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so i tested the custom unofficial service pack 3.64 i made, and it works the way intended without sfx route. all that's needed is to extract the package if zipped, and run infex.exe. although i was only able to do light testing on the system and i didn't select most options in the installer, it installed mostly without any problems. there was a error related to possibly dma, complaining of missing tweaks.inf, and maybe another file or two, but as long as you skip these, there should be any other major issues. the wizard does bring up all options, but you'll be only selecting a few. make sure to select no for the message related to keeping files. also, directx 9.0c for some reason wouldn't run from infex.exe, so i ran dxsetup.exe from it's package. this package is definetely not a clean option, but at least it sheds over 30 MB of space for lighter builds.

i skimmed quickly through the article you linked, and i'll say this, i do agree with some of the points you made, and as much i love windows 7, i've however made the decision to use windows 10 as my primary os from now on, primarily because i don't want to have to worry about certain applications not being supported anymore / not being able to use newer hardware, such as tiger lake, etc. yes, windows 7 will still receive some support till 2023/2024, however, this is primarily security updates, not major updates that in other words would allow increased functionality in newer games / applications. i actually had a certain desktop build in mind which would use a 9th generation intel processor with a supported motherboard, however, because of newer hardware being a lot faster, these systems are quickly obsolete and inferior to them. there is always a small chance i could go back and do some kind of windows 7 system, however, the windows 10 system i'm currently using has been working fairly ok, or at least partly because i've became more accustomed to it / used to it. custom modifications are always possible, however, it's a question of whether it's worth it and seeing what you would miss out by using a windows 7 system vs windows 10. in my case, an experiment could be using intel tiger lake built desktop system on windows 7, which i doubt would be possible. you could use a supported dedicated gpu, however, the chipset may not work properly and / or certain things such as ACPI, etc, not to mention certain newer applications or things may not work, so even if you could create a custom ISO / nlite package or what have you, you'll end up being disappointed because it doesn't support all the necessary things you need, even if it's just one app, and then your forced to ( in this case ) to migrate to windows 10. case and point, technology and things are rapidly moving and i've had to make a more select choice on how to go about it, and that is to use windows 10 from now on primarily. i think the only annoyance in particular that i can think of so far would be microsoft coming out with another version update, which then would require re-tweaking and / or recreating another updated ISO so that i use the newest version on my builds always. for one, they'd done things such as changing the names of services, in services.msc, and i had to research why i couldn't find superfetch in services.msc, because it basically was renamed to sysmain, which also controls other things like prefetch. after i disabled that, the system no longer did superfetching and prefetching. other problems have been relatively minor, but i haven't done enough testing to see how it really holds, such as gaming. i've only used youtube to watch videos mainly and general web browsing, and it's been fine and snappy for that. one certain rare occasions, the system may not respond when i click something, there is no freezing, it simply doesn't execute what i clicked, such as the clicking the start button or menus. btw, do you mind me asking you what your general specs of the pc you use? i was wondering how much ram for example your system uses at "idle", or with no opened applications. mine with a i5-4200m with 8 GB of ram, using windows 10 professional 64 bit version 2004, uses minimum of about 1.6 GB, to anywhere around 2 GB at idle.

instead of deleting the other entries in the infex.ini file, i just left them in the default manner and just referenced in my document to not install certain things. infex.exe now launches without errors and includes all necessary options ( tested on windows 10 ). now, it's unclear whether or not it will indeed install what i need and there isn't anything missing that i may have accidentally deleted or what have you, but very soon, i'll have my system to test 98SE, and hopefully all things work out the way i expect to. however, instead of using the sfx created exe file, i simply made the package into winrar / zipped ( at least for now to test ). the sfx route doesn't seem to have been necessary in the first place, because the infex.exe is basically what executes the entirety of the program. all one really would need to do in order to customize, is do what i did to reduce space, which was simply deleting certain files here and there, so i will be looking to test in this way first.

