BogdanV
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5 minutes ago, win32 said:
That has nothing to do with the extended kernel. You can enable it by doing regsvr32 %windir%\apppatch\slayerui.dll.
Yes, I'm aware of the native shim implementation - what I'm saying is that, from what I remember (albeit this was probably on Win9x), KernelEx expanded the compatibility modes to include stuff like XP, Vista etc. or is this irrelevant to the way the system currently works?
Also, just to confirm - the two links above are the current sources for latest updates on the platform, right?
I'm asking because I remember there being other sources out there like MDGx's site but I haven't seen that one mentioned here in any recent posts.0 -
A bunch of questions from someone who's been out of the loop for the past ~5 years - sorry if its been asked before (I tried digging through countless posts and threads but I couldn't find this explicitly stated anywhere, only implied as common knowledge I guess):
If I understand correctly, Windows2000-KB935839-v13i-x86-ENU.EXE contains the latest (at the moment of writing) version of KernelEx.
Well, I tried searching for it on:
- http://win2k.org/wlu/wluen.htm
- https://twilczynski.com/windows/updates/
...and I couldn't find anything. The only version of KernelEx I've found was via win2k.org and that was v30eM.
Am I missing something obvious here? Also, I remember (been away for a good couple of years) there used to be a Compatibility tab injected in .exe app properties pages.
I haven't seen this anymore. Should I presume that once you install KernelEx, that's it?
Also, since I'm here, taking the opportunity to ask what is the latest version of Firefox that's supposed to work with KEx because on the thread with the "latest supported versions of software", Firefox support is listed as "on-going" yet I got the Win32 API method "RtlSetLastWin32Error" not found.
Thanks!0 -
Hm... I was afraid it might not be possible . Alas, I could create a VS2005 solution and just keep both codebases in sync. Sure, it's going to be a bit of a pain having to recreate all the project settings but its good that I'm doing it while still early in development and not further down the road.
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Its been a while since I last posted around these places. I'm building a 3D engine from scratch using only SDL and since I had a gameport compatible joystick I thought it would be awesome to port it over to Windows 98 and run some performance tests as well on my K6-2 PC.
Do you folk know if the Microsoft Compiler from VS2013 can output Win98-compatible code? Or what options would I have to compile for this platform? I'm fairly sure my dependencies are compatible and my code is C98 compatible.
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Win 2k and XP drivers are WDM, all right. But the implementation of WDM differs somewhat between those NT-Family OSes and the 9x/ME-Family. So sound drivers and USB drivers are the most likely to work, although some need WDMSTUB.SYS to work correctly. Video drivers are among the least likely to work across families, because the video subsystem implementation is hugely different across families, I'm sorry to say.
<sigh> I was skeptical about it but seeing that tool I thought we might just pull it off with a wrapper.
Anyway, thanks for the clarifications ! I've heard about this problem for quite some time but I never managed to find any detailed information about it. Would you happen to know where I can find more details as to why 98/ME supports only a subset of the features specified in the WDM model ? The DDK had lots of info on supported stuff, but nothing regarding why video drivers don't work.
PS: For clarification : I understood what you said only that I'd like to read the technical details so-to-say.
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[...] that is binary compatible with Windows and Windows NT [...] If you develop a driver for Windows 2000 or Whistler
When this tool was made : does the dev imply that video drivers fall within the WDM model or were they still using the NT model ?
It would be awesome to expand the range of supported graphics cards, especially for ATI users who are mostly stuck with 9k series cards.
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I thought on trying to go with direct win32 programming, but it felt like a real pain from the begining, so, after looking through VC6, I discovered MFC, which, from a first glance, looks cleaner than win32 because it wraps around most of the common stuff.
I found a tutorial on codersource.net that looks nice, but I was wondering if you'd have any recommendations as in other sites, books, whatever.
Thanks in advance!
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I've hit a problem here. I guess I'm not the only one who went through the same issue.
I made a mindows install. After that, I build a flopy image as outlined in bootcd.zip from the mindows project site (renamed autoexec.txt, msdos.txt and the like to bat and sys accordingly).
I checked the image and it works correctly, so I went forward and build a bootable cd using the flopy image above and placed the mindows %systemroot% folder's contents in <cd root>\min\ as outlined in autoexec.bat
Rebooted VPC and manually entered R:\win to start windows (strangely, autoexec simply ended with a pause command).
The first weird thing was scanreg telling me that it didn't have enough space to "fix a problem that he found". After that, I get a quick error flash about
reinstalling windows (missing stuff ?) and the virtual machine crashes completely (I'm left with the VPC Machines Console).
