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Shell 95 Update Project (SH95UPD)


sp193

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I fear the only way to do it from a USB HDD would be without USB hotplug support, and in compatibility mode.

And it'd be quite work-intensive to do it...

I'm aware of that - I've actually done that before with Windows 95/95B/Nashville (aka Windows 96) and Windows 98SE.

It's quite a pain, especially when the WIN.INI and SYSTEM.INI files were particularly vulnerable to corruption on my old USB stick in that year (Worn out flash memory). Not to mention that it isn't really feasible after considering all the work to engineer such a system (And maintaining it afterwards)... even if my new PC supports booting to a USB device.

But, then again, I don't see why you cannot install it as a dual-boot machine, perhaps even using a second HDD.

That'll probably be less work-intensive and give you better results.

I wished. But running Windows 98 on a 4GB x64 is quite a death sentence (Plus my dad won't allow me to - He was quite against me using Windows 98 on my previous PC in the first place). I am aware of the fixes for VCACHE (And other tweaks to remedy the large RAM issue) though. But installing Windows 98 now is a pain because I will have to uproot my entire HDD now.

Or else you also can use a VM to run 98SE.

That'll be the best option.

Oh well.. let's see what will happen in the future...

Thanks though... you've given me things to think about (And seriously consider).

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  • 1 month later...

SH98UPD v008 causes ATI2S9AG.EXE to crash.

ATI2S9AG is part of ATI SmartGART. SmartGART tests system stability every time AGP settings (AGP speed, AGP Read/Write, Fast Write, etc.) are changed. If it doesn't run, acceleration is completely disabled; not even window scrolling is accelerated!

Using:

EXPLORER.EXE v4.00.950

SHELL32.DLL v4.00.1112

COMCTL32.DLL v4.00.951; using v4.72.3510.2300 linked to a copy of SHELL32.DLL v4.72.3812.717 doesn't fix the problem

ATI2S9AG v5.13.0020 (ATI Catalyst v6.2)

KernelEX - not installed

Uninstalling SH95UPD does NOT fix the problem.

Switching back to Win98 Explorer & Shell32 does NOT fix the problem.

Removing and reinstalling ATI display driver does NOT fix the problem.

Installing another version (5.x) of ATI driver does NOT fix the problem.

ATI2S9AG continues to crash.

ATI2S9AG worked just before installing SH95UPD using file versions listed above.

I'm sorry. I was wrong.

It has something to do with available memory. I changed some settings because SH95UPD installer did not run at first.

Edited by Marius '95
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  • 3 weeks later...

SH98UPD v008 causes ATI2S9AG.EXE to crash.

ATI2S9AG is part of ATI SmartGART. SmartGART tests system stability every time AGP settings (AGP speed, AGP Read/Write, Fast Write, etc.) are changed. If it doesn't run, acceleration is completely disabled; not even window scrolling is accelerated!

Using:

EXPLORER.EXE v4.00.950

SHELL32.DLL v4.00.1112

COMCTL32.DLL v4.00.951; using v4.72.3510.2300 linked to a copy of SHELL32.DLL v4.72.3812.717 doesn't fix the problem

ATI2S9AG v5.13.0020 (ATI Catalyst v6.2)

KernelEX - not installed

Uninstalling SH95UPD does NOT fix the problem.

Switching back to Win98 Explorer & Shell32 does NOT fix the problem.

Removing and reinstalling ATI display driver does NOT fix the problem.

Installing another version (5.x) of ATI driver does NOT fix the problem.

ATI2S9AG continues to crash.

ATI2S9AG worked just before installing SH95UPD using file versions listed above.

I'm sorry. I was wrong.

It has something to do with available memory. I changed some settings because SH95UPD installer did not run at first.

Sorry if some of you find this old - but I feel that I'd better highlight this once again:

The SH95UPD installer did seem to have given me problems before (Some library/compiler issue). Sometimes, it doesn't start at the first launch (Closes very fast with a message of something like "Failed to start application").

