Bizzbob

Sorry to hear about the problems you're having Scarf. I can't say I know of any way my batch script could interfere with Win32's installer, so unfortunately I'm probably not going to be of much use here. Are you experiencing a crash with my script before it gets to the option to reboot? As for any 'remnants' from running my script, there shouldn't really be much. The script copies Win32's files to a temp folder under 'C:\extendedkernel_*randomnumbers*' and writes these temp files into the registry entry located at 'HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\PendingFileRenameOperations', so that Windows would move and rename them on reboot. The folder is normally deleted at reboot. You can try and have a look in these places to see if there are any temp folders or registry entries to delete in the event of a failed install, although PendingFileRenameOperations is normally cleared by Windows on reboot anyway, and I'm not convinced this is the reason for the errors you are seeing. Note that if the temporary folder under C:\ needs deleting, you will need to take ownership and give yourself permissions to the folder's contents first, as the custom install script makes TrustedInstaller the owner of the files.

Sorry it took such a long time, but I've just added a new version that should work with the new Extended Kernel release. Be aware though that it has had very limited testing so far as I've unfortunately had very little time recently!

I see what you mean about the pixelation... Windows Photo Gallery seems to resize images differently depending on your WinSAT score. At least in VirtualBox, setting it to correspond to a score of 3 or above appears to introduce some sort of scaling artefact that causes parts of the image to look blocky and pixelated when viewing large images. It's much more apparent in some images than others, and I probably just hadn't noticed in all this time. I think as @winvispixp said, it's probably a limitation of Windows Photo Gallery. I assume you are running Vista on a physical machine? I don't know if emulated graphics such as that in VirtualBox always plays nicely with this sort of thing, so I don't know if what I am seeing is applicable to other people. I suppose if you want to keep using Windows Photo Gallery and don't care too much for the slideshow transitions, you might be able to try setting the registry value I mentioned to 100 and see if that sorts the pixelation problem? It would also hide the control bar, which might be how you were using it in the past.

I think this might be to do with your WinSAT/WEI score. What does your System Properties show? Graphics scores of less than 3 causes Photo Gallery to disable slideshow transition themes, and you just get a basic fullscreen slideshow without the control bar. It will show at full screen resolution, but smaller images are upscaled to fit the screen. Graphics scores between 3 and 5 gives you the control bar with transition themes, but it won't play at full resolution, hence the pixellation and blurring on the control bar. Graphics scores above 5 should allow you to play the slideshow at full resolution, with the control bar and transition themes. Choosing the 'Classic' theme should stop smaller images from being upscaled to fill the screen. https://web.archive.org/web/20070223111728/http://blogs.msdn.com:80/pix/archive/2006/08/10/694724.aspx This post from 2006 from the developers and comments underneath suggest that you can override your graphics scores via the registry: HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows Photo Gallery\SlideShow Type = DWORD Value Name = WinSATScore Value = 100 (for basic slideshow at full resolution, without control bar), 300 (for transition themes and control bar at reduced resolution), or 500 (for transition themes and control bar at full resolution) In VirtualBox, setting the registry value to 500 doesn't seem to increase resolution for me (probably because the emulated graphics isn't good enough), but I have previously managed to do this on a physical machine, and if I recall I think this was what I had to do. However I can't check at the moment due to a failing Vista hard disk and I haven't had time yet to reinstall on a new disk.

Ah right, sorry I misunderstood. I can't seem to find any way to disable the warning if the Windows Search service is stopped though. Would removing all folder locations from Indexing Options work for you as an alternative?

You can just click on the banner and select 'Don't show this message again' from the context menu. To re-enable the infobar, go to HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\InfoBarsDisabled and delete the LocationNotIndexed value.

I believe Chrome removed --disable-infobars a while back, but if this is for the XP and Vista 'no longer supported' banner, you can hide it by setting your Windows version to 6.1 or above for Chrome in OSVER.INI (or alternatively, Application Verifier).

