greenhillmaniac

I think that's the default message they give to all feedback posted, but I get where you're going. I wish M$ stuck with the Aero theme from Windows 8 CP. It was like Windows 7, but less flashy, more sober. I liked it. If they improved the Windows 7 start menu and bundled all of Windows 8's improvements without the Metro crap (like the improved task manager, the ability to mount ISOs, the reworked Explorer, the new windows coloring that adjusted itself depending on the background, better DWM performance...) people would call Windows 8 a worthy successor to the almighty Windows 7.

I've updated the repository with your updates. Looking forward to adding a lot more

Patch Tuesday arrives for another month (still a few hours left)... I suspect this month's updates will go well... BTW, I've decided to create a sort of repository of Server 2012 updates for Windows 8. If you would like, you could post this link on your main post. I think it would help a lot of people who have Windows 8 systems and need to update, but can't be bothered to fetch for them in the sea of Microsoft's support and download pages. Feel free to let me know if any updates are missing or were superseded by newer ones, I'll be sure to add or remove them. https://mega.nz/#F!t1ZFkAZQ!-ITPYBfDLeODe3in9FzwKw (I don't think this violates forum rules, but if it does, I'll take it down. Just notify me first )

Does that mean you made DX11 work on XP by backporting functions, without WineD3D?

I mean, functions like OpenCL are a bit superfluous at the moment. For now, I think it's more important to implement support for new cards, by supporting their power profiles, for example, and have them work on XP's DirectX 9... I think sdfox7's advice is the best: take the last released Windows XP driver from AMD, compare the sys file with the later releases, and see where the new GPU info is stored, to implement on the XP file (again, I'm just speculating on how it could be done, not sure if it would be possible)

But I do believe those drivers don't provide Direct3D support, only generic support for higher resolutions.

That would be fantastic... I'm not that knowledgeable to be messing with machine code :S Sorry to everyone if I derailed the thread a bit... It's just that it would be nice to dual boot XP and 8.1/10 (I alternate between these 2 OSs), for compatibility purposes.

Aaaahhhh! So I need to mod the original XP driver to support my card! Got it! So... Which program to I use to add those lines of code ?

I'm sorry to be a noob, but I really have no idea how to disassemble a sys file . You'll have to walk me through this, if that's ok. So, is it atikmdag.sys the file you are talking about? What program do I use to add those lines of machine code to it? And how do I use it? Also, just to be thorough, after I mod the sys file, I just edit the Windows 7 INF file, by modifying this line: [ATI.Mfg.NTx86.6.1] into this: [ATI.Mfg.NTx86.5.1] and possibly add my GPU's Hardware ID, if needed?

You've managed to make the drivers work on XP or Vista? Either way, this is beyond awesome!!! What do I use to add those lines to the main driver file? And which driver file? Sorry for all these questions, I've never edited files at assembly code level!

I think you would have an easier time making those drivers work on Vista (given its similarities with Win7), but if you think you can do it for XP, who am I to complain?

Sure. I have a R9 380, which only has Windows 7, Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 drivers. The drivers aren't compatible with Vista and XP. INF modding does not work. They throw an error while trying to install. There are numerous drivers for my GPU, but here's the page for Windows 7 drivers: http://support.amd.com/en-us/download/desktop?os=Windows+7+-+64

There are 2 problems in there: first, where's the patch? You didn't give me any link. Second, the GPU of my main rig only has drivers for Windows 7+ . That's why I was asking if later Windows drivers would work with your modded files.

That's just awesome! I wish to you and Dibya the best of luck in this project! If you need any testing done, I have a few computers, both old and new, where I could put XP, to test some programs, if such thing is needed. BTW, I don't think you've answered my previous question, but I'll ask again: can latter Windows drivers work on XP, with your project?

Great project you have there. Hope this one's not a hoax (the Opticork fiasco comes to mind ). I can't believe you are trying (or got it working, I don't know) to put DirectX 11 on Windows XP. How are you testing it BTW? Are you using Windows XP drivers, or Windows 7 drivers? What programs or games have you gotten to work?

Jesus , this reminds me of computers I used to fix, that had 3 Anti-Virus softwares installed (like McAfee, AVG and Microsoft Security Essentials), and 3 browsers aswell (IE, Firefox and Chrome), of which the person only used IE. These usually came with a ton of malware aswell. Just looking at this screenshot gives me nightmares...

Couldn't you make a similar, if not equal theme atlas for your current Windows 8.1 workstation? Is it restricted to Windows 10?

Yes, I think it's using Tablet Mode, though I may be wrong... Go to the Settings App and see if Tablet Mode is enabled.

The main point of my post wasn't to display the news. More to display the vagueness of the update's changelog, and take a jab at the forced updates thingy Windows 10 has going on for it. Besides, I don't know if anybody would want to discuss this in there... This seemed like the appropiate place to post this

All I did was download the latest Windows 8.1 driver from AMD, extracted it from the .exe it comes in, went to Packages\Drivers\Display\WB6A_INF, and in the .inf file in there, went to the line that said: [ATI.Mfg.NTamd64.6.3] and changed it to: [ATI.Mfg.NTamd64.6.2] So I Shift Rebooted, disabled Driver Enforcement, and installed through Device Manager. I think the main advantage of installing drivers made for Win 8.x, compared to 7 is that you recieve all the advantages of Win8's WDDM and DirectX version. Hope this helps

New Windows 10 Cumulative Update! This bumps up the build number to 10586.218. Time to restart those PCs http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-10/update-history-windows-10 As expected, another vague changelog. Wasn't NoelC trying to test the max ammount of uptime he could achieve on his Windows 10 VM? How was that going? This is the longest gap we had between cumulative updates (over a month)...

That's awesome I've actually been doing some testing of Windows 8 of my own, and was able to install AMD's drivers that were meant for 8.1, with a mere tweak of the .ini file. Basically, 8.1 drivers work on 8.0 This thread interests me, because I'm considering moving to Windows 8.0... Seems lighter than 8.1, from the testing I've made. Also, I'm always interested in preserving older OSs... the more variety we have, the better (especially if such variety isn't affected by Windows 10 nagware ).

It's that time of the month again Were you able to install the latest Server 2012 updates on 8.0?

Unless somebody decides to make a KernelEx for Vista, or something of the sorts, Windows 7 is the oldest OS people can go to, and even that is not guaranteed, with M$ saying that they will stop supporting Skylake on Win7+8.1 in 2018 (though I'm still not sure how that will work... seems like breach of EULA or something. Will they release updates that don't install if they detect a Skylake CPU?)

Well... AMD stopped supporting Vista in 2013 and XP in 2014, Intel doesn't have proper support for Vista since Ivy Bridge, and I do believe recent chipsets don't even have XP drivers (although I'm not 100% sure). Now its Windows 7 and up (atleast for me... It's modern HW vs older OSs now).