Worse still - this seems to also occur when SH95UPD is in verification mode (After a fresh installation). So please, do run the verification manually if SH95UPD fails to verify itself automatically.

However, it'll usually work if you launch it again.

Edited by sp193
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  • 3 months later...

This information bring here from:

http://sg.geocities.com/liuwoonyung/SH95UPD

***PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT***

- Ok, firstly, I appologize. As somewhere near September this year I will be taking one of the most important Examinations of my life(GCE 'O' Levels), I will have to halt the development of SH95UPD(Untill late 2009?). Although development is now halted, please continue to post suggestions here.

Thank you all SH95UPD users for your support.

Description:

This project implements functions not found in the windows 95 shell from windows 98, allowing the users of 98lite (sleek), ROM, ROM2 to be able to once again run programs that would only work with the Windows 98 shell and not with the windows 95 shell.

SH95UPD is based on the KernelEX project, and is basically a stripped down version of KernelEX 0.3.2a. Currently it only tampers with Shell32.dll, adding functions present from the IE4 shell update to it.

This project neither requires nor includes files from Windows 98, and does not distribute any copyrighted files.

It is designed so that KernelEX can be installed over it, with almost no loss of functionality.

NOTE: Installing this patch over a system without a Windows 95 shell should not have any effect.

NOTE 2: SH95UPD has NOT been tested on more than 1 computer.

Starting with the Release candidate v0.0.2B, the SH95Version function is no longer included. Hence Kernel32.dll is now unpatched.

If you are installing SH95UPD v0.0.6 over a system with an older version of SH95UPD, please uninstall the older version before proceeding.

Please note that you would still need to hex edit DESK.cpl and replace all occurances of SHELL32.dll with SHELL32.w98 (Or the name of your Win98 SHELL32.DLL). This problem seems to be a fault with 1 of the Win95 SHELL32.dll's internal functions, and is currently being addressed. However, this should be the *only* file you would ever need to hex edit again.

SH95UPD v0.0.6 will be the last build of SH95UPD to be based on KernelEx 0.32a, newer builds will be based on KernelEx 0.36. Also, SHELL32.DLL will be linked to shlwapi.dll in newer versions, hence you need to have shlwapi.dll in your /system directory before installing SH95UPD v0.0.7 and above.

***PLEASE READ THE README FILE CAREFULLY***

Credit goes to Xeno86 and (x).

Known issues:

-Programs linking to Ordinal194 expecting SHCreatePropSheetExtArrayEx would run RealShellExecuteExA instead (Microsoft had changed the ordinal numbers in shell32 4.7x)

Currently inplemented functions:

Shell32.dll:

ShGetFolderPathA

SHGetSpecialFolderPathA (Alias of Shell32 Ordinal 175)

SHGetSpecialFolderPathW (Alias of Shell32 Ordinal 175)

SHGetNewLinkInfo (Alias of Shell32 Ordinal 179)

SHExitWindowsEx (Now a full implementation)

SHGetPathFromIDListW (Alias of SHGetFileFromIDListA)

SHGetFileInfoW (Alias of SHGetFileInfoA)

DllCanUnloadNow

DllGetVersion (Now returns its version as 4.72.3612 instead of 4.0.1212)

SHGetDataFromIDListW (Alias SHGetDataFromIDListA)

DllInstall (Dummy function)

DllRegisterServer (Dummy function)

DllUnregisterServer (Dummy function)

Requirements:

- Windows 95*, Windows 98 Standard Edition, Windows 98 Second Edition or Windows Millienium

- Any locale and kernel version

- Windows 95 Shell (Any version, but must be pre-OSR2.5)

*The use of SH95UPD on Windows 95 is untested.

Due to the facts that:

1. I now have a lot of other responsibilities to fulfill

2. my skills at programming are not very good

3. I am not very knowledgeable about the inner workings of Windows

expect this project to slow down, have bugs, and/or even halt. I would distribute the source code soon after I clean it up.

- I only released this project, hoping that it will be useful to others.

