[WIP] Windows Vista Extended Kernel

[win32]

8 hours ago, Dixel said:

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 .

I think you're talking about the NVIDIA HD audio drivers. I don't use that stuff, but perhaps I can look into them and see if there are any Vista-specific blocks. What specific driver version are you using (Vista and 7)?

Edited November 1, 2020 by win32

[Dixel]

15 hours ago, win32 said:

I think you're talking about the NVIDIA HD audio drivers. I don't use that stuff, but perhaps I can look into them and see if there are any Vista-specific blocks. What specific driver version are you using (Vista and 7)?

Hi, yes , HD audio (bypass through HDMI to receiver). I've tried all drivers starting from May 2013 and up to 372.70.

Right now I have 344.60 installed and will leave it be for some time. I've tried almost all available drivers using  

both Vista and 7  - the result is the same, no DTS HD MA with Vista , could this be an artificial block

which happens upon the installation ? Maybe the installer writing smth to the registry ? I'm just guessing ... 

If I check with with the panel "playback devices/supported formats" , there are only DTS and DD5.1,

so I tried to add registry entries from W7 , now it says DTS-HD also , but it doesn't help to bypass the sound.

All Video players I've tried still force DTS HD to be played as usual DTS.   

I remember there was a similar problem with XP , it had limitations to support "DTS stereo" only . 

I'm not sure who to blame , Nvidia clearly says DTS HD MA is available with GTX780.

 

 

[win32]

I couldn't find any version checks in any of the NVIDIA HDA files. But I did notice that there are two different HDA drivers, nvhda64.sys and nvhda64v.sys. Which one do you have? Mind you, Vista and 7 should both use nvhda64v.sys. Though there were apparently differences at the registry level so I'd think there would be differences in what the inf puts in the registry on Vista and 7 but I couldn't find any either. Only different configs for XP/2003, 7/Vista/8, and 8.1.

Edited November 2, 2020 by win32

[Dixel]

3 hours ago, win32 said:

I couldn't find any version checks in any of the NVIDIA HDA files. But I did notice that there are two different HDA drivers, nvhda64.sys and nvhda64v.sys. Which one do you have?

I have nvhda64v.sys. Okay , could this be the system's own limitation ? Something in the ksthunk.sys ? When I open the device manager , it says ksthunk.sys and  nvhda64v.sys are the drivers for Nvidia HD audio. Also , forgot to mention , TrueHD is not available too , but I don't care about it since I don't like how it sounds , I only need DTS HD MA.

Edited November 2, 2020 by Dixel

[win32]

2 hours ago, k24a1 said:

Among Us v2020.10.22s does not work. KERNEL32 is missing GetLogicalProcessorInformationEx. Would it be possible to add more of these functions?

Sure! I'm always on the lookout for new, useful functions to add to the extended kernel (x64 in most cases).

11 hours ago, Dixel said:

Okay , could this be the system's own limitation ? Something in the ksthunk.sys ? When I open the device manager , it says ksthunk.sys and  nvhda64v.sys are the drivers for Nvidia HD audio. Also , forgot to mention , TrueHD is not available too , but I don't care about it since I don't like how it sounds , I only need DTS HD MA.

ksthunk.sys doesn't seem to have changed much between Vista and 7 (it would be perfectly possible to use the 7 version in Vista), if at all. Apparently most of the work done in it and associated ks.sys was done for the introduction of WDM drivers with Windows 98 (95 OSR 2.1)/2000.

Edited November 3, 2020 by win32

[gerona12]

I using VistaExKernel new version, MS Office 2016 no run.

[Dixel]

10 hours ago, win32 said:

ksthunk.sys doesn't seem to have changed much between Vista and 7 (it would be perfectly possible to use the 7 version in Vista), if at all. Apparently most of the work done in it and associated ks.sys was done for the introduction of WDM drivers with Windows 98 (95 OSR 2.1)/2000.