i was wondering for one, what's the whole purpose of windows aero since windows 7, but particularly with windows 10? the reason why i ask is because i noticed an indirect or direct relationship between modified settings that used the "adjust for best performance" in performance options menu, actually WORSENING performance or causing issues, as opposed to helping, but this was based off a windows 7 based systems at the time i believe. i don't remember the exact details, but it was something to do with fullscreen / windowed mode or something that causes certain games to actually perform worse. this was what was mentioned in forums of people talking about aero. because of this, i reverted doing the "adjust to best performance" option, but rather it's intended for people to use the default setting, or let windows choose what's best for my computer... basically, i want to know if disabling all aero related things in windows 10 would improve performance and / or help with stability, or would it cause issues, and if so, what would the issues be? also, does the "Adjust for best performance" have any role in any of this? i'm just trying to refine my windows 10 system as much as possible, i try to only find tweaks that directly improve performance, and / or increase ssd life with little to no noticeable effect to performance. for example, i've just recently found that superfetch is no longer in windows 10's services.msc, because it's basically renamed to sysmain now, i disabled it and found no issues so far. other tweaks, such as open shell are more for usability, although it's light, it uses about 1.6 MB only. as a side note, i've already went and turned off everything or almost everything related to special effects / animations, aero related, etc, in the "Settings" folders of windows 10. there are some additional things i didn't do that i'm in the process of deciding to do or not, such as registry or gpedit.msc routes for disabling of aero related stuff, but before i do that, i want to see if it really would be beneficial or helpful for my goals. other than that, i'm curious to know any specific manual tweaks you guys know of, i do not want to use add ons at all, as someone else from the other post suggested mostly add ons, but i was looking for manual tweaks.

i was wondering for those who have moved from windows 7 to windows 10, what has been experience so far, what specific problems have you had / still have, what do you like, and do you mainly use windows 10, have you recently moved on over temporarily, or very specific reasons? for me, i installed windows 10 on my main system just recently, and did some tinkering / tweaks and adjustments, such as installing open shell and so with all i have done so far, it seems to be working fairly well on version 2004. i did use install it / try it on other systems before in the last years, however, i didn't do nearly the same amount of modifications / tweaks as i did with my main system i am currently using, it was usually someone elses system i briefly used / casually used but usually not for my own. throughout this time, i have had a bit of a harsh view towards windows 10 overall, however, i think it might actually be smoother in operation and a tad faster than windows 7 from my recent testing, but again, do note, i have done many modifications and using 2004 version where which is supposed to be "better" in one sense, i can possibly include reference to a specific tweak or modification, perhaps if someone can mention what tweaks they already have done and / or if their having any issues with layout / performance, then there is a chance that i might have a solution for that i can give. i have not done enough thorough testing though to see if it really holds well or doesn't have any particular compatibilities or annoyances, as i have disabled / turned off a lot of features and things, so i'm hoping i didn't accidentally break something or cause any incompatibilities, time will tell with certain experimenting if that ends up being the case. i seem to have mainly made this thread to see if there is anything i'm missing or could do to optimize or get the best out of my system on windows 10, because although i have done many mods as mentioned, i feel like there may be a considerable amount of things yet done that i could do to help for stability / performance, etc. one thing i try to follow is to not do anything to which i think would be more problematic than helpful, such as disabling for services in services.msc. i have set to disable for example, the telemetry one or whatever it's called, the one that controls the maps ( downloaded maps manager ), geolocation service ( although for this one and last one, i didn't include it in my guide, because i think it may or may not come in handy, and less of a problem, because usually, it rarely would case any resource issues ), and that's pretty much it for services, and windows 10 doesn't mention superfetch here, so only it can be disabled by adding the relevant information in regedit, alongside the prefetch modification. i leave windows search enabled but i disable indexing on any storage device that is an SSD. this way, ssd writes less and windows search, and particularly in my case, open shell's windows 7 search menu still allows searching for all files, but simply will take a little longer.

yes, that setting must also be present for the use categories view checkbox to show up, i thought i already put the url, but it is provided below, note, it mentions method 2, but i'm not sure if you only need one or the other, i would recommend doing everything, as i did both method 1 and 2, and of course, the open shell part to complete my requirements - https://www.faqforge.com/windows/windows-10/how-to-change-windows-10s-default-control-panel-view/

so i was able to find the solution for open shell. it is found in the main menu tab for settings for open shell menu 4.4.152. all you need to do is check "use categories view for the control panel", click ok, and your done. however, the registry and gpedit.msc may still be needed, at least for opening control panel elsewhere, so i would do all three for a complete mod.

