Atari800XL

JFX, do you read "c't magazin"? It looks like there are very good articles in the current issue (2014-17) about SSD and Wimboot. I could send you the PDFs of the article if you like. (Of course, not to "educate" you, just to "inform"). All the info on creating the install.wim is very interesting (at least to me, having never used it, not being able to without the proper hardware), but luckily, for the apply phase we have it much easier with WinSE and WinNTSetup!!

Oh sorry, I thought maybe you read the WinNTSetup-related parts from time to time (didn't they send you the mag when your program was mentioned, like ChrisR?). The magazine had a complete change (guess it will stop soon), without informing any of the subscribers beforehand... I only read the online version anyway, no biggie for me, but I can imagine people who paid for their subscription being quite disappointed....

Well, sorry, this is off-topic, but I was very unpleasantly surprised todat that the very good Com! magazin (German) is, well, basically DEAD! JFX, did you read the magazine regularly? Have you seen the new format ("August" issue)? What do you think? I think it's a bloody shame!

I know JFX is a little bit fed-up with special XP packs-related stuff, but I just wanted to mention one more thing: Harkaz' latest "Unofficial XP SP4 - Beta 3" is now completely compatible with WinNTSetup. Or as JFX would probably put it: He has removed all the non-standard stuff, so everything runs as expected. I think this is actually very nice work of him, I tested the latest beta 3, it supports the standard /integrate switch, so I integrated it into a (en-US) SP3, then added Mass Storage drivers with DPbase, then installed with WinNTSetup. Finally in beta 3, this works without a hitch! I still have to decide if this will prove useful (as we already have the great OnePiece pack, which you can even rebuild easily every month with the latest POSReady updates, or use nLite to add them to your source), but I do believe the SP4 is something extremely Cool! B) I hope he finishes his documentation soon, because until now we only have en-US, it would be nice to have localized versions as well.

Congratulations JFX, you're in the latest issue of "Com! Magazin" (German)!!!! (Article "Boot from NAS", starting at page 44, WinNTSetup 3.4 is on pages 47,50 and 54).

JFX was nice enough to fix a little issue with the OnePiece pack, only a few weeks ago. If you want to use a fully updated XP source, just use the OnePiece final pack, WinNTSetup supports it quite nicely. I even use nLite "over" that source (just some minor settings), that also works nicely. If it wasn't for WinNTSetup, I probably wouldn't even install XP anywhere anymore, it's just very easy to add the source to my Win8PESE USB, no extra trouble (all Windows 7/8 .wim files are on there as well). Also, if I wouldn't be able to create XP/W7/W8.1 (Grub4Dos-) multiboot setups, and image them (with Acronis, Macrium, etc, also from that single PESE USB), there's no way I would have XP around anymore. When I can use it in this "easy" (...) setup, it's still nice to have it around, as I've said before, there are quite a lot of "specialist" PC setups that still use XP (sometimes with quite expensive hardware, like industrial label printers, weighing systems, etc). So, XP to me is actually quite "safe" still, because in case of trouble, I can reinstall it in less than an hour (that's including my own "PostInstall" thingy). Thanks JFX, for still supporting XP. Others: Just use the OnePiece pack, it's great, and quite easy to make/ integrate into any language XPSP3 source. At the moment, I prefer it over the new SP4 projects, because it's much simpler (in a way), more up-to-date (either with or without the new POSReady stuff), and you can turn on or off the components you want in winnt.sif.

Azjio, no offense, but I think you made your point now, just let JFX decide... That's why I asked him about the Harkaz SP4 pack, you can always ask, but if you get a clear answer from "The Master", you just need to accept it. There's always the alternative of making your own "WinNTSetup", of course, I will immediately admit I'm about 200 IQ points too stupid for that.

JFX, "Harkaz" has released his first (?) public beta of an XPSP4 (English only at the moment). I tried it on a clean XPSP3-ENU (as a standalone update, after installing with WinNTSetup, of course) and it seemed to work OK (very nice work by Harkaz!!). Then I tried integrating in into the XPSP3-ENU source, which seemed to work OK as well. But installing *that* version (SP4 integrated) with WinNTSetup was not a big success. Maybe this has to do with dosnet.ini/ txtsetup.sif (like the OnePiece pack), but I know too little about that to make a judgement. I you ever have some spare time, maybe you can have a look. But **only** if you have spare time, because I know this is not a priority, specially considering the OnePiece Final pack/ updated source is already working very nicely. It would just be so cool if WinNTSetup would support this one as well. Please share your views on this, if you decide not to bother, that perfectly understandable as well.

I was "archiving" all the POSReady stuff (documenting, saving all the tools used, etc), there are several options now to make new updated XP isos and using the new updates (of course people in this thread know what I'm talking about: POSReady=1, adding with nLite, adding to OnePiece Final pack, making a OnePiece AddOn, etc.). Thanks again for all your help. Modifying the POSReady updates for XP is not really necessary anymore at the moment, but I still think it's a very clever idea, maybe we're going to need it again in the future. There's one thing that wasn't really clear to me though, I'll try to explain as clearly as I can: - To save the "first part" of a localized update file, I did what I was told, and searched for the third occurence of the "MSCF" string. Then I deleted everything following that byte and saved the first part. For a Dutch update exe, this left me with a 44544 byte file. - However, when I used copy /b to add this SFX module to the modified cab, it didn't work ("This is not a valid Windows program", or similar error). - When I used a different update file (same version: 6.3.13.0) from a different KBxxxx update, things worked correctly. This one had the exact same filesize: 44544 bytes, both files were not 100% the same though, I believe the "padding" area was different. I don't have the exact difference available at the moment, but I could check if you want. So my question is: How can I tell which one is supposed to work? Granted, this is not of the utmost importance at the moment (now that we have "POSReady=1"), but I was just wondering what I'm missing here. Thanks...