I have to mention that in my mindows's config folder there were no user/system.dat files (but it booted ok). Starting the live cd without system/user.dat spewed several errors and crashed the VM, so, I ran patchsys and patchuse.exe from bootcd.zip and used the resulting files for registry.
This brought me to the symptoms I mentioned in the beginning (scanreg, crash).
Can someone tell me what/where could the problem be ? Its quite weird that scanreg yells "no free space" because the entire system folder is on the ram disk (xmsdsk) which has enough space.
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On my part, I'm thinking on deploying a compressed image from a light 98 environment, to take advantage of 32bit processing.
Using compression would mean a small copy time (although I don't know if this would be counterbalanced by decompression time -which would be triggered from within the partition to increase performance).
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What I have in mind would be a 2 phase project :
-1st : build a live cd with Setup.exe as shell + VBE driver for 32bit and higher res.
-2nd: build a custom setup that copies a compressed image of 98/Me (that didn't go through the HW driver installation) in the target partition, expands it, makes it bootable and reboots for the final Setup stage.
In the 2nd phase version of setup, you'd also be able to choose the amount of RAM to configure the system with (so that you won't have to mess with DOS and manually edit system.ini).
I was thinking that launching setup from a 98 environment would be faster than the current win3.1 way (I'm thinking of 32bit vs 16bit operating mode) and you'd also get more eyecandy with 800x600 and 32bit graphics.
As for the 2nd phase, I think thats kind of what MS does with the current WIM-based installs of Vista and 7, plus, the setup process is streamlined by the fact that user interaction is kept to a minimum (although some might not like it).
Also, I know that nothing beats a classic install from HDD, but wouldn't this be nicer for fresh installs and "more modern" ?
This could also work like the live cds from linux distros. You get the chance to see how Windows works and you can launch it right away.
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You don't need to go any further. Just browse above, in the 9x Members Projects section and look for RP9 (Revolutions Pack 9).
It has a ton of theme support, ClearType and all sorts of enhancements to the look and performance of 98.
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I never changed the HT support in BIOS and so far I haven't had any problems with my Prescott CPU.
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Well, you'd probably want to see the actual animation. Here it is :
PS: I'd attach the files if archives would be permitted.
Anyway, PM me for the files. until I find a file host and post a upload link.
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Its really odd for MMC to be on a 9x machine (well, I've only seen what it does on NT). As far as I can tell, you can open .msc files with it, like Services, Computer Management, etc.
As for win98, I've never seen it there, so this's all I know.
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I made a Welcome animation for windows that runs before Explorer, to give it some eyecandy.
Basically, I set a welcome.bat as shell in system.ini, which contains the following :
@ECHO OFF
c:\progra~1\smplayer\mplayer\mplayer.exe welcome.wmv -fs -ontop
copy C:\system.ini C:\Windows /Y
explorer.exe
copy C:\welcome.ini C:\Windows\system.ini /YThe first copy line inserts the original file with "Shell=Explorer.exe" in order to launch the Shell instance of Explorer and the last copy line inserts the modified system.ini with Shell=welcome.bat, in order for the welcome video to appear on the next boot.
And here's a screenshot of the Welcome video (Its in line with Whistler 2419's boot screen) :
If anyone wants the welcome video I made, do tell. I'll try to make a higher res one because the current one looks kinda ugly when launched by mplayer in WinMe.
PS: Some extra notes : the colored bars under "Welcome" are animated. Also, I can't manage to hide the console window (well, there seems to be a way with cmdow and vbs, but I don't know how many of you keep the scripting engine active)
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Well then, I guess my idea's kind of useless. I should find something else to do then. How about a animated aurora for Active Desktop (sure, no coding, just photoshop) ?
Anyway, thanks for the info.
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This would probably be my Hello World app for Windows, so don't expect something extraordinary.
Well, this will be a evolutionary project, in the sense that I'll start as a Console App and develop it into a Win32 log-in complete with eye-candy and whatever bells and whistles I would be able to do.
The main idea is simple : Run login program as shell, check user and password with data from a file and if OK, launch Explorer shell, else, either offer a
fixed number of retries or shutdown/reboot pc.
I could also consider making the program rename RP9's task manager to prevent Explorer launch via Run, so that people won't be able to bypass login.
Its definitely not as good as winlogon.exe, but I think its better than the stock login, which you can bypass through cancel.
I'll start working on a raw sketch, test it and keep you up-to-date with what I've done.
In the meantime, comments, suggestions, anything is welcomed !
