Windows 2000 NT6 installer

[GD 2W10]

This is a new project I am working on—Windows 2000 installation with NT6 setup. This is a prototype version of the project. Supposed to be the Windows 2000 equivalent to XP2ESD.

Hopefully this will eventually make it easier to install Windows 2000 and older NT versions on modern hardware by bypassing the textmode phase.

I have successfully installed this on my Dell Latitude 5490

Edited Tuesday at 04:04 AM by GD 2W10

[Start Me Up]

Is there some more information available or maybe a link to a project website?

[GD 2W10]

5 minutes ago, Start Me Up said:

Is there some more information available or maybe a link to a project website?

hopefully, that will be released soon. but this is more conceptual right now. 

https://github.com/2W10/2k_nt6installer 

[Start Me Up]

I had a look at your project and made a bit of experience, which I'd like to share.

 

trying it out

I tried the iso file by mounting it as a CD drive in a virtual machine (VirtualBox). I selected 64 MB of RAM, which is the minimum system requirement for Windows 2000 Professional, and then I booted from CD.

After a short moment of loading the installation greeted my with an error message complaining about the amount of system memory. Also, the message was in the wrong language and I had no ability to change the language. Attachment: memory.png

I turned off the virtual machine, increased the amount of memory to 128 MB, which is the minimum system requirement for Windows 2000 Server to Datacenter. But when booting again I was shown the same error message. So I increased the amount again to 256 MB with the same result. So I continued with 512 MB with the same result.

When I increased the amount to 1 024 MB the error message no longer appeared. Instead a black screen was shown for about 3 minutes with seemingly no disc activity. Attachment: black.png.

After these 3 minutes the screen turned to something colorful but again with seemingly no disc activity. Attachment: colorful.png

After 7 minutes in total I aborted the test.

Afterwards I increased the amount of memory to 1 536 MB and retried but ended up with the same results (3 minutes black screen then something colorful).

 

the documentation

I had a look at the documentation and was pleased to see that at least something exists. Missing documentation is unfortunately a problem with many projects. So I went through it and tried to learn something from it.

The documentation starts with claiming that it is a NT6.x installer, using the Window 10 setup to install Windows 2000. Well, Windows 10 is not NT6.x. Here is an overview of the Windows versions and their brand names:

Brand name|date of release|version|major version|minor version

• Windows 2000|December 1999|5.0|05|h|0|h
• Windows experience (XP) 32 Bit|August 2001|5.01|5|h|1|h
• Windows experience (XP) 64 Bit|?|5.02|5|h|2|h
• Windows Server 2003|March 2003|5.02|5|h|2|h
• Windows Server 2003 R2|?|5.02|5|h|2|h
• Windows Vista|January 2007|6.00 (build 6000)|6|h0|h
• Windows Server 2008|March 2008|6.00 (build 6001)|6|h|0|h
• Windows 7|October 2009|6.01 (build 7600)|6|h|1|h
• Windows Server 2008 R2|October 2009|6.01 (build 7600)|6|h|1|h
• Windows 8|?|6.02|6|h|2|h
• Windows Server 2012|?|6.02|6|h|2|h
• Windows 8.1|?|6.03|6|h|3|h
• Windows Server 2012 R2|?|6.03|6|h|3|h
• Windows 10|?|10.00|10|h|0|h
• Windows Server 2016|10.00|10|h|0|h

If your installer is really based on Windows Vista, it would explain, why it failed with the minimum system requirement regarding memory of Windows 2000. I did not check the system requirement of the processor, but Windows 2000 is fine with a Pentium processor - it does not need a Pentium Pro processor. Windows Vista will not work on a Pentium processor, as far as I know, but I haven't tested it and could be wrong.

 

Legal perspective

In your documentation you claim to distribute your project under the MIT license. The files in the iso, on the other hand, seem to be files from Microsoft which are covered by the EULA (not the MIT license).

And this brings legal issues regarding copyright. There are only very few countries (like Iran) where distributing files from Microsoft is legal. In some additional countries (like Germany) the distribution is legal, as long as it is done for a scientific purpose. However, when it is not for a scientific purpose (like the general distribution to end users after the beta test is done), then it is also illegal in these countries.

So this gets you in the situation, that you can work on your project but you cannot distribute anything to the general public. Which means, you are doing everything just for yourself. It will not serve the Windows 2000 community. As a matter of fact, as long as you keep yourself bussy with this project, you don't work on anything that will be helpful to anyone else. So if all you want to do is install Windows 2000 on a specific computer then just buy a cheap and compatible one on the second hand market. Use it to install Windows 2000 and then mount the hard disc in your favourite computer. It will save you a lot of time.

Maybe you could explain your plans about the legal issue if I misunderstood them.

