The Preboot eXecution Environment (PXE, also known as Pre-Execution Environment; sometimes pronounced "pixie") is an environment to boot computers using a network interface independently of data storage devices (like hard disks) or installed operating systems.PXE was designed to be applicable to many system architectures.

The 2.1 version of the specification assigns architecture identifiers to six system types, including IA-64 and DEC Alpha. However, the specification only completely covers IA-32. Intel included PXE in the EFI for IA-64, creating a de-facto standard with the implementation.

To initiate a PXE bootstrap session the PXE firmware broadcasts a DHCPDISCOVER packet extended with PXE-specific options (extended DHCPDISCOVER) to port 67/UDP (DHCP server port). The PXE options identify the firmware as capable of PXE, but they will be ignored by standard DHCP servers. If the firmware receives DHCPOFFERs from such servers, it may configure itself by requesting one of the offered configurations.