...edit mishap...

Harkaz, I was just "archiving" this, but there's a tiny mistake here. There should be an "x" right after the " -r:", so: "-r:E8" should be "-r:xE8". We might need this one after all some day in the future Thanks once more for your work!

Well, the POSReady/Installed=1 tweak is getting a lot of press now, eg. one of the biggest Dutch PC news sites: http://tweakers.net/nieuws/96252/windows-xp-gebruikers-kunnen-door-registerhack-updates-blijven-ontvangen.html If microsoft would decide to "do something about it", maybe we'll have to go back to modding the update files, so please harkaz, keep the original instructions available here!

Thank you so much, I was a bit when Nonno Fabio didn't add it here, in his box folder. But I guess the .NET update is not a true POSReady update, that must be the reason. Thanks again!!!!!!!!1

As long as we're on the subject of the .NET update: could anyone please explain what is the best way to integrate this into my updated XP source? I'm not a pro on this subject, but I managed to create a fully updated iso with Ryan integrator (using Nonno Fabio's localized Final Updatepack). Also, Nonno Fabio explained how to add kb2953522 and kb2926765 (and future POSReady updates) in an extra Addon pack (as he doesn't want to include them in an "official" Updatepack himself). All of this is working nicely, but the .NET update is not mentioned in his tutorial. So now I'm wondering what's the best way to add it: - Can I just add the .NET update to the "source" folder of DXUPAC creator? - If so, can I use the original update, or do I need the modified version? - Or will this not work at all, and should I use nLite (as I understand it, nLite should always be used *after* using Ryan integrator). I hope this question makes sense, I would just like to know how to create a fully updated XP iso. Thanks for listening...

Thanks JFX, knowing that you find it interesting is reward enough for me :-) Well, I could have edited/ deleted the whole first part, but I thought it might be an interesting read after all. If it's really only one reg tweak, I can add it in my postinstall system, time will tell. Thanks again!

Thanks Sebijk, this is getting better and better. Now I'm wondering why Myrrh would use the "ProductSuite" entry, though... Together with Nonno Fabio's "Final" XP updatepack (and the post-EOL/POSReady addon packs, that you can create relatively easy with his great DXUPAC tool), this seems to be a very nice, clean and simple solution!

Sebijk, I just read a similar post on MDL Only Myrrh uses two registry entries. Are you sure this single WAP\POSReady entry is enough? Also, I tested the Myrrh mod from "outside" (offline regedit, with Win8PESE), how did you do the edit? Thanks for mentioning, this looks quite promising (I'm on XP with Myrrh-mod right now).

(please read the edit at the bottom first) JFX, I just read an interesting post on MDL by Myrrh He used offline registry editing to make XP think it's a POSReady system. This way, the system will receive new updates, probably until 2019: HKLM\System\ControlSetXXX\Control\ProductOptions:ProductSuite==EmbeddedNT HKLM\System\WPA\POSReady\Installed==DWORD:1 Now I'm sure this could be seen as a "dirty hack" by some, but I just tested it and it seems to work (more testing needed, though...). I was just wondering if you would give your opinion on this, would this be a good idea? Also, is there a way for this mod to be integrated into WinNTSetup? If not, do you have any tips on integrating this into some kind of "RunAfter" cmd or exe? I'm really interested to learn what your opinion is about this mod. Thanks! EDIT: Now it seems only the "Installed=1" reg entry is needed?! See here

Thanks. I was confused, becaue OnePiece/ Nonno Fabio didn't include them in their updates folder and the tutorial. So the .NET updates can be "treated" in the same manner as KB2926765 and KB2953522? (=extract, patch, repack)?

To get my own little Howto complete, I was just wondering: As the very first step (to collect the XP-post-EOL updates), what should I search for in Windows Update Catalog: - "posready" (only KB2926765 and KB2953522 show up) or - "xp embedded" (then sort on date): The .NET updates also show up. Do I need the .NET ones as well? I'm a little confused... Thanks!

Thanks for the tips on pechecksum.exe and gsar.exe, much appreciated, and added to my "XP-post-EOL" treasure chest.

Hey harkaz, that's very nice!!! Thank you so very much! I will test as soon as I can.

harkaz, this is not the same patch as tomasz86, right? When everything's tested, can you make a nice patch like tomasz86 did here

Thank you harkaz, all clear now. Sorry, don't want to rush you, please take your time. I never thought I'd get all this working anyway, so you're my hero already...

Well, I was talking about update.exe, and how you modified that.Never mind, don't want to complicate things. Please remind me: is there only one "update.exe", or are they localized as well? In that case, please tell us how you modified it.