UCyborg

86Box is the new PCem-X.

Windows 98 was the first to support ACPI and HLT. If the support is present but not detected by the OS, it may be enabled manually, see this. With NT systems, Windows 2000 was the first with ACPI support. For NT 4.0, some hardware manufacturers provided custom NTDETECT.COM and HAL.SYS among other things, see this.

@MrMateczko Good to know about QEMU's audio options. My knowledge is not fully up-to date. Wikipedia says ES1370 supports EAX 1.0 as well. I was referring to features that are interesting for old games when I said that thing about going beyond Sound Blaster 16/AWE32. @CamTron My AMD Phenom II X4 920 clocked at 3,00 GHz can only emulate 75 MHz Pentium at full speed with PCem. Quake III ran at about 5 FPS against one bot. That was with Pentium 100/50, it still worked without going below 100%, and bumped up graphics settings. Lowering those got me about 15 min FPS. The minimum spec for this game is 233 MHz. Virtualization would help a lot. I realize there are technical reasons for this, but it's still funny when you can run the new DOOM at around 60 FPS, but struggle with certain ancient games. From my limited experience, it seems emulating PlayStation 2 can be easier on the CPU, though it depends on the game. Emulating CPU itself can only be done on the single thread AFAIK and since your computer's CPU has 8 cores, this means only maximum of about 12% will be utilized for emulating CPU. Voodoo 2 emulation runs 2 rendering threads (if used) according to configuration options and then there are some threads that are created by the system rather than explicitly by PCem that may consume CPU cycles. I'm not 100% sure about this, but for audio, things can work somehow like this: you have 1 thread that fills the buffer with audio data and another one that plays it. PCem CPU percentage as shown in its title bar must remain at around 100% at all times. It shows how fast the emulated CPU runs. You can't go much below 100% before you hear audio going bad. You can try going to Settings->Configure... and select a slower CPU. If you manage to make it run at 100%, audio should be OK then, but it won't do anything good for the frame rate, it will just run more correctly like the real PC would. You can just sit on the desktop while adjusting it to see which emulated CPU your real CPU can handle. Since you have no ACPI in the emulated PC, Windows will keep the CPU fully occupied running the idle loop.

Oww, come on , they were so much different that a few hex edits changed the one into the other, you talk like you never knew that NTtune, NTSwitch or TweakNT existed. Previous versions feature that was "dropped" from Windows 7 -> 8 comes to mind. It checks to see if you're running the Server OS and if you don't, the Previous Versions tab is absent. That's how some of the differences are implemented under the hood. Interestingly, you get Previous Versions tab on the client OS if you access the drive via administrative shares.

I didn't quote the whole OP's post because I find over-quoting everything pointless and a waste of space. The OP was looking for a way to run Win98 era games on his Win10 PC by using some sort of hypervisor. Someone suggested PCem, which is an emulator and consequently requires a lot of horse power. OP apparently already experienced that his CPU isn't powerful enough for the task (choppy audio), so I suggested alternative approach. Some people also tend to believe the only way to run old games properly is on a PC or at least the approximation of the PC of the era. At least games written for Win9x are easier in a way that you don't have to deal with certain details that are required with DOS games since those access hardware directly. Well, DOSBox covers the DOS for the most part unless eg. you're trying to run some newer more demanding game and you find out your CPU can't handle the emulation overhead. Anyway, back on topic, AFAIK, a true hypervisor with full-blown Win9x support doesn't exist. VMware Workstation probably comes closest, at least I can confirm for the versions 12.5.7 and below (haven't upgraded to the latest version yet) that they come with additions compatible with Win98 guests, which gives mouse integration and a basic graphics card driver for better resolutions and 32-bit color. But it seems to crap out even with basic DirectDraw stuff. I managed to make it to menus in Half-Life, I had to change resolution in Display settings, the native resolution 1920x1080 that was automatically set by the driver did not work. Then, the resolution list for software mode was empty. When I tried to play, I ended up with garbled mess. Another thing about VMware, you need this driver for working sound. Well, there is an option to emulate Sound Blaster 16, but the one emulated by default is functionally superior (uses ES1371 chip). It also supports EAX (the very first 1.0). Too bad there's no graphics card to go with it, I'm not aware of any other software that would do anything beyond Sound Blaster 16/AWE32 in the sound department. I found some software OpenGL rendering library (cosmord11.dll, comes with Cosmo Player 2.1) and managed to run Half-Life with it at maybe 5 FPS, the mouse didn't move exactly where I moved it physically, but the sound was nice, EAX and all, though perhaps not as clear as natively on my Windows 8.1 with Creative ALchemy. I did play with VirtualBox in the past, this one let me play DOS game Terminator: SkyNET in SVGA mode on Windows 98 at nice speed, something I couldn't do on VMware as SVGA mode resulted in black screen. Apparently someone recently made a patch to fix some crashing bugs, which were the reason I didn't bother to finish it at the time. Again, you need to find the right drivers for graphics and sound. While you can always go with Sound Blaster 16, AC97 card offers some basic MIDI support and SB16 compatibility. For graphics, I went with VBE9x drivers. Mouse was choppy though and I haven't tried any Windows based game. Maybe simpler things that don't need 3D acceleration would work. Long time ago, back when Windows XP was popular, I did play Interstate '76 on Virtual PC 2004 because the game hung when clicking anything in menus on Windows XP. Few years later, I figured this was probably compatibility issue with sound card acceleration. Virtual PC must have also helped with the game speed since at that time, I was pretty clueless and had no idea what the term FPS means and that some games' physics are tied to game speed.

