cmdow replacement

[anonymous_user]

Over at the RyanVM forums I saw this thread:

[Tool] cWnd 0.3 - New cmdow replacement

And I thought it would be nice if hfslip could use this program instead of cmdow. I do dislike how antivirus' alert on cmdow.

[Tomcat76]

Known Issues:

- cWnd /hide @

- cWnd /show @

Currently don't work properly...

I'll wait...

[Yzöwl]

I thought that the @ was now working fine...

Did you post before it was fixed?

BTW, cmdow is used for more than just its hide window function, and I think it would be a travesty if this tool was replaced, just because some users may have problems with some antivirus programs.

<Edit>

I guess you did...version now 0.4

</Edit>

[Tomcat76]

It was 0.3 when I downloaded it

You probably weren't referring to HFSLIP when you said that cmdow shouldn't be replaced, but I'll say anyway that it's not my intention to stop supporting it. I do realize the problem lies with lazy anti-virus makers and not the tool itself. I'd like for HFSLIP to support both with the least amount of code as possible.

[Yzöwl]

You are correct, I wasn't referring to HFSLIP directly, however I use CMDOW and incorporate it using HFSLIP, due to this reason, I see no need to use another, less useful, tool. There are some occasions when I use some of the other functions of CMDOW during my installations.

[Tomcat76]

Support added into test release 70731a. If both CMDOW.EXE and cWnd.exe are detected, HFSLIP will slipstream both but use cWnd.exe in the CMD files that it creates.

[HachiRoku]

Hi

I just tested the new 70731a beta and cWnd.exe v0.4 with Server 2003 SP2 (IE7 integration, DX9c Slipstream, hot-fixes [from the dynamic list!]) and got an error from cWnd.exe, something like "...couldn't locate @ window...".

The install finished, but IE7 didn't got installed.

Just reporting my personal experience.

Bye

[Tomcat76]

I'll need to try this. I tested with IE7 slipstreamed so it definitely works for HFSLIP.CMD and HFSLPGUI.CMD. Strange that it doesn't work for SETUP.CMD inside IE7_INST.EXE.

[Tomcat76]

HFSLIP is adding the correct code. I'll mention this to n7Epsilon who wrote the tool.

[Tomcat76]

I just did two tests: with the default IE7 handling and with IE7SVCPACK=1 specified. Everything installed fine in both cases.

I'm now going to try version 0.5 of the tool.

[Tomcat76]

No problems with version 0.5 either.

Can you check that you have cWnd.ex_ in SOURCESS\I386 after HFSLIP has run?

Does the file exist in the system32 folder after installing Windows?

[HachiRoku]

Hi

I will have to make everything again, because after the error I had to quickly remake a new "cWnd.exe"less version to use.

Now that I have everything up and running again, I'll start testing ASAP.

Thanks

Bye

Update 1:

Just maked a new HFSLIP run (Server 2003 SP2 + hot-fixes + IE7 [sVCPACK=1] + IE7 hot-fixes + DX9 [latest august 2007 release]) and the "cWnd.ex_" file IS on the SOURCES\i386 folder [the HFSLIP\HFTOOLS folder contains: cmdow.exe + cWnd.exe + HFANSWER.INI + modifyPE.exe](only changed the cWnd version on this run, previous error run was v0.4, now the latest v0.5). Now I'll nLite this and then test it on VirtualBox (as I usually do).

Update 2:

During the install, the same window came out with the error (image uploaded), saying 'cWnd: Could not locate window "@"', wich after a while disapeared and the install process ended.

Update 3:

First, the file "cWnd.exe" IS on WINDOWS\System32 folder.

Second, even after that cWnd warning came out (same error as before!), this time IE7 did got installed (previous attempt with v0.4 ended in NO IE7 installation). It seems like something could be missing, but I don't have a clue. If Tomcat could tell me where to look for missing stuff (the things that get done "underground" during T-13 steps) I could try to see what is getting that cWnd message.

Edited August 2, 2007 by HachiRoku

[Tomcat76]

OK. Confirmed with Server 2003 Standard. I'm going to try Windows 2000 now.

[n7Epsilon]

Starting from 0.4 the issue should be fixed. I was using GetForegroundWindow() to get a handle to the window to hide in 0.3 and I discovered that was wrong (because if another window became foreground while executing, it would get hidden instead).

In 0.4 and 0.5 I do it differently. Thanks to some help from code65536 (on RyanVM forums) I now obtain the process ID of the parent process. Then enumerate all top-level windows to find the window where the ID of the process that created it matches with the one I obtained, and then hide that one.

A potential issue may arise if the window is not a 1st level child window, but I haven't tested (but I will now try to create a test case).

It would help if someone could tell how is cWnd in the failing part getting called ? (which batch / cmd file, running from where in setup).

Edit: I think it is failing in setup.cmd because of this. For HFSLIP.CMD, the parent is cmd.exe (the command interpreter of the batch script) and cmd itself is creating a top-level window so it gets found.

But in the 2nd case:

IE7.exe > cmd.exe > cWnd

so cWnd probably cannot see the 2nd cmd.exe window (but can see the IE7 window).

This is just a hypothesis, but I am going to see how I can implement looking for child windows...

Edited August 2, 2007 by n7Epsilon

[Tomcat76]

Thanks for the reply. I registered on the other forum but am still awaiting approval.

Meanwhile, I've figured out it's a general problem with Server 2003 and not with the "child window".

HFSLIP would use cWnd.exe in four occasions:

1) HFSLIP.CMD, which is called from SVCPACK.INF

2) HFSLPGUI.CMD, which is called from a registry key

3) the registry key that calls HFSLPGUI.CMD (it also contains a reference to cWnd.exe)

4) SETUP.CMD inside IE7_INST.EXE (the updated IE7 installer)

All four work if the source OS is Windows XP.

With Windows 2000, the first three work (the fourth is irrelevant).

With Windows Server 2003, all four fail.

Edit:

Forgot to mention... The first version of cWnd.exe that I tested was 0.4. The problem outlined above exists in version 0.5 as well.