[WIP] Windows Vista Extended Kernel

[Dixel]

3 hours ago, asdf2345 said:

The reuploaded folder is missing a bunch of the old drivers and programs

The aforementioned driver (the one he claims to have modified for Vista usage) is still present and the kernel too. This driver is the same as ofiicial , except he replaced a couple of digits in the inf file.

[D.Draker]

On 12/18/2020 at 6:06 PM, asdf2345 said:

.. so I don't really care. Also, keeping the vast amount of info it had available was worth not telling anyone.

Where's the Downvote button ?

 

On 12/18/2020 at 5:57 PM, asdf2345 said:

I've read it multiple times before.

Why , did you enjoy the punctuation or grammatical errors  ? Have you tried these drivers yourself ? I think I read somewhere that you have a Haswell notebook. I still hope to put mine into usage with Vista or [at least] XP.

[asdf2345]

3 hours ago, D.Draker said:

Why , did you enjoy the punctuation or grammatical errors  ? Have you tried these drivers yourself ? I think I read somewhere that you have a Haswell notebook. I still hope to put mine into usage with Vista or [at least] XP.

I replaced it with an Ivy Bridge notebook, as I was unable to get the drivers working, and even if I did, I'd have to worry about Optimus.

[win32]

Big news for users of 32 bit software:

Having the ntdll and kernel32 functions in the same file has fixed the problems with importing certain ntdll functions, which means that 32 bit extended kernel development is going strong.

Indeed, the functions in this wrapper import ones that are present in NT 3.51 and up (discounting RtlSetLastWin32Error from XP, but that could be thrown in easily), making this set of Windows 7 functions backportable to much older OSes in theory.

[D.Draker]

On 7/14/2020 at 4:51 PM, win32 said:

So it looks like I'm going to implement the Windows 10 1809 version of LoadLibraryExW since it doesn't call those two functions. But it asks for LdrGetDllPath and RtlReleasePath, which do not even exist in Windows 7. RtlReleasePath is quite simple, but LdrGetDllPath is extremely complex. So I need to look for a suitable replacement for LdrGetDllPath. So far I haven't been able to do so (I tried RtlGetFullPathName_U), as I've only been able to get the cursor to appear before automatically rebooting.

So you decided not to go that route ? BTW , I'm just curious why XP boots OK ?

Edited December 19, 2020 by D.Draker

[win32]

7 hours ago, D.Draker said:

So you decided not to go that route ? BTW , I'm just curious why XP boots OK ?

I'm not terribly sure that was the culprit. I think it is a hardware timer-based issue, in which Vista probably used a timer that was discontinued or became buggy with Haswell which XP x64 and 7 don't use, though I need confirmation. Local kernel debugging doesn't want to work for me on that laptop.

LoadLibraryExW are quite similar on XP x64 and Vista.

Edited December 19, 2020 by win32

[failsandwich]

I've been trying for a little while to get Apple's Boot Camp drivers fully installed in Windows Vista on my early-2011 MacBook Pro. The installer insists that it requires Windows 7 any time I try to run it, but I know that's a lie, as most of the drivers install and work fine on their own. There's one small exception, however: the touchpad doesn't seem to work properly. It functions, but left-clicking doesn't work, and neither does 2-finger scrolling.
I'm pretty sure it's not working because I'm not running it through the Boot Camp installer itself. Would it be possible to trick the installer into thinking I'm using Windows 7 somehow? Installing the kernel extension alone doesn't seem to be enough, unfortunately.

[win32]

You will need Application Verifier:

http://web.archive.org/web/20200803205552/https://download.microsoft.com/download/B/6/D/B6D4DF81-0C26-4BA5-BD57-50B7C0935421/ApplicationVerifier.amd64.msi

It may or may not work. Go to application verifier (not the x64 one, as installers are usually 32 bit, even now) as it will appear in the start menu, Go to file -> add application and then go to "Tests". Make sure everything is unchecked except for HighVersionLie under Compatibility. Right-click properties and adjust major version to 6, minor version to 1, and build number to 7601.

This may not work with the main installer, as it may be bootstrapped and the version check may be done with one of the child installers. You will probably need something like process hacker to track those down if that happens.