Right, I have another copy of latest release build of Win10 on a virtual machine, where a MRT update slipped through before I disabled it. I also got the same preview version as you. Doesn't make much sense, they haven't announced any new features in MRT, have they? The only difference between versions should be definitions of known malicious software. Yes, everybody on the particular build (currently Fall Creators Update) gets the same updates for Windows itself.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X86-64 You can also open Command Prompt, type "set" and you'll see PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE variable is set to AMD64. I would attribute the sudden change in the update labeling convention to Microsoft being Microsoft. Can't comment on the Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool update as I have those disabled. If this tells anything. Looks like the one you got is the same size as the non-preview version also available for older systems.

It's just a console made with a call to AllocConsole that spams messages, debuggers let you step through code, inspect variables etc.

You should consider running your games on Windows 10 with the help of dgVoodoo2. The package contains wrappers for the old graphics APIs (DirectDraw/DIrect3D 1 - 8 and Glide 1 - 3). It's an easy workaround for quirks that may happen when running old DIrectDraw/Direct3D games on modern Windows versions with modern drivers and for games offering rendering via Glide API. It's not unusual that the Glide mode offers the best graphics fidelity for the games that have it. Another interesting feature is resolution scaling. Read its documentation for the rest of goodies. You can also ask for help on VOGONS forums if particular game hasn't been covered. There may be issues with getting some games to install, possible workarounds include either getting a newer version of InstallShield setup binary, copying game files from CD, installing on a virtual machine with an older OS and copying game files from it, etc. It depends. Though reading Virtual PC 2007 had you covered, your games must be pretty simple or you had no idea you could run them with enhanced graphics. If I remember correctly, Virtual PC 2007 only has the S3 graphics card that doesn't have any 3D acceleration whatsoever. PCem can indeed emulate Voodoo 2 graphics card, but, because it's an emulator, it wastes tons of CPU cycles emulating some slow-a** PC from the nineties, choppy audio is another possible side effect. When you have a game that's sensitive to speed, there are tools for limiting frame-rate. NVIDIA drivers even come with their own frame-limiter, accessible using NVIDIA Profile Inspector. I have no idea what AMD folks use, I just use DxTory on non-NVIDIA GPUs if I need a general frame limiter. Not really a frame limiter, it's a software for recording games and taking screenshots, but can be used as a frame limiter and seems to work across a wide range of games and even supports pre-Direct3D 8 APIs, though the latter is not a concern if you go dgVoodoo way. It's also worth noting, there are still people out there that try to run their games without applying a single patch first and then they wonder why their game isn't working as it should (or at all). So definitely search for patches that may have been made for a particular game. There are unofficial, community-developed patches for some games that may enable them to run on a modern system without a single workaround. There's another special case, Windows 3.1 era games. 64-bit Windows systems don't support old 16-bit executables. Win3mu is in development, so maybe in the future these games could be run seamlessly along with other Windows applications, rather than having to run them in a virtual machine/emulator.

I also experienced horrible composition performance with Aero Glass on VMware virtual machine. This affects basically everything that isn't running in exclusive fullscreen mode. When running Windows 10 natively, there wasn't any noticeable performance impact. The thing about ribbon windows, they're using the function for extending frame into client area, which disables DWM's rendering of caption text. The caption text properties can be modified by editing the theme's .msstyles file. I don't know if it's possible to get glow from atlas image this way, composited version works though. I wasn't able to get it quite right like on Windows 8.1, the color changed only after modifying global CAPTIONTEXT property, which affects a little more than just window frames (check Computer Management), rather than just TEXTCOLOR properties stored in classes dealing explicitly with window frames. Also, the color changes to black in combination with certain window frame colors. It also resets after pressing CTRL + ALT + DELETE and reverts back only after reloading the theme by switching to default theme and back. For regular windows, I could change caption color for both active and inactive window state with separate properties like on Windows 8.1, but, as with windows with custom frames, the color for active frame goes black with certain frame colors. Windows 10 also mixes caption font color for inactive windows with the frame color itself, hence the WordPad caption font is pale red in the above screenshot, even though I picked the usual red color from color picker dialog. Aero Glass can override caption color for regular windows, though there's no option to distinct between active and inactive windows. These colors are stored in registry. DWM seems to add a tiny bit of active window frame color to the inactive frame color if Aero Glass' own extra settings aren't present. Open and close Aero Glass GUI to add them. There are multiple separate settings for controlling colorization. Windows by itself has only one dealing with inactive border colorization I think, the one that Winaero Tweaker can alter. The small bug with interpreting TextGlowMode setting is still present. Also noticed improved integration with Edge since the last time I checked.

