(PROGRESS/REQUESTING HELP) MK3-8 Unconventional Merging of SSWPI and Longhorn

Having lost many of my projects in similar fashions (Corruption and overwriting), all I can recommend is that you instead make a script that builds the Franken OS directly for you from a Longhorn OS and a LastXP OS source with folder overlays used to place over the top to finalize the process, then share publicly (using Google Drives, torrents or even some FTP space here if you wanted) the builder or the whole project with sources if you really want to be safe.

Even if you can recover the list of files (content) of the ISO it would be useful to recreate the end results you had. or maybe a VM you installed it to - anything at all that has remnants of your project.

The other advice which you no doubt have learnt is NEVER work over the top of a milestone you hit.. instead make a Offline backup copy and then continue working over it with a version increase.

So I am saying you will most likely be out of luck, but if you still have the desire to make this OS, give it one last hurrah and use the skills you obviously have to achieve something which I think sounds very interesting. Longhorn was a better OS than Vista in many areas, but they did pick up most of the features in Windows 7, so I never thought to pick it up again.

One other things I would have recommended was use a file recovery tool to scan for previous version of the ISO or with a different name - UltraISO for example keeps a ubak file when you re-save your ISO then I delete that after verifying my new ISO is corruption free, I would in theory be able to use Recuva or Easy Recovery 11 to scan for those deleted file(s) to build up a new one.


Sorry for your loss, do you have any screen shots that you've kept/shared anywhere else that you could also post?

 

Take my advice - share your work so it can be kept safe by other modders (who will also appreciate your Frankenstein monster), You did get me very interested in seeing it

If not, just keep your baby safe, share a few pics of it in action once you're happy please.

 

Yeah, only the GUI part of XP Setup was worth modding, I know some people hacked the Text and some managed to make it green instead of blue... but why bother for the few seconds it's seen

EasyBoot by EZB Systems:
https://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/easyboot.html

If you grab that you should be able to modify it from being LastXP to LongestHorn Windows

 

It won't download (0 Seeds detected)

Also, 45gig's is HUGE, My entire build folder for LastXP was only 13GB and windows 10 is only 25GB with the LivePE stuff... Either you have the kitchen sink in with it or you really should share a compressed version, I doubt I will be able to download such a large file within the week and I have my main OS to install to test my Last20 build I am doing

Maybe strip it down to just your boot, OS, Hiren's and only the essential apps... no games at all are needed for me to test/see

 

it's saying 0 seeds but downloading off someone who has 0%, so it might work

-EDIT-

I reinstalled and now it wont resume... sorry still don't have it

 

Thank you, that was MUCH quicker, I'll need to test it tomorrow as I am still configuring my fresh OS, I'll let you know how it all goes for me.

Oh and the power keeps going off here (don't know why), so I might need to grab it tomorrow if my PC shuts down again (would be the 4th time)

-EDIT-

Damn it, did again, also my net seems to be capped at <80kb/s tonight, maybe a bunch of people are watching netflix for V Day or maybe related to power problems.

 

Downloaded ISO, time to play

-EDIT-

Seems to be stuck on 7 Minutes remaining - Saving settings, maybe not as compatible with newest VirtualBox??

-EDIT-

Reboot-resume fixed it.

-EDIT-

This is an evaluation copy of windows - check the time and date are correct

-EDIT-

Well that's long horn alright, I don't know enough about it to know why it's better than XP, we managed to get the newer Sidebar from Vista working in Regular XP and a form of Aero plus themes/skins. What I am asking is where are the benefits over just using XP... I know of one straight away - less virus's targeting it and still XP compatible, but if it were to become popular, one Network Virus and it's done for.

The My Computer content is the weirdest looking layout I've ever seen.



I would be able to get the LastXP tools to auto start, I'd just have to remember how, on a good note, SetupS installs and works - except the fadertainer doesn't work right without the drivers/hardware.

-EDIT-

ssWPI v20 fails to work on it, mentions a missing kernel call, I'd imagine it would require the VB6 version to work. Settings v20 also is the same.

-EDIT-



Overall this is what I was afraid of happening, None of the tools are stable and I imagine being a Beta only OS it will be like that for most use cases, I am not sure if it would be usable as a daily OS, only really something fun to tinker with - but that is what Linux is for Ironically telling Microsoft about this bug is as useless now as it was back then.



he he he - makes me wonder who got the report and if they will read it

@The Freezer - The SetupS's LastXP icons in Longhorn 4011 Start menu's are working perfect.

 

"Settings v20" doesn't execute, meaning all Xojo compiled apps will not work, RealStudio may work in it, but most of the features I use in ssWPI wont compile in that, settings should if your interested in updating to it tho.

I loved Hirens back in the XP days and before UEFI came along and I would probably use it again in my Win 7 and above OS's, I mean Hirens is the reason I found "Parted Magic" and was able to recover my whole HDD a month or two ago.