I've attached the updated .CFG for the July 2022 extended kernel below but I haven't tested it so it may or may not work. setup_07252022_not_tested.cfg

Ah really sorry, I am currently away and don't have access to my Windows machines, but I will add one as soon as I've had a chance to look at the new version! In the meantime, if you would like to use the batch installer, you might be able to try amending one of the older .CFG files. I've included a .TXT in my original post with the installer file, which hopefully explains how to do this (might also be helpful to have a look at Win32's SETUP.CONF file and TSNH's manual installation instructions at the start of this thread.)

Just thinking, the PendingFileRenameOperations registry value might be the easiest way to do this, if you need to delete in-use files at next boot? It's a MULTI_SZ value where each line alternates between source and destination file names (both prefixed with \??\), but if the destination line is empty, the source file is deleted instead of being renamed at reboot. It won't delete non-empty folders though. Edit: also won't delete an in-use ntdll.dll as that's loaded before the above takes effect, so it needs to be renamed before reboot and then deleted at boot. Located in HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager.

Do you happen to have a space character in your Windows user name? The new installer seems to dislike spaces. Does it work if you create a new temporary admin user without any spaces in the user name? It looks like when there's a space in the user name, the installer changes the owner of the target system files to the current user but isn't able to grant permissions, so renaming to .bak fails. The installer is able to grant the current user full control when there is no space in the name (it looks like via icacls.exe - so might be an issue with missing quotation marks?)

On launching, it shows the error message 'The procedure entry point CoGetApartmentType could not be located in the dynamic link library ole32.dll.', and then plays a second error sound without any messages/dialogs.

Ah that works, thanks a lot!

Adding to the list of software compatible only with the Extended Kernel (tested with Feb 22 release): SketchUp 2017 (last free version) Steps needed to install: 1) Install VC redist 2015 2) Extract MSI from the SketchUp installer (e.g. with 7-zip) 3) Drop LaunchCondition table using Orca or InstEd (right-click > Drop Table) https://msfn.org/board/topic/174873-how-to-get-the-latest-version-of-sketchup-working-in-windows-vista/ 4) Set Schema to 405 in the Summary Info stream ('View' menu in Orca or 'Tables' menu in InstEd) https://msfn.org/board/topic/183519-is-it-possible-to-modify-a-msi-package-to-require-msi-45/?do=findComment&comment=1218910 5) Install using modified MSI SketchUp 2022 (latest) Seems to install fine using the official installer. Make sure Windows version is set to 6.0 if using OSVER.ini or else SketchUp crashes on launch. I haven't tested the versions in between but presumably they also run. https://i.ibb.co/CtGZJjL/sketchup.png MuseScore 3.6.2 (latest)--variable success Seems to be working fine on my Vista installed on actual hardware but I can't get it to start in my VM. https://i.ibb.co/wsD7Jyw/musescore.png LibreOffice 7.3.3 (latest) Runs well apart from some minor kerning/letter spacing issues. https://i.ibb.co/C1CyhR2/libreoffice.png Inkscape 1.2 (latest) Also runs very well with the Extended Kernel. https://i.ibb.co/whXfH6t/inkscape.png Absolutely amazing work by Win32! ... and regarding Vista-compatible software that break with the Extended Kernel installed: Older VirtualBox with the Extended Kernel It's pretty much common knowledge that more recent versions VirtualBox don't work with the Extended Kernel due to hardening checks implemented around 2014. There were some links to to a Russian site with newer custom builds with hardening disabled, but these seem to be too new for Vista (at least, I couldn't get them to work). However, in case anyone would really like to run some version of VirtualBox with the Extended Kernel installed, version 4.3.12 appears to be the last version without hardening. https://i.ibb.co/ZxCkCY8/virtualbox.png

It seems that new versions of Firefox won't launch from any 32-bit process on Vista (but launches on Win 7). Trying to run it from 32-bit CMD shows a 'not a valid Win32 application' dialog and 'Access is denied' message. It's just Firefox though, other 64-bit applications seem to launch fine. Currently having to work around by renaming and replacing firefox.exe with a 64-bit .exe that then launches the actual firefox executable.