I was wondering if there really is a way to make it so when opening control panel, regardless of how you last opened it, for it to always open in the category view in windows 10 if using the control panel display as a link option with the open shell add on? i had followed the instructions in the below article, but despite doing so, restarting system, it still open in large icons view. the modifications DO work for the default way of accessing control panel through either file explorer or windows system - control panel, however, accessing them through that route requires extra steps, and although you can pin to open shell start menu from the windows system route, i don't want to be opening it from there, but rather from the right side.

ya, i realized i did something wrong when my main windows 7 system wasn't working properly, it was because it missed the steps on registering the files, after doing so, it fixed the system. as for the custom directx 9.0c specifically, it didn't change the error, and i also had tested it on windows 2000, and same error, so i just went and tested the old modded version ( deleted x64 folders ) and it worked fine. i had to remove some optional components from the archive to make up for the extra space of the 2nd modded dx9 package, but all has been cleared.

so i re-packed everything again without modifying them and still gave the same error. i followed the instructions on registering files / showing hidden folders and files, etc, but none was relevant or fixed the problem ( there were was no directx folder / dxwebsetup file). also, the following commands were not able to be registered - regsvr32 /u gpkcsp.dll regsvr32 /u initpki.dll regsvr32 /u sccbase.dll regsvr32 /u slbcsp.dll. i went and tested it on a windows 10 64 bit system and it mentioned the same error.

i am using winrar 3.92 32 bit version on windows 7 64 bit. don't ask why i'm using the 32 bit / older version of winrar, it was for a specific reason that i forgot about. i mentioned the size differences of the packages because it seems that microsoft used a different version of cabmaker or cabinet creater tool, and the size i freed which really was minimal, i only deleted some text basically, so i actually did a whole lot for what should have been only a very slight size decrease, but it ended up being about 8.7 MB less space, because either the software used, compress the files more and / or cabmaker 1.4 might have deleted stuff it shouldn't have, but i don't think the latter is the case, or would it? other info for cabmaker 1.4 settings was LZX for the compressiontype, and 21 for the compressionmemory.

I wanted to make a custom directx 9.0c package for windows 2000 using cabmaker 1.4, but after replacing the cabs and testing it to see if it would launch / run properly on windows 7, it gave the error "A cabinet file necessary for installation cannot be trusted. Please verify the Cryptographic Services are enabled and the cabinet file certificate is valid". i was wondering what's going on and why i'm getting this error. i noticed that the original package was about 51.9 MB in winrar zipped ( which i already had deleted some stuff ), but it had worked as the 2nd modded type, but when doing the 3rd modification with new cabinet files, it doesn't launch / run properly anymore. the new size of the package is 43.2 MB zipped winrar.

if you haven't already use this program, "Hmonitor 4.1.4.5 (October 2004)" should be able to show your cpu, hdd and motherboard temperatures for your pentium 3 / 4 system, i'm not sure if it will be able to do the same with the core 2 duo one, but you can always try.

so i went ahead and tried to do the 4th step, but i'm not sure i'm doing it "correctly" or not. it creates an .exe which then i click install and manually select a directory, with a new folder on the desktop is where i put it. after that, it asks to load infex.exe, i proceed with yes, but then it gives an error of "list index out of bounds (3)", if selecting ok, it then loads the windows with which options to install but it only shows 2 options! why so? do note, this was tested on windows 7, not windows 98SE.

can you please do the last step for me, i was able to free about 56 MB of space, and i recreated the SUPP and SP3 portions into the .CAB format using cab maker 1.4. all it needs is the last step which i'm not able to make sense of. i have uploaded the package into easyupload via link below. if possible, it would be nice if you can re-upload it with the final package ready to be used: https://easyupload.io/w0hg8v below btw is the things i removed, in addition to the ones i mentioned in my second post: -41=0,0,0,Zip Folders 5.0.531.0 -share dll -3=0,0,0,Desktop Icon Layout Shell Extension 1.0.0.1 -21=0,0,0,Microsoft RegClean 4.1.7364.1 -40=0,0,0,WinTop 0.95.0.0 -26=0,0,0,Oleviewer 2.1.0.60 -30=0,0,0,TrueType Fonts (254 Fonts) -31=0,0,0,TrueType Shell Extension 2.1.0.0 ie5 folders were deleted too ( as IE 6 SP1 will be installed from beforehand )

thanks, i was able to find other goodies in there too.

