be when you are using the Microsoft Systems Management Server (SMS) client to initiate the Windows 2000 Professional upgrade. This may limit the sending of status messages that inform SMS whether or not Winnt32 has completed. Because the original Winnt32.exe is no longer used, it never sends a completion notification. This prevents SMS from tracking the progress of Winnt32.exe