- As this project is not very heavily tested on more than 1 system, there may be undiscovered bugs present.

Changelog:

SH95UPD v0.0.6 07/04/2009

SHGetSpecialFolderPathA/W are now an aliases of Shell32 Ordinal 175

ShGetNewLinkInfo is now an alias of Shell32 Ordinal 179

DllGetVersion now returns its version as 4.72.3612 instead of 4.0.1212, hence programs would not complain that SHELL32.DLL is too old(Or as version 4.0)

SH95UPD's main executable is now UPX'ed! Hence file size is cut down from ~90KB to ~36KB

SH95UPD v0.0.5 30/10/2008

-Added the folowing dummy functions:

DllInstall

DllRegisterServer

DllUnregisterServer

-Modified DllGetVersion to return its version as 4.0.1212 instead of 6.0.2800 as it seems to cause problems.

SH95UPD v0.0.4A 20/07/2008

-Removed SHFlushSFCache (Causes problems)

SH95UPD v0.0.4 13/07/2008

-Added the following functions:

DllCanUnloadNow

DllGetVersion

SHFlushSFCache (Dummy function)

SHGetDataFromIDListW (Alias SHGetDataFromIDListA)

SH95UPD v0.0.3 12/05/2008

-Added SHGetPathFromIDListW and SHGetFileInfoW

-Fully implemented SHExitWindowsEx

SH95UPD v0.0.2B 03/05/2008

-Removed the SH95Version function, hence no patchingg done to KERNEL32.DLL

-Optimized the code being patched into SHELL32.DLL, hence a smaller patch.

SH95UPD v0.0.2 20/04/2008

-Implemented more functions in SHELL32.DLL:

-SHGetNewLinkInfo (Only a dummy function)

-SHExitWindowsEx

-Some bugfixes and optimizations

-Changed compiler to GCC, resulting in smaller program and more relible.

SH95UPD v0.0.1A 27/04/2008

-Improved relibility while installing

-Now installable under Windows 95 (Untested, can someone verify this?)

-Added SH95Version to KERNEL32.DLL

SH95UPD v0.0.1A 26/04/2008

-Initial release.

-Implemented the following functions:

SHELL32.DLL:

SHGetSpecialFolderPathA

SHGetSpecialFolderPathW

SHGetFolderPathA

KERNEL32.DLL:

SH95Version

Download SH95UPD

Latest version is v0.0.6

Version 0.0.6: SH95UPDv006.zip

Source code for SH95UPD v0.0.6: SH95UPDv006_src.7z

*IMPORTANT: This is a rushed release of the source code as I am pressed for time. Please discuss any compilation problems, suggestions and bugs in SH95UPD's main thread @ MSFN here: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=116260

The source code has been compressed with 7-zip to reduce file size.

These files have been scanned and deemed to be virus free by AVG 7.5(Free Edition)

Please do not hot-link to the files as the file's names will change with every release.

Note to users who create derivative works based on SH95UPD:

You need to release your source code to the public, as failing to do so would be a violation of KernelEx's GNU GPL licence.

Rejoice 98lite users!!! =)

QL95.zip

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Hi all... haven't been here for a long time.

Just to let all of you know:

Geocities Singapore was shut down last year... and I shifted to linkbucks.

However, my ISP is blocking Linkbucks... so I've shifted yet again to Geocities JAPAN: http://ichiba.geocities.jp/ysai187

I may still occasionally update my Linkbucks blog... but I can't do it easily (I need to use a proxy server... but my ISP blocks links to proxy server lists :ph34r:).

I'll probably re-create my project pages again soon (And update all links again)... however, I can no longer continue developing (Or can't really help much at most) SH95UPD since my Windows 98 machine has finally been decomissioned this year.

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  • 2 months later...

Sorry for letting the links expire - the files were actually still there on Mediafire, but the old links were somehow defunct.

Anyways, the new links are uploaded at my blog, and the page at Geocities JAPAN will be updated soon.

