A provisioning server can generate a network boot emulator configured to provision software for target machines that may not support network booting. The provisioning server can be configured to build the network boot emulator in a format that is usable by target machines regardless of the software available on the target machines. The network boot emulator can include instructions necessary to locate and access software distributions, combine software distributions according to the templates or profiles in order to generate a software installation, and install the software installation on a target machine. The network boot emulator can also include instructions necessary to configure the software installation.