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Someone could update the Internet apps section with Yahoo! Messenger 8.10249 (site: oldversion.com) which works and is still compatible with Yahoo!'s current net protocols.
EDIT: Checked on WinMe. It takes some time before it logs-in (probably something with its network settings, happened on Longhorn builds too) but it works.
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Well, you can make a list with what functionality you can live without on that PC : network, print spool, etc and remove those drivers if you have them installed.
You may also clear the INF folder of any INF driver files you don't use (video, sound, multimedia, printer, network, etc) and the driver files specified within those INFs (although they probably are on the 95 CD ).
Also, disable from BIOS stuff that you can live without (on-board crap, COM ports) although I'm not sure if this has any impact on the memory though.
Oh and what version of 95 do you use ? Original one, or an OSR release ? If you don't run the "v1.0" version and if its possible, downgrade to original Win95 as its the lightest version possible (without IE bloat).
For a radical approach, you can even replace the Explorer shell with something lighter like Winfile or COMMAND.COM if you don't mind typing commands.
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There's lots of classics running on win98 and the posibility to mod or even code your own games makes life easier, but it happens that I'm a big C&C fan and RA3's gameplay really hooked me.
I know that games are wide and spread and there's a lot of subjectiveness going on around them, that's why I don't want to beg or burden KEXs devs to make this one compatible, but rather, I'd like to know what can a guy that knows only plain C++ syntax do to work with this wrapper and implement whatever functions, calls, etc the XP program is expecting ?
More than likely, I can't jump streight into this without studying. I know how to use Dependency Walker to see what program X needs to find, so I can search on msdn for details on the missing dependencies, but this is where my knowledge ends.
What can I do to help/contribute ?
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Thanks for your replies folks !
Once I reach home, I'll look into the Win32 API as that seems to be the best way to aproach 98.
Speaking of this, do I have to worry about recent tutorials using API functions that aren't compatible with 98 or for the beginning I'm safe ?
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I can't say anything regarding M9-present-day Vista as I know nothing/too little about it so my knowledge probably doesn't apply.
Do read my post in its entirety first, thank you.
As for "Offler knows something ..." I was saying that he probably had his info from the Longhorn development and not from the actual Vista; that's why I said "something..." .
ON TOPIC : I don't think its really fair to compare these two OSs, or at least, it isn't fair to compare them without mentioning on what criterion you're comparing them.
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About explorer and .Net... Offler knows something.
In the development of Longhorn (pre-"reset"), MS was working on a .Net Explorer (meaning the whole shell was written in .Net).
Heck, it was even a inside-joke, calling Longhorn "Cairo .NET".
As far as I know, .Net was used a lot (the Display cpl was .Net in one 3xxx version and in 4093, so one could expect that they wanted to remake the entire Control Panel in .Net) up until the late 4093 build version, when development was reset, so probably most of this stuff got scrapped from M9 onwards.
I can't say anything regarding M9-present-day Vista as I know nothing/too little about it so my knowledge probably doesn't apply.
PS: I wonder if Longhorn builds up until 4093 are considered abandonware or warez (on public channels) ?
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My programming knowledge is limited to knowing C++ syntax and a wee-bit of BASIC (kinda rusty though). I don't have any "field" experience (except for making some simple Console programs that used the System() function; kinda like a glorified batch program).
I also make 3D models in Max for a game mod as a hobby if this could be of any relevance/use.
I'm willing to do whatever I can to help the 9x line of OSs and the small but determined community that still holds on, but, as I said, my programming skills are quite basic.
Is there any specific area I can focus on learning, all the while improving my skills, getting more familiar with the inner-workings of 9X and doing something useful in the meantime ?
I was thinking on learning DOS graphics programming, but I don't think that would help too much.
If anyone can point me to some interesting areas that a rookie like me can handle, I'd like to hear.
Thanks!
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KernelEx for Win2000
in Windows 2000/2003/NT4
Posted · Edited by BogdanV
Cheers!
Finally, the last question and I won't be spamming this place any more
Apparently OS version spoofing doesn't seem to be covered by KEx. Is there an official, generic way for achieving this (I know, for specific cases - Orca for .msi packages, hex editor for the oddball out there)?
Because, case in point, for Firefox ESR 52.9.0, the installer aborted because it complained that its not running under XP. I remember that at least for WinMe there was an option to spoof the OS version in a way similar to how shims work. I extracted the package and ran FF from there but I'm thinking there might be a more elegant way for some apps than this.
I mean, especially if, say app X requires a specific API function that was added in Win XP but deprecated in Vista or app Y requires a specific API function that was added in Vista but deprecated in 7.
EDIT: Already answered in the previous post.