 

Summary

The drastic increment of the system requirements make your installer less compatible than a vanilla Windows 2000 disc. Your installer might work for you and some other people which struggle to get through the first phase of the installation. I think it will be difficult to reduce the system requirements as long as you are using so much stuff that you haven't written yourself.

The legal issue is very hard to solve if you plan to ship Microsoft's property to end users. It looks as  if you are building a spider web. It it useless and you get caught in it. The more time you invest in this project the more difficult it will become for you to let go again and drop the project by coming to the conclusion that all your invested development time is wasted.

We had a similar discussion in the discord server a while ago. Some developers started to backport stuff from newer versions of Windows. I warned them about the issue that these files, once completed, could not be distributed to the general public. Folks continued with the backporting. After a while one of the developers involved wanted to announce the progress to the general public in the WinRaid forum (or whatever it is called). His post was quickly deleted. So he posted it here in the MSFN forum where the rules are not enforced so strictly. But still, it would have been much better, if all this precious development time went into something that doesn't need to be hidden somewhere.

In politics we have a similar situation with the project "Ukraine". The NATO spent billions and billions into project "Ukraine" and now that nearly everyone knows that the NATO lost the war, they just can't let go. They spend some more billions, send some more ammunition, send some more wonder weapons like the Panzerhaubitze 2000, the Challenger, the Himars, the Taurus. They try to keep Selensky in power for a bit longer but the war is lost. All their spendings are wasted and Ukraine is on the brink of bankruptcy, unable to pay back all the money they borrowed. But they just can't let go, because they spent so much into this project.

Edited yesterday at 07:53 AM by Start Me Up

[GD 2W10]

31 minutes ago, Start Me Up said:

I had a look at your project and made a bit of experience, which I'd like to share.

 

trying it out

---------------------

I tried the iso file by mounting it as a CD drive in a virtual machine (VirtualBox). I selected 64 MB of RAM, which is the minimum system requirement for Windows 2000 Professional, and then I booted from CD.

After a short moment of loading the installation greeted my with an error message complaining about the amount of system memory. Also, the message was in the wrong language and I had no ability to change the language. Attachment: memory.png

I turned off the virtual machine, increased the amount of memory to 128 MB, which is the minimum system requirement for Windows 2000 Server to Datacenter. But when booting again I was shown the same error message. So I increased the amount again to 256 MB with the same result. So I continued with 512 MB with the same result.

When I increased the amount to 1 024 MB the error message no longer appeared. Instead a black screen was shown for about 3 minutes with seemingly no disc activity. Attachment: black.png.

After these 3 minutes the screen turned to something colorful but again with seemingly no disc activity. Attachment: colorful.png

After 7 minutes in total I aborted the test.

Afterwards I increased the amount of memory to 1 536 MB and retried but ended up with the same results (3 minutes black screen then something colorful).

 

the documentation

-------------------------------

I had a look at the documentation and was pleased to see that at least something exists. Missing documentation is unfortunately a problem with many projects. So I when through it and tried to learn something from it.

The documentation starts with claiming that it is a NT6.x installer, using the Window 10 setup to install Windows 2000. Well, Windows 10 is not NT6.x. Here is an overview of the Windows versions and their brand names:

Brand name|date of release|version|major version|minor version

Windows 2000|December 1999|5.0|05|h|0|h

• Windows experience (XP) 32 Bit|August 2001|5.01|5|h|1|h
• Windows experience (XP) 64 Bit|?|5.02|5|h|2|h
• Windows Server 2003|March 2003|5.02|5|h|2|h
• Windows Server 2003 R2|?|5.02|5|h|2|h
• Windows Vista|January 2007|6.00 (build 6000)|6|h0|h
• Windows Server 2008|March 2008|6.00 (build 6001)|6|h|0|h
• Windows 7|October 2009|6.01 (build 7600)|6|h|1|h
• Windows Server 2008 R2|October 2009|6.01 (build 7600)|6|h|1|h
• Windows 8|?|6.02|6|h|2|h
• Windows Server 2012|?|6.02|6|h|2|h
• Windows 8.1|?|6.03|6|h|3|h
• Windows Server 2012 R2|?|6.03|6|h|3|h
• Windows 10|?|10.00|10|h|0|h
• Windows Server 2016|10.00|10|h|0|h

If your installer is really based on Windows Vista, it would explain, why it failed with the minimum system requirement regarding memory of Windows 2000. I did not check the system requirement of the processor, but Windows 2000 is fine with a Pentium processor - it does not need a Pentium Pro processor. Windows Vista will not work on a Pentium processor, as far as I know, but I haven't tested it and could be wrong.

 

Legal perspective

-------------------------------

In your documentation you claim to distribute your project under the MIT license. The files in the iso, on the other hand, seem to be files from Microsoft which are covered by the EULA (not the MIT license).

