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[WIP] Windows Vista Extended Kernel


win32

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9 hours ago, Koishi Komeiji said:

@win32, the image in the OP seems to be broken, by the way. Is this just on my end?

no, I decided to remove them since the tutorial steps aren't a good way of doing things anymore, though I wanted to keep the text as it was originally written.

 

16 minutes ago, Sputnik1973 said:

Also: this is chronium 72 running on my laptop

The latest version 88 is now possible. But some file hosts haven't updated their files. If your kernel32/user32 files are from July and not October, PM me.

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1 hour ago, win32 said:

no, I decided to remove them since the tutorial steps aren't a good way of doing things anymore, though I wanted to keep the text as it was originally written.

Thanks - I'm not particularly well-versed with OS extensions like this in general... I got confused haha. Never actually messed with kernel mods, it's weird - I don't want to break anything but I don't particularly want to feel like being spoonfed either about this so yeah.

Also, if it's of interest to anyone, I'm starting up a Vista/WS2008 wiki on Miraheze, mostly to learn about wiki management and also to help with the documentation of things like this project for instance. Haven't really configured much so I'm not going to post anything yet though.

I wanted to eventually give something back, I suppose...

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Today, I learned something about those API Set DLLs (api-ms-win-core-*) while working on an auxiliary project (its contents will be eventually incorporated into this one).

The legacy win32 subsystem DLLs like ole32/kernel32/user32 etc. started forwarding functions to the API Set DLLs in 7; this practice became more prevalent in 8 and 10. To the layman, it appears that these functions have been reduced to stubs, as they appear in the API Set DLLs. But many of the legacy DLLs are also being paired up with *base dlls (kernel32 = kernelbase, ole32 = combase, user32 = win32u(?). etc.). So I found that where an implementation does not exist in the legacy file, you must look in the corresponding base file. And that's where I found out that my implementations of VerLanguageInfoW and ResolveLocaleName were indeed useless stubs.

Thus, a November update will be coming to fix those functions and possibly others affected by the same issue.

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17 hours ago, win32 said:

Today, I learned something about those API Set DLLs (api-ms-win-core-*) while working on an auxiliary project (its contents will be eventually incorporated into this one)...

Hello , I've been observing this topic for quite some time. First of all , I really admire your work , it's fantastic !

Some may not believe , but I'm still running UNpatched Vista x64 SP2 and haven't had any issues.

The only update I have is DX11 for gaming. And yes , there's still a good number of Vista users.

May I ask, if you have the modded files for virgin SP2 . I just wanted to try to launch some

games that require missing APIs. Perhaps if someone will kindly give me the patched ISO , 

I'll also try to test , but for now the vanilla SP2 files are enough for me. Thank you !!

P.S.

Wanted to ask/suggest . Any plans to make something like zernel35 , like they did for XP ?

Messing with system files isn't for everyone (I guess).

I've managed to launch some unsupported programmes just by adding/hooking new DLL's in

their folders, sadly I lack advanced programming skills , like you.

About Haswell , there are no errors if running x86 , none at all !

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2 hours ago, Dixel said:

May I ask, if you have the modded files for virgin SP2 .

It would be very difficult to duplicate the work I did for the 2017-based files for those. But you may want to try local DLL redirection, where you add a key to the registry using one such file in the extended kernel folder, reboot, then copy the required files to each program's folder, then make a file in the program folder named xxxx.exe.local (where the program name is xxxx.exe). There are some limitations, but there should be a good chance of success for what you want to run.

2 hours ago, Dixel said:

Wanted to ask/suggest . Any plans to make something like zernel35 , like they did for XP ?

For future projects, I am considering ways to split off the extended functions into their own files so they don't disturb the original system files and are more resilient to updates. One-Core-API does something like adding the new functions forwarding to the new function file from the otherwise unchanged old system file, but that still means that updates will still replace the files, if not worse. The ideal solution would be to, for example, have kernel32 be nothing but forwards to two files: kernelol, which is the existing kernel32, and kernelex, which has the code for the new functions. Or even better, I could change the KnownDLLs entry for kernel32 to kernel33 (so hopefully, programs calling kernel32 will go to kernel33), and make the forwarder kernel33, the existing one kernel32 (so windows updates only update that file without any adverse effects), and kernelex.

