Revolutions Pack 9.7

[dencorso]

Hi, Tihiy!

It's good to have you around!

And thanks for the sources, this ensures all the brainwork invoved in RP will be preserved.

You do rock!

[Dandee]

Here are last RP9 source codes:

http://tihiy.net/files/rp9source.rar

Maybe someone will find use of this stuff i gave a piece of life to.

Hi RP fans,

I am sorry to read that Tihiy dropped the project. But I would be

even more sorry if the Revolutions Pack would die because of it.

I strongly believe in giving people a low-tech alternative to the

virus and spyware infected crap we are given these days. I think

Windows 98 is the Volkswagen of Operating Systems (MacOS being

the Porsche).

So I would like to continue the project. But my approach will be

different from Tihiy's. I want to use the "stub" approach. This

means creating a second User32.dll which is linked to all the

functions contained in the original User32.dll. This makes it

possible to override all of the windowing functions and use the

RP9 resources for skinning.

This approach has two major advantages: 1. It's clean, meaning

I don't have to find (and debug) all the different callback

functions and hooks, like Tihiy had to do.

2. It's portable to Windows 2000. At least I think it is. Of course,

a stub dll will be reported as being a virus, so maybe the whole

approach will become questionable.

In fact, I already created a prototype, using MinGW and some Assembler

code to "jump" to the original User32 functions. This works beautifully,

and I already got the basic skinning and alpha blending working.

There's a problem, though. If I use and test the dll during run-time

everything works as expected (it even works on an XP machine).

But if I try to boot Win98 with the stub dll in place, it crashes,

giving me the following error:

0D at 64D84558 (MUTEX_LEVEL_NUMBER_VIOLATION)

If I look this up on Google, I find some sites mentioning a

"priority inversion".

The strange thing is that in the bootlog file, I can see that

my User32.dll loaded and unloaded successfully, but when trying to

load the fonts, Win98 crashes with this error.

I am a very experienced Win32 programmer, writing programs in

Delphi and "pure api". I think I can pull it off, and I want to

take a shot at it.

But I also know that booting the new dll is the bottle-neck. If I

can get it to boot, I will put in my time.

So Tihiy, can you advise on this? Is it even possible? I'm sure

you had to solve this kind of problem for your kernel32 project.

Dandee.

[jds]

Unfortunately however, uninstalling RP does not restore the original taskbar behaviour. Any ideas how to get this back to normal? (I would have persisted longer with RP if not for this unwanted behaviour.)

Hurray! I've finally found a solution to the broken taskbar caused by RP, it's 'IEradicator2001a.exe' (don't forget to export your IE Favourites, if applicable)!

Joe.

Edited May 29, 2012 by jds

[Tihiy]

I want to use the "stub" approach. This means creating a second User32.dll which is linked to all the functions contained in the original User32.dll.

That won't work since shared 32-bit dlls are linked alltogether in system. RP7 used second patched copy of user32.dll (and it didn't work well). RP9 uses 32-bit dll functions override as well as 32-bit and 16-bit patching for standard controls. Just function override is not enough for full skinning.

[CharlesF]

Hurray! I've finally found a solution to the broken taskbar caused by RP

Again, did you found for sure that it came from the Revolutions Pack?

[jds]

Hurray! I've finally found a solution to the broken taskbar caused by RP

Again, did you found for sure that it came from the Revolutions Pack?

Absolutely sure.

I installed it (supposedly just the resource/stability fixes) on two machines, and experienced the problem with both. Others here have reported the same issue. Now at least, I've found a way to effect a repair.

Joe.

[MiKl]

Hi guys,

this may not be the correct thread to post my question but I think it is related and maybe somewhere within RP is already the answer.

Right now I am using 'TransparentW' to get transparent icon text backgrounds.

But is there maybe a real 'seperate' patch available ?

Thanks,

Mikl

[PROBLEMCHYLD]

Hi guys,

this may not be the correct thread to post my question but I think it is related and maybe somewhere within RP is already the answer.

Right now I am using 'TransparentW' to get transparent icon text backgrounds.

But is there maybe a real 'seperate' patch available ?

Thanks,

Mikl

Maybe this can help, I know its for the Win98 shell32.dll but it may be possible for the WinME shell by finding the right offset. I don't know how to hex but I'm in the process of learning atm.

on another note here is a patch for transparency of icon labels.

It is ONLY for shell32.dll version 4.72.3812.717

offsets and bytes are in hex

offset patch

11cbf 33 c9 49 89 4d 08 90

11d2b 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90

It is not perfect, if you drag a window over top of them it makes a bit ugly, but refreshing the desktop fixes it. If anyone can improve on it, feel free.

Edited June 23, 2012 by PROBLEMCHYLD

[CharlesF]

I think it is related and maybe somewhere within RP is already the answer.

Right now I am using 'TransparentW' to get transparent icon text backgrounds.

Hi MiKl

Besides the tweak suggested by PROBLEMCHYLD from Nexus_06,

if you have RP9 installed you don't need anymore to launch 'TransparentW',

because RPConfig is offering you all the same features and even shadow effect!

Charles.

[Moonlights]

Hello everybody, how to set french language for rpsetup and rpconfig file?

[CharlesF]

Welcome Moonlights,

if you don't see this option during setup, I'm afraid you won't be able to change language.

It seems that RP doesn't give choice but default OS language.

Maybe (but I don't have tried this, so beware!),

you could tweak the 'RPConfig.lng' file in %Windir%\SYSTEM

by changing the line [1036] in [1033], if your default OS language is english.

If not, it should be easier, by giving to the line [1036], the number of your default OS language and erasing this original line from the file.

FWIW.

Charles.

[marxelo]

Hi!

If someone from Spain or Latin América is interested, this is a spanish "start button" for "Windows XP Theme".

To replace the default "Start" english button, follow this steps:

1. If you are using the standard XP Theme with english start button, just change to another theme for some minutes.

2. Rename the default english button, usually located at "C:\WINDOWS\Resources\Themes\Windows XP" from "BLUE_STARTBUTTON_BMP.bmp" to something else, like "BLUE_STARTBUTTON_BMP_ENG.bmp"

3. Download this bitmap file containing the spanish button and place it in the "...Resources\Themes\Windows XP" directory.

BLUE_STARTBUTTON_BMP.bmp

4. From RPConfig, go back to "Windows XP Theme".

Now the "Start" button is in spanish: it says "Inicio".

Marcelo.

Edited January 17, 2013 by marxelo

[Briansurvivedwindowsme]

Thx,it works fine just that in the area where the time is the background is white instead of the theme color.any way I can fix this?

[Drugwash]

Which OS version you've installed it on (98 Gold/98SE/ME)? Is it a true install or in a virtual machine?

Have you installed the required updates first, as mentioned in post #2 of this thread?

Are there any other system enhancements installed (unofficial SP3/AutoPatcher/98SE2ME/etc)?

Is there any application running that could mess with that taskbar area (TClock, for example)?

[Briansurvivedwindowsme]

Hey drugwash,

I have windows me

No enhancements at all,

I've installed the updates before I installed RP9,

I have no programs messing around with the task bar area.I checked.

It's still weird,because isn't windows ME like windows 98 with just a few more programs?

Also,I'm running on a real computer.Its a laptop.Heres the specs:

Intel Celeron Processor

64MB of RAM

360Mhz

Hp Pavilion N5210