I've also mirrored the files at Sendspace too - in case Mediafire goes crazy and breaks my links again. :ph34r:

Check out this post if you only want to see the post on the re-link and mirroring: http://ysai187.blogs.linkbucks.com/2010/12/15/sh95upd-v008-re-linked-and-mirrored/

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  • 3 months later...

I was using the latest version with no problems until the Kmeleon project stopped working with it. I no longer use it and am forced to "chubby" configuration with 98 Explorer.

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  • 7 months later...
  • 3 years later...

found this thread while researching on windows 95 and i was curious if there is any updated version of the shell32. i tried the sh95upd version .8 or the latest version i believe, it installed fine on my windows 95 osr 2.5 pc with most updates, official / unofficial, directx 8.0a, etc, however i was unable to shutdown the computer, even after uninstalling it, i had to manually turn off the pc and then reboot because it still wouldn't shut down after uninstalling. 

 

i only tested it today for a few minutes, i have not tested version .7 or earlier, from what i read, .7 seems to be the most stable? regardless, im still looking for a better alternative, i specifically need another api function ( i believe that is what its called ) to allow playing a certain game, warcraft 3. im not good with modifying files / using hex editors or any of that detailed complicated work, its just too much for me so i was hoping maybe someone can implement the new function or functions in a updated fix? 

 

the api is getlongpathnamew. the specific error message i got was "the msvcr80.dll file is linked to missing export kernel32.dll:getlongpathnamew."

i had a similar problem on windows 98 ( that supposed to support warcraft 3 in the first place ) where i couldn't install frozen throne from the disc, reign of chaos would install fine and played but frozen throne gave errors that wouldn't allow installing it ( i dont remember the exact errors as i didnt write them down ). i tested this with and without kernelex on windows 98 and made no difference. i also tried to download from the website digitally and wouldn't let me install which gave an error message mentioning invalid path choosen, this too i researched and tried possible solutions but none of them worked, i found this ironic why warcraft 3 wouldn't install on windows 98 in all these ways. 

 

finally, i was able to get warcraft 3 working properly ( somewhat ) by copying the entire installed program folder from a working windows 2000 computer into a flash drive and then launching it from the flash drive in windows 98. however, i still faced another problem, after exiting the program and trying to load it again, windows 98 would give an error message that the program is already opened or something about quiting one ms dos program, i dont exactly remember. but i had to restart the computer, just to play it again. i tried to see if copying the program into the operating system itself would change anything, but made no difference. this too i found odd, the system was heavily updated, directx 9.0c installed, unofficial usb installed, vcache settings limited to 0 for min and max file cache and maxphyspage=40000 with 1 GB ram installed. 

 

so basically, im trying to get warcraft 3 to work on windows 95 in the way i got it working on windows 98, or at least in a similar way. however, there are obviously many issues, one would be that the ones i just mentioned, the missing api function in win95, the other one was that i got another error message at the same time of trying to launch the program which said "frozenthrone was unable to find war3.exe. please make sure your game is correctly installed, and that your frozen throne disc is in your cd-rom drive, and try again". another problem would be the installer or game rejecting launching warcraft3 because of a function they built in that mentions windows 95 as an unsupported operating system. 

 

so with all this being said, how hard would it be for someone experienced in this area to work around these issues? surely it shouldn't be too hard? 

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found this thread while researching on windows 95 and i was curious if there is any updated version of the shell32. i tried the sh95upd version .8 or the latest version i believe, it installed fine on my windows 95 osr 2.5 pc with most updates, official / unofficial, directx 8.0a, etc, however i was unable to shutdown the computer, even after uninstalling it, i had to manually turn off the pc and then reboot because it still wouldn't shut down after uninstalling. 

 

i only tested it today for a few minutes, i have not tested version .7 or earlier, from what i read, .7 seems to be the most stable? regardless, im still looking for a better alternative, i specifically need another api function ( i believe that is what its called ) to allow playing a certain game, warcraft 3. im not good with modifying files / using hex editors or any of that detailed complicated work, its just too much for me so i was hoping maybe someone can implement the new function or functions in a updated fix? 