Hi , so if it's not much changed , it makes no sense to replace it, right ? I'm just afraid of replacing Vista's files , because the sound might get worse overall .

One of the reasons I reject all later windows - awful sound quality . Could this be DRM related ? Yet again , the same problem exists in XP (only DTS stereo avaible).

What I did today : I've found an updated SP2 ISO (to December 2015). Should be much newer than Win7 RTM 2009 , right ? ))

So I installed it ... and guess what - all the same ! Then I took a long breath and installed it on my friend's similar hardware , same too.

Then I added  "playback devices/supported formats" , registry entries from W7 , now it lets me choose DTS-HD and TrueHD  , 

then I installed PowerDVD and it also lets me choose "HD uncompressed audio" in it's settings , but as soon as I start to play

DTS-HD file , it reverts to ordinary bypass setting, I mean DTS (not HD). So one can safely assume : it has nothing to do with

updates and/or "playback devices/supported formats" settings , it's a much deeper problem, perhaps Vista isn't capable of

playing HD audio at all ,which I find strange.  I also find a bit strange that no info could be found ...

Edit:

Also, not a hardware problem (definitely)

Edited November 3, 2020 by Dixel

[Dixel]

Compared W7 to Vista HD drivers , W7 has more ot them (6 to be precise).

drmk.sys (DRM related ?)

ksthunk.sys

nvhda64v.sys

portcls.sys

nvhdagenco6420103.dll 

nvhdap64.dll

Ans Vista has only two:

ksthunk.sys

nvhda64v.sys

[asdf2345]

37 minutes ago, Dixel said:

Compared W7 to Vista HD drivers , W7 has more ot them (6 to be precise).

drmk.sys (DRM related ?)

ksthunk.sys

nvhda64v.sys

portcls.sys

nvhdagenco6420103.dll 

nvhdap64.dll

Ans Vista has only two:

ksthunk.sys

nvhda64v.sys

I think Vista has it's own portcls.sys, but you can check if your Vista install has it

[Dixel]

3 hours ago, asdf2345 said:

I think Vista has it's own portcls.sys, but you can check if your Vista install has it

Yes, you're right , indeed. Though Vista's device manager says only ksthunk.sys and nvhda64v.sys are being used for HD audio.

In my previous posts I wrote about not being able to play any HD audiotracks using Vista SP2 (bypass thru HDMI) , 

it allows bypass for DTS / DD5.1 only. Weird , right ?

[Win10-Hater]

On 11/3/2020 at 3:37 PM, gerona12 said:

I using VistaExKernel new version, MS Office 2016 no run.

Office 2016 is a native x86 application suite which currently does not work with Vista as the x86 kernel extension has very few NT 6.1+ functions currently added to it. Only native x64 apps work with the extended kernel as of now. But don't lose hope as win32 is working on adding these functions in the near future.

[Tripredacus]

3 hours ago, TECHGEEK said:

Office 2016 is a native x86 application suite

Office 2016 can be either x86 or x64, it depends on which way it is installed.

[Win10-Hater]

18 hours ago, Tripredacus said:

Office 2016 can be either x86 or x64, it depends on which way it is installed.

Yes, but what I meant was, MS Office (all versions) is a native x86 application suite and the "x64" edition just modifies some DLL's to optimise it for x64-based systems, which makes it currently impossible to run it on Vista extended kernel. It is not purely x64 in nature.

Edited November 10, 2020 by TECHGEEK

[Ximonite]

6 hours ago, TECHGEEK said:

Yes, but what I meant was, MS Office (all versions) is a native x86 application suite and the "x64" edition just modifies some DLL's to optimise it for x64-based systems, which makes it currently impossible to run it on Vista extended kernel. It is not purely x64 in nature.

There is a native x64 version of Office 365.

[win32]

I believe that x64 binaries have been available for Office since 2010. If he were trying to run the x86 version, then it would have been asking for a lot more than SetWaitableTimerEx in kernel32.

Edited November 10, 2020 by win32