i was wondering if anyone knows what's the last version or at least one of the last versions of adobe flash player to work on windows 2000 with extended kernel installed or unofficial update rollup? i know that htlm5 has largely replaced flash player, but for nostalgic purposes of allowing flash player to work on sites that only have / had flash player, it would be nice to have it as a side add on to have even more compatibility. although it's unclear what would be the minimum flash player that the sites require or any relatively modern web browser could play or allows playing as this area is confusing to me, because the way i see it is if the site used flash player 7, many years back to create whatever, assuming nothing forcibly changed the code of that site, it would still run if you had flash player installed?

i was wondering if it's okay to delete a few files / folders in the directx 9.0c feb 5, 2010 redistributable under windows 2000 so i can reduce the package size? i have tested this on windows 2000 and deleted all folders with directx10 or 11 mentioned in the titles before installing and i didn't experience any errors upon / after installing, but i just was wondering if this is ok? for example, is it ok i deleted the folder "APR2007_d3dx10_33_x86"? i do need to point out though that the system runs a bit slow and cpu usage for a pentium 4 1.6 Ghz dothan jumps up to 100 percent from launching just a web browser or doing basic new tabs, etc. something i haven't encountered before. youtube worked, but it was extremely slow, and barely was able to play up to 360p without cutting out here and there, syncing out of the screen / audio cutting out here and there. perhaps the newer version of kmeleon 76.3 web browser may be to blame as that's what i used? reason being is that i also tested this version on windows 7 and despite using a i5-4200m, the web browser still had some microstutter / lag to it. i hope this slowness or improper functioning doesn't have to do with the directx package being tampered with on windows 2000 at least? also, i noticed that i couldn't even watch 480 / 720p downloaded videos on vlc player 0.8.6d on windows 2000. it just gives a blurry / grey background and doesn't wan't to process the video properly. though youtube did at least get into 480p, but was basically non playing due to exceeding cpu capacity / or other factors. i know it's not the ram or gpu as there is 1.5 GB of ram on the 2K system and 64 MB of video memory which is adequate. i actually had slightly better performance with the same model system a little while back and it had a slightly slower cpu and only 32 MB gpu. i'm hoping it's not related to the directx tinkering i did, but rather the kmeleon 76.3 web browser. the system was updating files very fast beforehand too.

this is all too difficult and confusing for me, i have no idea what i have to do with iexpress.exe, what options to choose in the prompt windows, etc. maybe you can start with the first steps on what you mean by the files of the original. are you talking about just the .exe file of the unofficial service pack, or are we talking about the extracted package's files ( everything in it )? i don't wan't to end up going onto a wild goose chase here as i have done so various times in the computer field. if there is something practical i can do such as deleting a few files that i don't need and then a few prompt to bring the package into it's intended form, then please, explain this. i'm hoping to remove 40 MB or more of stuff from the usp 3.64. some of these are mentioned in my checklist below: don't check word 97 if you previously installed any office versions or going to do so in the future, also, you do not need to install tweak ui 1.33, performance tweaks, ntfs drivers, animated boot up and shutdown logos, windows millenium / 2000 themes or internet explorer 5.5 sp2 core files for 98 lite users, ntfs option should not be installed for general users due to buggy / partial support, also windows management instrumentation 1.50.1085.0005 can be unchecked as it's buggy, dma does not need to be checked, nor does windows script 5.7

i was wondering if there is a relatively straightforward way to modify the unofficial service pack, specifically version 3.64 for 98SE of that of "PROBLEMCHYLD". it's unclear whether he spends much time here on msfn anymore. i had sent a message to a little while back to see if he create a modified version, and although he did make me a customized version before that from a while before when i asked, it just wasn't what i was looking for / not what i asked for, because what i needed was for the package to work like it normally does, bringing options of what to install, but simply with a few programs / options removed to save some space, because i don't need the additional programs, but more importantly, they take a certain amount of space that i need to free in order to make room for other stuff so that the end result would allow some decent room to fully burn up to 700 MB discs with the actual max burn range being around 677 MB. if someone can possibly do the favor of doing this for me and uploading it possibly to easyupload, that would be nice, but i can do it on my own if i can be given the steps to and isn't too difficult.