Windows 8. They dropped the grouping in This PC and put everything under Devices and drives in 8.1. I tend to do most things in Explorer with the mouse in the main section. I almost never touch ribbon and haven't used menus much on older versions neither. I figured I like the buttons New folder, Undo and Redo you can put on the window frame though. There are 3 other options there which access by other means. This feature comes with the ribbon.

@dhjohns Didn't know about those settings, good to know. They are Windows 10 specific. It seems there is a little bit of transparency applied by default. DWM's frame rendering code is not involved. The thing about the alt-tab implementation on Windows Vista/7, it calls DwmExtendFrameIntoClientArea on its window to give it sheath of glass, so the glass effect and background color inherit the same properties as regular window frames, just like one has it configured by tweaking color settings in Personalization panel and Aero Glass settings. Windows 10 no longer has Alt-Tab switcher implemented in a separate DLL, so importing those registry entries won't do anything since no code will try to read them. Plus the old AltTab.dll uses some resources from theme's .msstyles file, which are absent on Windows 10. I've been playing with Switcher recently. Experienced some oddities when using its default shortcut for task switching, it makes the screenshot in Pictures\Screenshot folder when invoked as if you pressed Win + PrtScr (the shortcut is Win + Caps Lock). Can be configured to use Alt-Tab instead, along with some other options. On Vista - 8.1 systems, thumbnail sizes aren't adjusted dynamically according to how many windows there are open. If you try to make them bigger by tweaking registry settings with Winaero Tweaker to be able to distinguish better the contents of each window, they'll be constrained in that tiny window and go off the screen. Switcher has the option whether to show the desktop among the windows or not, which I find useful. If you only have a fullscreen game running on Windows 10 that disables Windows key, you can't quickly go to desktop if it's not shown there. 3rd party switchers without additional configuring tend to show windows in internal use by the system, like Windows Shell Experience Host window. Looks like they fixed the classic Windows XP style switcher to not show those. I haven't figured out how to permanently hide windows in the Switcher. There's also the issue that it has to be run with admin rights to be able to handle elevated applications' windows.

I tried the new FCU on my desktop recently and had a wonderful experience. /s NVIDIA driver installer was confused and rolled back everything shortly after the driver was installed. I could install it manually with device manager and it sort-of worked. I haven't noticed any performance improvements in 3D stuff compared to older systems. Losing a frame or two is more common with new Windows versions from my limited experience. Then I went and tried installing latest drivers for my sound card, the latest ones from VIA's website, which are dated 2012 and officially only meant for Windows 8.1 (there's nothing for 10). Compared to the newer driver that Windows Update gives, I get all options in the Speaker Setup dialog, including 7.1 Surround. Where did that driver come from anyway and why would 7.1 option be missing on the sound card where official specs say 8 channel audio is supported? Sure, the driver itself might be the vendor related thing, but it's MS taking away precise control of the update process. So I go in Event Viewer and voila, I notice event id 129, Reset to device, DeviceRaidPort0, was issued. I haven't got NVIDIA's driver for my SATA controller loaded yet. Last time, little more than half-year ago, similar errors would be reported by NVIDIA's driver, before the OS eventually corrupted itself when I was troubleshooting failed update. None of my files on that disk were affected. Good riddance though. Another thing I saw there were crashes of AudioDG.exe process. Due to older driver, the one that lets me fully utilize my sound card? Sound was actually working. And now some general FCU specific crap affecting gamers, they messed something up in IDXGISwapchain::Present (VOGONS, MSDN Forums). Questions regarding fullscreen issues in general have been popping up at least since Creators Update. Another thing that applies to all Win10 versions, they broke DIrect3D 8 apps by forcing them in so called maximized windowed mode, so they can't run in real fullscreen mode. Issues that have been observed include games crashing when trying to use anti-aliasing, gamma settings being ineffective and of-course things running less smooth that way. The only thing stated by MS regarding that mode is that it helps if the app mixes Direct3D and GDI, not something that's generally done. I haven't found this specific change for all D3D8 things documented anywhere. There is NO option in the OS to turn it off, the only way is patching d3d8.dll one way or another. But since taking away options from the user is the norm anyway in Windows 10 land, this shouldn't be too surprising I guess.