But the march of time is moving on (and it gets faster with every day you age), I have no desire anymore to repair a OS or could I ever trust one again after it's been infected by a virus/malware/ransomware, so NONE of the tools (except image/backup, Data/HDD recovery, Boot repair and Account/password Unlocking/Bypassing) are of value to me anymore, I would rather take 4 to 12 minutes to restore a backed up image of the OS (as all my Data is stored on a separate partition/HDD's), and as newer OS keep coming out, I would rather spend 20 to 40 minutes installing a fresh one than sticking with older OS's, most of everything I do on PC's uses the browser now and judging by the Streaming services and online/365 tools it's only a matter of time before the rest do, Cloud storage works out much cheaper that you'd think (a LOT less than buying local storage, except for large projects/collections), devices/projects are going portable and touch based, high security and able to share or interact with others in realtime.

I am sorry but I don't see myself working on this project, I will get SetupS and the older ssWPI/Settings to work like they do in LastXP if you want help with it, but i have no plans to use this project myself on anything more than VM's in my limited spare time. The world has moved on from the old ways and although there is some users/use cases where I can see older OS's being needed by people, I have a harder time recommending them than recommending people to simply installing a Linux variant (which in many cases now supports all XP hardware/apps and many even up to Windows 10). In other words I have modded all the OS's and the only one that ever have a user base above 1000 are the current ones, you will get even more people installing them if they look pretty/different - which during my and Trouba's own testing, actually slow down how quickly any users can use their desktop, you don't recognize the icons, you forget about the new features and fall back to your old ways and get annoyed when things are different, the flow of using a PC is much more important to me than anything more than a pretty wallpapers/lock screens and setting the accent colors. As I like to protect my eyes and getting to sleep I also love dark mode interfaces, regardless of all the themeing you do in any OS's other than Linux or Windows 10, you will have glitches when trying to use dark themes due to it expecting black text to be readable on any surface... it not

So as you can see, I have thought lots about my reasons and unless I can see a personal purpose, I don't have the time at this stage in my life to get into the depths I would need for a major project like this (LastXP took me between 8 to 16 hours a day, everyday for 8 years to get it to the stage it was at by LastXP v22 and SOX), I released all my information, builders, scripts, source code and offered to train people to use it all, I taught 4 people how to use the various tools and many of them are the team of LastOS now or Soporific (who stuck to XP to the very end before sticking with Windows 7 to it's end (he just got back in touch recently). So the only reason for me to be involved is to help out a fellow modder who seems keen to see a project through and needs a few pointers to integrate some ideas/tools I have helped create in the past. That said, just tell me what you need and we'll see about getting you the information for it to happen.

Thanks for sharing your work, I appreciate the time involved in getting a mod to boot/install without a show stopping bug, so keep at it and your welcome to use any of the tools available here for any OS mods you want to work on in the future.

 

It's not that, I just haven't touched XP (apart from installing VM's to test things), so I've forgotten all the skills I had from back then, I don't remember how I got the t13 tools to run etc, I'll need to go through my old source code first. So wont be as quick as if you'd asked me 10 years ago

 

Ignore the below code section (it's information on how still), that is how I was doing it in XP, Longhorn has moved Setup.exe into C:\Windows\system32\oobe\setup.exe, so I am making an overlay for your ISO (using the tricks below but added to the correct folders). I noticed you included the full setup in the XPP1 and XPP2 folders, it is meant to be able to use the \XPPro\i386 folder for most of the files, I've not tested with Longhorn tho. Anyway, I'll share the ISO overlay once complete, first attempt failed, I am thinking it's due to it not forwarding to the XPPro folder so I'll place that file in the XPP1 and XPP2 and try again.

Code:

change \XPPro\i386\Setup.exe to \XPPro\i386\Setuporg.exe (if it's a .EX_ then use 7zip to extract the .exe first)
Include new Setup.exe in each of these folders:
\XPP1\
\XPP2\
\XPPro\i386\ 

Include presetup.cmd in the \XPPro\i386\ folder, this is the script that runs before the real setup starts
The Setup.exe is one I compiled in vb6 - source code available
\XPP1\WINNT.SIF
\XPP2\WINNT.SIF
\XPPro\i386\WINNT.SIF <- this needs to be edited to automate the actual Longhorn installation (keys updated etc), if possible.

Edit:
\XPP1\TXTSETUP.SIF
* under this header:-
[SourceDisksFiles]
* above 3ware95k.sys line (Search for it, it's the first .sys file listed, not in Longhorn sorry) paste the following:-
InstDvr.bmp= 1,,,,,,,2,0,0
setuporg.exe= 1,,,,,,,2,0,0
presetup.cmd= 1,,,,,,,2,0,0
usbboot.inf= 1,,,,,,_x,3,,3

 - NOT SURE about the usbboot.inf  and the BMP being included, but to boot from USB it may be needed.

Have you actullay managed to integrate boot drivers into XPP2??? or are they identicle to XPP1?

BTW pressing Shift+F10 during Windows XP style setups will open a command prompt so you can play arround.

-EDIT-

It failed to self start again, still tinkering with it, but I was able to run PreSetup.cmd using Shift+f10 and all the LastXP stuff ran, even though it look bad due to being 640x480 instead of 1024x768 like the winnt.sif is meant to set.
I'll include the attachment so you can play, but I am not sure I am able to replace the setup.exe, which means it can not run and then call the real setup.exe, You can try, I have some other things to work on today (My actual PC is running bad due to miss-tweaked fresh install).