 

the api is getlongpathnamew. the specific error message i got was "the msvcr80.dll file is linked to missing export kernel32.dll:getlongpathnamew."

i had a similar problem on windows 98 ( that supposed to support warcraft 3 in the first place ) where i couldn't install frozen throne from the disc, reign of chaos would install fine and played but frozen throne gave errors that wouldn't allow installing it ( i dont remember the exact errors as i didnt write them down ). i tested this with and without kernelex on windows 98 and made no difference. i also tried to download from the website digitally and wouldn't let me install which gave an error message mentioning invalid path choosen, this too i researched and tried possible solutions but none of them worked, i found this ironic why warcraft 3 wouldn't install on windows 98 in all these ways. 

 

finally, i was able to get warcraft 3 working properly ( somewhat ) by copying the entire installed program folder from a working windows 2000 computer into a flash drive and then launching it from the flash drive in windows 98. however, i still faced another problem, after exiting the program and trying to load it again, windows 98 would give an error message that the program is already opened or something about quiting one ms dos program, i dont exactly remember. but i had to restart the computer, just to play it again. i tried to see if copying the program into the operating system itself would change anything, but made no difference. this too i found odd, the system was heavily updated, directx 9.0c installed, unofficial usb installed, vcache settings limited to 0 for min and max file cache and maxphyspage=40000 with 1 GB ram installed. 

 

so basically, im trying to get warcraft 3 to work on windows 95 in the way i got it working on windows 98, or at least in a similar way. however, there are obviously many issues, one would be that the ones i just mentioned, the missing api function in win95, the other one was that i got another error message at the same time of trying to launch the program which said "frozenthrone was unable to find war3.exe. please make sure your game is correctly installed, and that your frozen throne disc is in your cd-rom drive, and try again". another problem would be the installer or game rejecting launching warcraft3 because of a function they built in that mentions windows 95 as an unsupported operating system. 

 

so with all this being said, how hard would it be for someone experienced in this area to work around these issues? surely it shouldn't be too hard?

Someone correct me if I am wrong, but it seems that the point of this project was only to update the Windows 95 Shell (i.e. the NON-Desktop Update/IE4/98 shell) to include functions that were added to the Desktop Update/IE4/98 shell so that the 95 shell could be used under 98 and/or with things like 98 Lite, etc... So for anyone already running the Desktop Update/IE4/98 shell under 95 it would actually be a downgrade and be incompatible with the newer shell if installed.

 

WarCraft 3 incompatibility with Windows 95 was one of several factors that forced me to move from Windows 95 to Windows 98SE several years ago. Oddly enough the other factors that forced the decision at the time have now been remedied, but I digress. I never got past the "unsupported operating system" part on 95 back then, but admittedly at the time I didn't have the first clue how to begin to circumvent it.

 

WarCraft 3 and the Frozen Throne do work properly under Windows 98SE though, I played them for years that way. However one of the later Blizzard patches (1.24B) breaks the game under Windows 98. I reported this to Blizzard tech support but of course they never gave any meaningful response, they never even bothered to try to tell me to upgrade or the like, they just acted like they didn't comprehend what I was saying. I don't know if it was ever corrected later or not. So, you may need to verify that the version you are installing is prior to 1.24B, and I would be very careful about the digital version, which may introduce this or other incompatibilities.

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  • 2 weeks later...

 

found this thread while researching on windows 95 and i was curious if there is any updated version of the shell32. i tried the sh95upd version .8 or the latest version i believe, it installed fine on my windows 95 osr 2.5 pc with most updates, official / unofficial, directx 8.0a, etc, however i was unable to shutdown the computer, even after uninstalling it, i had to manually turn off the pc and then reboot because it still wouldn't shut down after uninstalling. 