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5 hours ago, WinXP4ever said:

Do you know if this Kernel Extended will work even after the end of Chrome and Firefox support on Win7? Thnks

I am planning on adding whatever Windows 8/10 functions are necessary for those versions of the browsers to work, so it should happen.

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18 minutes ago, tamarindojuice said:

Are you planing to spoof the OS version from NT6.0 to NT6.1? Maybe it would make the MSE work back on Vista? I would like to keep using it till the end of the support since MS stated somewhere that it will receive definition updates up to 2023...

yeah, i figured out major version and build number spoofing, but minor version spoofing seems to be harder. As I said before I will try to make an auxiliary function to indirectly feed it the minor version since directly feeding it fails.

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5 hours ago, win32 said:

I am planning on adding whatever Windows 8/10 functions are necessary for those versions of the browsers to work, so it should happen.

Would you consider porting those functions back to NT6.1 when the time comes as well? :)

With the popularity of Win7 and similarities to 10 apart from UWP, I'd be rather surprised if some third party Chromium fork just for 7 doesn't spring up within the next 2 years. I asked the developer behind Advanced Chrome about it. He said he would at least try to buy NT6.1 an additional year, but that's rather grim.

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2 hours ago, docR said:

Would you consider porting those functions back to NT6.1 when the time comes as well? :)

I am going to come out and show what I referred to as project SUBJECT CLASSIFIED in the past to some people:

 

Capture.PNG.65ffed21617f2cd947585020c06803ea.PNG

People are starting to ask for newer programs to run on 7 and application compatibility is starting to collapse for the OS as well (though many of those incompatibilities remain truly forced for now).

So a week ago I decided that it was about time to start a proactive response to the impeding avalanche (July 2021 or whenever Chromium is supposed to kill 7 support, and possibly .NET 5.0). In the four months working on Vista I learned many things which I will apply to this project. I had no idea what I was doing when I started this in mid-June, though after five days I realized what was necessary to get new applications running!

Will it be difficult for me to manage the extension of four separate operating systems? Well, I think we will be back down to two in a few years as x86 slowly dies and the sources of our collective grief go x64 which is a considerably easier platform to expand on.

2 hours ago, docR said:

With the popularity of Win7 and similarities to 10 apart from UWP, I'd be rather surprised if some third party Chromium fork just for 7 doesn't spring up within the next 2 years. I asked the developer behind Advanced Chrome about it. He said he would at least try to buy NT6.1 an additional year, but that's rather grim.

Qihoo 360 is definitely ready...

Edited by win32
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48 minutes ago, nicky7044 said:

are there any other download links available for the latest build? the one in winclient5270's video has an issue with ntext.dll not downloading (mega throws a "Temporary error") and i have not really found much luck on trying to find another site hosting the latest version and not some other early builds.

It's not working for me either! I'm not aware of any other hosts though ntext is actually not an MS file and one I compiled myself so if I can find an alternative link I'll post it here.

Here it is. Just ntext and nothing more.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1OvxwDWdI2yz3f6MTrz9T34PGESYuOE6p/view

Edited by win32
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Hello all , I have a question regarding Nvidia drivers . To be brief :

I have GTX780 which has 100% support in Vista, however I can't get DTS HD MA passthrough to my receiver , the reciever also

supports DTS HD MA . No matter what I do (tried all drivers, etc) , only ordinary DTS and DD5.1 are available through Vista.

If I install W7 (not changing any hardware) - the problem is gone ! 

Of course I'm not going to use W7 , obvioulsy . I've tried to install Vista SP2 on my friend's similar hardware - the result is the same.

If it's not enough info , I will gladly explain in details. Perhaps someone had already been that road . Thank you .

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