[Dixel]

8 hours ago, win32 said:

Local kernel debugging doesn't want to work for me on that laptop

That's what I was talking about , as you can see , not only games are affected . I had started to notice such things when the first line of i3/i5/i7 arrived . Some of my progs just started to throw errors or won't launch at all. It was 10 or 11 years ago , I'm not sure I'll remeber which programs exactly , but debuggers and stuff like that don't usually like i3/i5/i7. I just bought a Pentium , problem solved . But nowadays Pentiums are stuffed with something that makes then behave like i3/i5/i7.  Also some similar problems arose for https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hooking . You may want to try this bug on a plain and simple Haswell Pentium. But what about 32-bit Vista which loads perfectly fine ? It doesn't use this "timer " too ?

[cdnmlh]

1 hour ago, failsandwich said:

I've been trying for a little while to get Apple's Boot Camp drivers fully installed in Windows Vista on my early-2011 MacBook Pro. The installer insists that it requires Windows 7 any time I try to run it, but I know that's a lie, as most of the drivers install and work fine on their own. There's one small exception, however: the touchpad doesn't seem to work properly. It functions, but left-clicking doesn't work, and neither does 2-finger scrolling.
I'm pretty sure it's not working because I'm not running it through the Boot Camp installer itself. Would it be possible to trick the installer into thinking I'm using Windows 7 somehow? Installing the kernel extension alone doesn't seem to be enough, unfortunately.

It may be worth tracking down the last version of BootCamp to support Vista and see if the included touchpad drivers work. You might be able to do it with this tool. I believe the 3.x series is the last to support Vista. I don't have full confirmation of this but I believe the Early 2009 to Late 2011 MBPs use the same touchpad so in theory, a driver from one of the plethora of BootCamp versions for those models should work.

Apple's BootCamp software is a mess. I don't know how helpful this is, but I know that running older versions of BootCamp on newer versions of Windows can be done easily using compatibility mode so I don't think the OS checker is that restrictive.

Edited December 19, 2020 by cdnmlh
typo

[win32]

5 hours ago, Dixel said:

That's what I was talking about , as you can see , not only games are affected . I had started to notice such things when the first line of i3/i5/i7 arrived . Some of my progs just started to throw errors or won't launch at all. It was 10 or 11 years ago , I'm not sure I'll remeber which programs exactly , but debuggers and stuff like that don't usually like i3/i5/i7. I just bought a Pentium , problem solved . But nowadays Pentiums are stuffed with something that makes then behave like i3/i5/i7.  Also some similar problems arose for https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hooking . You may want to try this bug on a plain and simple Haswell Pentium. But what about 32-bit Vista which loads perfectly fine ? It doesn't use this "timer " too ?

I don't have access to any Pentium-branded Haswells, Only that Kaby Lake i5 and someday, a Haswell i3 if its owner stops using it completely in favour of their phones and tablets.

But I've never had any issues with software execution on my Xeon X5670 machine (which is somewhat similar to i7-970/980), including live local kernel debugging.

It is quite possible that Vista x86 doesn't use whatever timer/hardware feature is responsible for these problems (if it is). Whatever design change has made Vista x64 so buggy on newer hardware seems to have been short-lived, as it is not in XP x64 or even Windows 7 build 6519 (from December 2007, so early in the development cycle). On the other end of the spectrum, I guess I could check some later Longhorn x64 builds (as in post-reset, as the reset point is 2003 SP1 RC) to see where this problem started, but they are typically very unstable compared to Windows 7 builds. Build 5048 wouldn't even install on a semi-period-correct ThinkPad T60 because it somehow didn't like the ACPI tables!

[winvispixp]

10 hours ago, win32 said:

Build 5048 wouldn't even install on a semi-period-correct ThinkPad T60 because it somehow didn't like the ACPI tables!

I don't know if this has something to do with the HDD's interface but I know from my own experience that longhorn works best on IDE HDDs

[Jakob99]

EDIT: Rufus' Windows To Go feature only works on 8.1 and 10, but it should still work with Vista. Trying it out now to see. Waiting for the media to finish creating.

You guys may or may not know this, but you can install Windows Vista to an external USB HDD. It doesn't have to be a physical HDD ripped from a computer and connected with USB SATA (though it will work), rather, you can use any external USB HDD. These can include WD My Passport and WD easystore. Here's the super easy steps to do this, and it involves a program that I'm sure many of you have used, but did not know could do this.

1. Grab the Windows Vista Ultimate updated to 2017 EOS ISO and copy it to the desired machine you will be using Vista on.