 

i only tested it today for a few minutes, i have not tested version .7 or earlier, from what i read, .7 seems to be the most stable? regardless, im still looking for a better alternative, i specifically need another api function ( i believe that is what its called ) to allow playing a certain game, warcraft 3. im not good with modifying files / using hex editors or any of that detailed complicated work, its just too much for me so i was hoping maybe someone can implement the new function or functions in a updated fix? 

 

the api is getlongpathnamew. the specific error message i got was "the msvcr80.dll file is linked to missing export kernel32.dll:getlongpathnamew."

i had a similar problem on windows 98 ( that supposed to support warcraft 3 in the first place ) where i couldn't install frozen throne from the disc, reign of chaos would install fine and played but frozen throne gave errors that wouldn't allow installing it ( i dont remember the exact errors as i didnt write them down ). i tested this with and without kernelex on windows 98 and made no difference. i also tried to download from the website digitally and wouldn't let me install which gave an error message mentioning invalid path choosen, this too i researched and tried possible solutions but none of them worked, i found this ironic why warcraft 3 wouldn't install on windows 98 in all these ways. 

 

finally, i was able to get warcraft 3 working properly ( somewhat ) by copying the entire installed program folder from a working windows 2000 computer into a flash drive and then launching it from the flash drive in windows 98. however, i still faced another problem, after exiting the program and trying to load it again, windows 98 would give an error message that the program is already opened or something about quiting one ms dos program, i dont exactly remember. but i had to restart the computer, just to play it again. i tried to see if copying the program into the operating system itself would change anything, but made no difference. this too i found odd, the system was heavily updated, directx 9.0c installed, unofficial usb installed, vcache settings limited to 0 for min and max file cache and maxphyspage=40000 with 1 GB ram installed. 

 

so basically, im trying to get warcraft 3 to work on windows 95 in the way i got it working on windows 98, or at least in a similar way. however, there are obviously many issues, one would be that the ones i just mentioned, the missing api function in win95, the other one was that i got another error message at the same time of trying to launch the program which said "frozenthrone was unable to find war3.exe. please make sure your game is correctly installed, and that your frozen throne disc is in your cd-rom drive, and try again". another problem would be the installer or game rejecting launching warcraft3 because of a function they built in that mentions windows 95 as an unsupported operating system. 

 

so with all this being said, how hard would it be for someone experienced in this area to work around these issues? surely it shouldn't be too hard?

Someone correct me if I am wrong, but it seems that the point of this project was only to update the Windows 95 Shell (i.e. the NON-Desktop Update/IE4/98 shell) to include functions that were added to the Desktop Update/IE4/98 shell so that the 95 shell could be used under 98 and/or with things like 98 Lite, etc... So for anyone already running the Desktop Update/IE4/98 shell under 95 it would actually be a downgrade and be incompatible with the newer shell if installed.

 

WarCraft 3 incompatibility with Windows 95 was one of several factors that forced me to move from Windows 95 to Windows 98SE several years ago. Oddly enough the other factors that forced the decision at the time have now been remedied, but I digress. I never got past the "unsupported operating system" part on 95 back then, but admittedly at the time I didn't have the first clue how to begin to circumvent it.

 

WarCraft 3 and the Frozen Throne do work properly under Windows 98SE though, I played them for years that way. However one of the later Blizzard patches (1.24B) breaks the game under Windows 98. I reported this to Blizzard tech support but of course they never gave any meaningful response, they never even bothered to try to tell me to upgrade or the like, they just acted like they didn't comprehend what I was saying. I don't know if it was ever corrected later or not. So, you may need to verify that the version you are installing is prior to 1.24B, and I would be very careful about the digital version, which may introduce this or other incompatibilities.

 

thats interesting you had similar problems with warcraft 3 on windows 98SE, well, at least it still worked from running it off the already installed program copied to the hard drive. i have 1.26 version of wc3 the frozen throne, and i believe when i tested it on windows 98SE, it was also at least 1.26. my goal someday is to get wc3 running on windows 95 though, because i think that would be really cool to do and i don't see it being too hard for someone to do. of course, we would have to get it working properly on windows 98SE first lol. 

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