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[WIP] Windows Vista Extended Kernel


win32

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3 hours ago, Sergiaws said:

Office 2013/2016 will be more difficult to install, as far as @Win32 told, Office 2013/2016 has more checks against Windows Vista.

Another thing to consider is that office 2013+ uses sppsvc - a Windows Product Activation service introduced in Windows 7 which would have to be backported without breaking Vista's activation system. (Office 2010 had it's own licensing system), and I'm not sure if this will be possible in the near future.

Edited by TSNH
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18 hours ago, SigmaTel71 said:

Don't you think that installing DirectX June 2010 redistributable package will be easier?

Right! I could have sworn my Vista build already had it (it has all the updates), but apparently it does not. I'll look into that.

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On 3/16/2022 at 1:53 PM, Jakob99 said:

Just letting you guys know that the Microsoft Tinker game does not work with OSver.ini global configured like this:

[global]
Enabled=1
Win7SuperVerFix=1
MajorVersion=6
MinorVersion=1
BuildNumber=7600
CSDVersion=Service Pack 1
PlatformID=2

Ok, so Tinker does in fact work with an osver.ini set like above. To get it to run without having to restore the Vista version or moving the file to the desktop, just add this line in:

[C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Games\Tinker\Tinker.exe]
Enabled=1

Save the file and then Tinker will open like normal with no complaints that it only works on Windows Vista Ultimate. Hopefully this helps people who want to run this game, but can't unless they either restore the Vista string or move the file to the desktop.

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On 6/21/2020 at 5:41 AM, win32 said:

I have now fixed the import calls and added K32EmptyWorkingSet. So about 26 more functions to go in kernel32!

OBS Studio 19.2.0 is mostly working now, but there are a few missing functions in MFPlat.dll (Media Foundation Platform), like MFTEnumEx (used to find video/audio decoders) and MFCreateMFByteStreamOnStream. While it picks up on audio, it doesn't record or show video and creates tiny (corrupt) files. Or it may be because it forces a D3D11 renderer and my DX10 native GPU doesn't seem to work very well with DX11 (Cities: Skylines is unplayably glitchy in D3D11 mode on Vista and 7 but fine in D3D9 mode on XP x64).

I think that the media foundation extensions will be fun, as I may even introduce the functions from Windows 8 as opposed to just the ones new to 7. That would mean adding stuff like Direct3D 11-based video APIs. Though adding DX11.1+ features will be pointless if the drivers available for Vista can't use them. And getting WDDM 1.1+ drivers on Vista is going to be one difficult undertaking, but probably easier than porting WDDM 1.0 drivers to XDDM (Windows 2000 Display Driver Model).

And I've found another limitation of LOCAL files. Programs don't like being debugged when redirection is taking place to files within folders; they throw a fault in StackHash_**** when trying to launch them through Dependency Walker. But if the same file is loaded from system32 as opposed to the program directory, with no redirection taking place, the program works (as well as possible) through Dependency Walker. So I thought about .manifest files, which give you the option to redirect only the files specified within them.

Here is an example of the contents of a manifest file used for DLL redirection:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes" ?>
<assembly xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1" manifestVersion="1.0">
    <assemblyIdentity version="1.0.0.0" name="redirector" type="win32" />
    <file name="kernel32.dll"> </file>
</assembly> 

But it appears that manifest files don't seem to help much in that regard. So I guess you will have to replace your system files with mine if you're planning on debugging programs using my files.

Once I get a wide array of programs working stable, I hope that you do one of your excellent videos about the kernel's capabilities. You create some great promotional tools for Vista, and this one will explore some uncharted territory for the OS.

On one last note, this isn't the only new kernel extension project that helps Vista users out:

The tutorial specifically mentions building for x86, but I built it in the Vista x64 build environment in the Windows 7 DDK, so it could help with certain classes of drivers. Will it help for modern GPU drivers? Not really. NVMe and USB 3? Sure.

 

MFTEnumEx is also required for the Roblox client (RobloxPlayerBeta.exe). The artificial software lock on the launcher (RobloxPlayerLauncher.exe) can easily be bypassed by your OS spoofer, but the client launches just fine (though it gets the MFTEnumEx error) with or without the OS spoofer as far as I've seen. Great work, by the way!

Edited by ffqq
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On 3/21/2022 at 11:52 PM, WinVistaFan2008 said:

Good evening, I was wondering how I could bypass this error. The application I tried to install was Camtasia 18.0 and I have the Windows Vista Extended kernel installed (v6).

Regards.

Capture.JPG

Use the OS version spoofer: 

 

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On 3/26/2022 at 8:50 AM, ffqq said:

MFTEnumEx is also required for the Roblox client (RobloxPlayerBeta.exe). The artificial software lock on the launcher (RobloxPlayerLauncher.exe) can easily be bypassed by your OS spoofer, but the client launches just fine (though it gets the MFTEnumEx error) without the OS spoofer as far as I've seen. Great work, by the way!

Hey, I did manage to get roblox studio (in like mid 2021) to start and run via stubbing a missing function with cff explorer (though i couldn't get client to start past a white screen) but chances are it is possible. though i haven't tried with later versions since then

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  • 3 weeks later...

Hi all ! One of the things that kept me alive on the Ukr. front is I had this dream to play MK11 on my Vista and GTX Titan X , so I literally ran straight to the PC and finally installed the latest (?) Kernel from November 2021 only to discover that several functions are still missing , very sad. 

GetThreadErrorMode

SetThreadErrorMode

K32GetModuleInformation

GetLogicalProcessorInformationEx

GetMaximumProcessorCount 

It also wanted numerous API-MS-WIN-xxxxxxx but I put them into the folder .

@win32, how are you , thanks.

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Some of these are implemented, on both 32 and 64 bit. But GetThreadErrorMode and GetMaximumProcessorCount are indeed lacking from at least one of the platforms.

GetLogicalProcessorInformationEx is somewhat buggy as well, but it has been fixed for a yet to be released update. This update will also simplify the version spoofing to remove the "VerFix/FirefoxFix" switches. You can simply use the regular MajorVersion/MinorVersion/BuildNumber values for the applications that would have used them.

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3 hours ago, win32 said:

but it has been fixed for a yet to be released update

Can you give us an approximate day/week?

I kinda need to reinstall vista on my main pc because some things got messed up and I want to know if it's worth to wait until the next update so  a second reinstall it's not needed (just to not shave another like 200gb of off my sdd's lifespan) 

also any news regarding steam compatibility? euro truck simulator 2 stopped working a few months ago and I think it's because it needs a newer version of steam (oct. 2020 is what I'm using) 

Edited by winvispixp
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16 hours ago, win32 said:

GetThreadErrorMode and GetMaximumProcessorCount are indeed lacking

Thanks ! Will they be added ? I observe many games started to ask for these two . Also, I think it's the game copy protection that wants K32GetModuleInformation . The game is a legal copy , so I guess it needs to be in the kernel for it to start. I tried to replace that function and now I get 0x0000142 error . CUESDK.x64_2015.dll is the file with copy protection tech. I noticed those K32 are very evil and glitchy.

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