2. Grab Rufus portable from here.

3. Insert your HDD. If you have anything on it, back that up elsewhere. Afterwards, go to Computer (or This PC), right click the drive, and then format it. Afterwards, open up Manage by right clicking This PC or Computer. Go to Disk Management, right click your USB HDD and select Mark as Active.

4. Next, open up Rufus. It won't show the drive right away, but choose the ISO. Under Target System should be Windows To Go. Select that and then select MBR. Select Show Advanced Drive Properties and select List USB Hard Drives. Also select Use Rufus MBR with BIOS ID. After this, select Start.

5. Wait for it to finish and once it does, restart. Go into BIOS and ensure it is set to boot from USB HDD. Let it boot and it should load Vista. This is a great alternative if you don't want to replace your existing OS with Vista. You can also eek out more space as well. Not sure if dual-boots will work, but I imagine if you carve out the desired space for each OS you want, name it with the OS that is going on it, and then running Rufus with the above steps (replacing Vista with your desired OS), it should work. You will have to install each OS before moving on to the others.

If you try this on a laptop with USB 3.0 ports, you will most likely get a 0x07b Inaccessible Boot Device Blue Screen of Death. Not sure if @win32 has a solution. This is likely due to USB 3.0 drivers being absent, but Windows 7, which produces this same error on USB 3.0 hardware, does not load even with USB 3.0 drivers slipstreamed. Maybe the driver for the USB HDD has to be slipstreamed, I'm not sure.

EDIT: Rufus' Windows To Go feature only works on 8.1 and 10, but it should still work with Vista. Trying it out now to see. Waiting for the media to finish creating.

 

Rufus' Windows To Go did not work with Vista. I got the loading screen to pop up and it stayed there for a bit before stopping and throwing a brief Blue Screen of Death and restarting automatically. Using F8's Disable Automatic Restart on System Failure revealed the error to be 0x07b Inaccessible Boot Device. The laptop at hand is a Dell Latitude E6400 from around 2010 (before USB 3.0 was adopted onto new computers). This does not have USB 3.0 and it currently has a dual-boot of Windows XP (32bit) and Windows Vista with Extended Kernel (64bit obviously). The external USB HDD at hand is a Western Digital My Passport with 1TB of space. It also has a blue USB 3.0 connector, but the Latitude can still read the drive nonetheless. I did have to use Windows 8.1 to install Vista to it as Rufus' Windows To Go option only appears on that and 10. I then tried to finish the installation on the Latitude, but the aforementioned problem happened.

This does not appear to be a USB/USB driver issue in this instance as all the ports are 2.0 meaning no USB driver has to be slipstreamed. I'm thinking this has something to do with the driver for the drive itself, like I need to slipstream that into the Vista media, but Windows auto driver update can't seem to install the driver. This doesn't affect usability of the drive as it still works without its driver.

I should note that Windows 7 does work with a similar method, using Hasleo WinToUSB instead, but that either installing onto a system with pure USB 3.0 ports (and having no 2.0 ports or BIOS fallback to those) or installing the 3.0 driver afterwards causes the 0x07b BSOD. Integrating the drivers, even the Windows 8 generic one that was "hacked" to work with Vista/7 does not work. This means I can't run 7 on my eMMC drive exclusive Acer Aspire R3-131T

There is one other method that I am going to try thanks to a Google search. I'll get back to you guys on the results of that.

Edited December 20, 2020 by Jakob99

[D.Draker]

3 hours ago, Jakob99 said:

I'll get back to you guys on the results of that.

Hi ! With all due respect  , please don't , you're posting in the wrong topic . This one is about Ex Kernel , not ISO installation . This marvellous topic (the top one here , I think) has already been polluted so many times . Please find the appropriate one. Besides , you're posting meaningless info . Here are the rules.

https://msfn.org/board/guidelines/

[Jaguarek62]

@win32 I suggest you to take a look on this build: Windows Vista build 5270

I managed to install it on my 3rd gen intel laptop (took 2 days, because it is really buggy) but I got logon failure simmilar to the Vista one, albeit I could not test more things due to missing drivers obviously. Maybe something has changed around this period. I can’t say really because any other build refused to install. 5048 was the worst one, I’ve never seen so many bsods trying to boot into preinstallation environment  

Edit: I’ve said 3rd gen, but I’ve meant 5th gen (idk how did I mislabeled them in my head).

Edited December 21, 2020 by Jaguarek62