And this brings legal issues regarding copyright. There are only very few countries (like Iran) where distributing files from Microsoft is legal. In some additional countries (like Germany) the distribution is legal, as long as it is done for a scientific purpose. However, when it is not for a scientific purpose (like the general distribution to end users after the beta test is done), then it is also illegal in these countries.

So this gets you in the situation, that you can work on your project but you cannot distribute anything to the general public. Which means, you are doing everything just for yourself. It will not serve the Windows 2000 community. As a matter of fact, as long as you keep yourself bussy with this project, you don't work on anything that will be helpful to anyone else. So if all you want to do is install Windows 2000 on a specific computer then just buy a cheap and compatible one on the second hand market. Use it to install Windows 2000 and then mount the hard disc in your favourite computer. It will save you a lot of time.

Maybe you could explain your plans about the legal issue if I misunderstood them.

 

Summary

-----------------

The drastic increment of the system requirements make your installer less compatible than a vanilla Windows 2000 disc. Your installer might work for you and some other people which struggle to get through the first phase of the installation. I think it will be difficult to reduce the system requirements as long as you are using so much stuff that you haven't written yourself.

The legal issue is very hard to solve if you plan to ship Microsoft's property to end users. It looks as you are builting a spider web. It it useless and you get caught in it. The more time you invest in this project the more difficult it will become for you to let go again and drop the project by coming to the conclusion that all your invested development time is wasted.

We had a similar discussion in the discord server a while ago. Some developers started to backport stuff from newer versions of Windows. I warned them about the issue that these files, once completed, could not be distributed to the general public. Folks continued with the backporting. After a while one of the developers involved wanted to announce the progress to the general public in the WinRaid forum (or whatever it is called). His post was quickly deleted. So he posted it here in the MSFN forum where the rules are not enforced so strictly. But still, it would have been much better, if all this precious development time went into something that doesn't need to be hidden somewhere.

In politics we have a similar situation with the project "Ukraine". The NATO spent billions and billions into project "Ukraine" and now that nearly everyone knows that the NATO lost the war, they just can't let go. They spend some more billions, send some more ammunition, send some more wonder weapons like the Panzerhaubitze 2000, the Challenger, the Himars, the Taurus. They try to keep Selensky in power for a bit longer but the war is lost. All their spendings are wasted and Ukraine is on the brink of bankruptcy, unable to pay back all the money they borrowed. But they just can't let go, because they spent so much into this project.

Thank you for your response!

1.  You're completely right, Windows 10 is not NT 6.x, but the modern setup environment (including boot.wim, winpe, and setup.exe) is an evolution of the Vista-era NT 6.0 base, and has remained the same until recent builds of Windows 11. What this project really uses is the Windows PE-based setup engine, which was introduced in NT 6.0 and maintained with minor changes through NT 10.0. That said, I can see how "NT 6" is misleading, I can correct it and call it "NT 6.x installer". I see you tried to boot the ISO with the normal requirements for Windows 2000. This isn’t optimized yet for low-spec VMs or retro hardware — the project’s early-stage focus is more about experimentation and concept testing on modern machines. If you can't run the Windows 10 setup, you can most likely run the Windows 2000 setup, and the point is to provide a solution for machines that cannot run Windows NT textmode setups.

2. Excellent point on the MIT license thing. Including Microsoft binaries and pairing it with the MIT license is a contradiction — and legally problematic. This project is not meant to distribute Microsoft files, and you're right: unless it's for educational, archival, or scientific purposes (and in very narrow jurisdictions), distributing ISOs with proprietary content is not permissible. I'll remove the MIT license reference and publicly take down the binaries, and eventually publish scripts, guides, and modular code, letting users supply their own legitimate installation media, similar to XP2ESD. Also, this project is very conceptual and is in early stages of development, so obviously, there will be issues. It is not reliable at the moment.

3. This project isn’t intended to replace classic setups on period-correct hardware. Instead, it’s more of a "what if?" experimental framework. It is mainly to examine what is possible with the Windows setup and older versions of Windows NT. It’s like a bridge — not perfect, not necessary for everyone, but potentially helpful for modern experimentation, VHD deployment, archival prep, and dual-boot tinkering. I am merely testing what is possible and what is not possible.

4. You make a valid philosophical point about time investment. But I’d argue that learning, tinkering, and creating tools — even limited ones — is never wasted time. If this becomes a dead end, I’ll pivot or open-source any reusable tools. If it helps just a few people revive, mod, or preserve NT-based systems, I’d say it’s worth it. I am just doing this for fun honestly.

I appreciate your review! Thanks for the advice on the licensing, I did not know that.

Edited Wednesday at 10:40 PM by GD 2W10