It's possible to get the old alt-tab window by utilizing AltTab.dll from Windows Vista (Windows 7 version crashes). These files can be taken from either actual Windows Vista installation or from the installation ISO's sources\install.wim file. Also mind the bitness so you don't put 32-bit DLL on 64-bit system and vice-versa, presence of \Windows\SysWOW64 folder is a good indicator of 64-bit installation. \Windows\System32\AltTab.dll \Windows\System32\en-US\AltTab.dll.mui Substitute en-US for whatever GUI language is currently use. Also take .mui files for any other other language packs that might be installed. Give the files a different name so originals don't have to be overwritten, ensuring the system still passes system file integrity checks. I renamed them to AltTabVista.dll and AltTabVista.dll.mui. Then put the files in its place on the taget Windows 8 installation, launch regedit as TrustedInstaller (Process Hacker with TrustedInstaller plugin is one way), navigate to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{A1607060-5D4C-467a-B711-2B59A6F25957}\InProcServer32 and change the entry in the right pane to refer to AltTabVista.dll rather than AltTab.dll. After logging off and back on or restarting Explorer, the result is this: You might see the Search Pane's window among the windows. That window is not marked as hidden, just occluded, new Alttab.dll has a special filter to not display it. I don't use the Search Pane so I just disabled it by taking away read permission from Windows.UI.Search.dll. The old Alt-Tab also respects the settings in theme's .msstyles file. I haven't noticed any functional enhancements to alt-tabbing from Vista to 8.1, so VistaSwitcher might still be a better choice for some people.

You probably need to install Microsoft Visual C++ 2015 Redistributable Update 3. And delete those DLLs you manually copied just in case so the installer doesn't get confused. It will install the right ones and make a hardlink so one copy appears in somewhere in WinSxS and another in SysWOW64 directory. The DLLs you mentioned are ApiSet stub DLLs with exports pointing to real functions in ucrtbase.dll, so useless by themselves.

Thanks, I noticed KB4038774 is available 2 or 3 days ago, but decided to hold it off for now.

Thanks for the heads-up. DISM with /ScanHealth has been stuck at 20% for the last half-hour and counting... Edit: just completed without finding any corruption. Are we talking about KB4038792? Edit2: using local account here.

Actually, It's just the hardware. All my virtual machines get the identical hardware ID, regardless of whether I run Windows 8.1 or 10. Same on the real PC.

So much for ReFS' self-healing capabilities.

https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/commandline/2017/05/11/new-distros-coming-to-bashwsl-via-windows-store/

Do you have Windows 7 installation DVD laying around or the ISO file? The files can be found in sources\install.wim. 7-Zip can read it. I know if you got 32-bit DLL on 64-bit system or haven't made corrections in the DLL with the hex editor, the result is non-working shortcut in Control Panel. I did test this on updated Windows 10 Build 15063, so that's not an issue.

Looks like they'll release version 14 on October. I guess if multi-monitor woks in an older guest OS, upgrade could help, otherwise I don't know what to suggest.

Could AG be triggering bugs in graphics drivers? Did anyone with AMD card ever report any glitches? Does it error out when you try View->Cycle Multiple Monitors? Creators Update is officially supported since version 12.5.6, released on May 18 2017. Version 12.5.7 was released on June 22 2017, has some bug fixes and security patches according to the changelog. That and the updated VMware Tools on the guest OS should make it work.

Theoretically, this should be changeable in the theme itself. With Windows Style Builder, changing Windows & Caption Buttons > Basic > Frames > Window > Top->TEXTCOLOR works well on Win 8.1, but the same property is ignored on Win10. The global CAPTIONTEXT (there's also INACTIVECAPTIONTEXT) property can be changed under Fonts, Colors, & System Metrics > Fonts & System Metrics. The custom color isn't applied under certain circumstances with that property, I think selected window frame accent color affects this. Those two primarily control caption colors of windows with Aero Basic or classic skin. This method doesn't seem to have negative side effects when some app chooses to use DrawThemeTextEx API function to render something other than the caption text like the hack in UxTSB.dll does. The text in Alcohol 120% dialogs remains normal. CONTENTALIGNMENT property can also be added under Windows & Caption Buttons > Basic > Frames > Window > Top to be able to center the text or put it on the right. So this one still works. Maybe the same control over the ribbon windows' titles as on Win 8.1 could be achieved by adding the correct property somewhere else.

I've seen that before. In one of the recent updates, MS implemented a workaround for a buggy 64-bit vorbis.acm crashing applications that loaded it. It wasn't mentioned in the changelog, it just happened that someone asked about the problem on Reddit and one of MS's engineers responded that the fix will be featured in soon-to-be-released update.