Can I use WDMEX for installing Windows XP driver on W9x?

[arepakiller]

I got a issue here, I want to install a NVidia GeForce Go 6150 graphics driver, but there is no official support for W9x, the one that worked and flawlessly was an individual package for a DV9000 for XP. If I extract the contents of the self installer, can I use WDMEX for installing those drivers? Otherwise, iff you have extra ideas on how to make the drivers work on W98 I can die happy and just rock my old laptop.

[LoneCrusader]

Short answer; No.

Despite the fact that some WDM (.SYS) drivers are supported under 9x, as far as I know, video drivers MUST be .VXD type drivers under 9x. I read that somewhere years ago, but I no longer remember the source.

However; to be perfectly honest I don't know if it has ever been tried. We worked on HDAudio and USB3 drivers without any success, but never video.

This is a very deep rabbit hole... I don't recommend such an experiment for most average users.

For the record however, so that anyone else who ends up reading this will know: first (UNDER 9x, NOT NT!) run Walter Oney's WDMCHECK utility or rloew's DISPPE32 on the 2K/XP driver you wish to load and see which WDM functions are missing. Then you must load WDMEX and repeat the same process again to see if all functions are satisfied. If they are, then there may be hope, and one must proceed to INF modification. If not, then you're probably out of luck unless someone else who knows how to expand WDMEX comes along.

... And if you're already lost, or can't figure out how to use those two tools, then you're in over your head.

[pangoomis]

On 9/6/2020 at 10:31 AM, LoneCrusader said:

Despite the fact that some WDM (.SYS) drivers are supported under 9x, as far as I know, video drivers MUST be .VXD type drivers under 9x. I read that somewhere years ago, but I no longer remember the source.

That source might have been me 

Although it is probably incorrect, as I got VBEMP working with its .VXD file totally removed, leaving just the .DRV file.

So it must have at the very least a .DRV file, not necessarily a .VXD file. I think the .DRV file is what is displayed in details in the Device Manager for a GPU.

[LoneCrusader]

On 9/7/2020 at 9:20 PM, MrMateczko said:

That source might have been me 

Although it is probably incorrect, as I got VBEMP working with its .VXD file totally removed, leaving just the .DRV file.

So it must have at the very least a .DRV file, not necessarily a .VXD file. I think the .DRV file is what is displayed in details in the Device Manager for a GPU.

I believe I read it on a website somewhere, not on a forum... I thought it was MDGx's site, but I think I was unable to find any such reference there whenever I last checked (but I no longer remember when that was, or how thorough my search was...); possibly it came from a site linked from his??

Interesting about VBEMP... I suppose experiments with .SYS video drivers might be in order if anyone has the time and hardware to experiment... a good first experiment might be to attempt to use a Win2K-compatible .SYS driver for a video card that we already know works under 9x with the proper 9x driver... such as a Radeon 9xxx series or an nVidia 5xxx/6xxx series card.

[ABCDEFG]

Quote

To remain compatible with existing programs, Windows 95 supports the use of the following drivers.

1. MS-DOS real mode (*.SYS)
2. Real mode Windows (usually listed in SYSTEM.INI, *.DRV)
3. Protected mode Windows (virtual drivers - *.VXD or *.386)

http://www.cwdixon.com/support/win98_support/device_drivers.htm

[RainyShadow]

2 hours ago, ABCDEFG said:

To remain compatible with existing programs, Windows 95 supports the use of the following drivers.

1. MS-DOS real mode (*.SYS)
2. Real mode Windows (usually listed in SYSTEM.INI, *.DRV)
3. Protected mode Windows (virtual drivers - *.VXD or *.386)

There is real mode *.SYS, then there is protected mode *.SYS ...

Check a Win10 install and see for yourself :P

[ABCDEFG]

This was about 9x non-WDM drivers.

There are several versions of the WDM.

First partial implementation was included in Win95 OSR2.1.

WDM versions:

Windows 98: 1.0
Windows Me: 1.05
Windows 2000: 1.10

Drivers for WDM v1.1 are usually incompatible with older versions because older WDM have no support for many features, like using MMX or SSE instructions

or Hardware Acceleration (except for Sound in Win98SE)...