OSDev.org

Archive.org: WinME-DOS-Patch.html

Here I have a patch that will enable again the capability of Windows Millenium to boot into pure DOS mode, which was removed from stock, seemingly while trying to add full Windows NT APIs and driver interfaces to Windows 9x. If it had been done within the expected release time for a new Windows version, today we would use Windows 9x with full NT capabilities and security, and it would be very useful (it still is but we need to learn how to extend the KernelEx library even further to turn Windows Millenium into Windows XP).

I understand that Windows Millenium is the last in the Windows 9x family of OS versions, so it has the best from Windows 95, 98 and 98SE, along with a series of incipient functions from Windows 2000 while trying to turn it into an NT-capable OS.

The only problem was that it was no longer able to boot into pure MS-DOS mode, but with this patch it's possible again.

This index webpage contains YouTube videos and the patches to improve Windows Millenium in its low level aspect of MS-DOS enabled at boot time.

It should be very useful for old hardware or for VirtualBox/Bochs/DOSBox/other emulators to perform low level tasks, as well as learning and extending the capabilities of Win9x, ideally up to full Windows NT APIs and to implement a compatibility layer for being able to use Windows XP drivers and maybe drivers from Windows 7.

With a VxD we could even emulate 64-bit mode and manage additional memory on our own beyond 1 or 2 Gigabytes, and being able to in theory run modern hardware and software, and make the Win9x platform more open source and increasingly the definitive 9x/NT/.NET/full Windows architecture (a good exercise for any developer, and the ideal WinAPI platform to develop at a serious professional level).

Why are you posting patches for Windows ME in the OS DEVELOPMENT part of the forum. Jesus, this isn't your personal website.

heat wrote:Why are you posting patches for Windows ME in the OS DEVELOPMENT part of the forum. Jesus, this isn't your personal website.

I'm following up what I'm doing, and I have abandoned the NT OSes like Windows XP for all my main low level development tasks. I have returned to Windows 9x, MS-DOS, FreeDOS and bare metal environments. DOS/Win9x is my main OS again until develop my OS to a level that is useful for everyday tasks. Until then, it would be unhealthy to keep quiet when it comes to information like the one I wrote in the original post here, as the poor OS development level achieved during and under Windows XP demonstrates. I'm favoring the talk about Windows in its 9x form, which is the ideal if we just want to build our own OS based in the original PC software and develop our own tools.

I know for a fact that it will make it much easier for lots of people to know this information and then being able again to easily perform any very low level tasks and still being under Windows. XP is too heavy and has too much restriction to the machine resources, So WinME is the last Windows that is ideal for OS development, mainly to program under assembly and play around with other fundamental aspects. Windows XP and later might be nice for web servers and for MinGW and any other modern libraries and tools that don't currently run under 9x (shouldn't be so forever), but why not simplify them and port them to pure DOS, and then to our own bare metal OS?

If you ever felt that programming your favorite projects under Windows 9x was easier and more productive than under Windows XP and later dates, then this will help you. Until there is a proper open source and compact GUI for MS-DOS, everything about Win9x and DOS will be necessary to become free from the hold over the machine imposed since Windows XP.

Also, I'm talking about learning how to use Win9x and XP drivers in a custom OS, even adding NT to 9x, so it will be necessary if people is to understand me in the long term.

So see the context I'm applying here:
- I need to load VxDs from DOS and my own OS fully on my own.
- I need to implement a GUI and full file manager/viewer for DOS.

With those goals set, we have an ideal low level development environment, without hardware access restrictions and with more and more components implemented by us starting from old OSes and software (an abandoned OS isn't such but instead it's a project that has reached the maximum that its latest milestone had to offer, so it's static yet ideal and still scalable).

So I need to talk about these details to achieve that low level development...