there can be many variables to your problems. if you actually have 4 GB of ram installed, i would advise running as low as you can as you will have issues when trying to install with more than 512 MB, but usually it happens for me on 1 GB or more for 98SE, where as with windows 95, it seems that it can only do up to 512 MB at first. for the system.ini, i would use the following if you have 4 GB physically installed. "minfilecache=170000" and "maxfilecache=170000", and "maxphyspage=20000", however, this may not be correct or might not work. i advise you go down all the way to 512 MB - 1 GB first, install rloew's ram patch latest version, then you must set the min / maxfilecache to the same amount ( at least, that's what works for me ) and at least 1/24 of your system ram ( apparently some kind of rule that has always worked for me, so i always had to do this anyways, as my system would not work without it ). it's hard to tell though as i never did these modifications before completely installing 98SE. the most i ever installed was with 1 GB on a dell precision m70 i believe.

hi blackwingcat, this seem to be the only way i can contact you directly, at least, your inbox does not accept any messages. i was wondering if you have a working link for the modified Intel(R) Ethernet Connection I217-V ethernet driver for windows 2000? it is specifically for the device "VEN_8086&DEV_153B", however, i'll probably need assistance in finding working drivers for several others, namely the wireless ac 7260 "VEN_8086&DEV_08B2" and also rtl8811au "VID_0BDA&PID_0811". i really would appreciate if you can help as it's often difficult to find working links from the sources you provide, if you wan't, i can also create a separate thread on this as to not post on this thread anymore.

i don't think it's a question of ignoring as so much being selective, i know for me, there are certain things that are simply too much for me to do, and while i'm open to suggestions in general, at the end, it's a matter of what's within my capacity or do-able. jaclaz, i know you're someone who takes the time to figure things out and you've helped me and many others countless times from the conscious effort you've put, but just something to keep in mind for all of us, we don't have to be so hard on ourselves or others .

i just wanted to pitch in real quick, as the thread topic i made recently was nearly identical to the issues found here, at least on the parts of trying to install from usb, and trying the winsetupfromusb way, which unfortunately wouldn't work, and neither trying with standard pc or compatibility mode in bios, etc. i did purchase a optical drive to test on the same system that should arrive later this week, so there may be a 50 percent chance it will at least allow installation of the operating system. i may or may not make a separate thread for it.

the intel hd 4600 is identical to the hd 4000, it might be possible to get it working, at least partially with using the unofficial blackwingcat's intel driver that supports the hd 4000, the only differences that i was able to check was the hd 4600 has slightly faster clock / memory speeds, if using the hd 4000 driver, i'd assume it'd work, just not to it's full performance. i can search my files for the link if you're interested in testing it out. i gave up on the 2k usb install btw, after many frustrating and stressful hours, i finally went and reinstalled windows 7. the drive simply would not get picked up by grub4dos / winsetupfromusb's boot manager, regardless of whether i used AHCI or compatibility mode options in bios, and other various ways that are difficult enough to explain. i used winsetupfromusb 1.9, 1.8, as well as an older version, i don't remember which exact one, i think it was 1.0.7? the winsetupfromusb did seem to have a similar issue with an amd build, but it was at least detected in the early boot manager phase. on a core 2 duo laptop, it was able to go straight to partition portion of windows 2000 setup, without any problems with using AHCI in bios, so the only thing that is most logical is to simply not go through the mess of usb install. in other words, either install via cd drive, and / or do not use usb 3.0 / haswell or newer if you plan on only using usb setup. also forgot the mention if i haven't already, but the f5 / f6 option, selecting standard pc, also made no difference, other than quickly bypassing the delay of setup is starting windows 2000, and giving the stop 0007b error inaccessible boot device.