xpize 5 Beta 2, this time it's public Options

[W3bbo]

Here comes along xpize 5. The first xpize with full SP3 compatibility (actually, it only supports SP3. So those of you on SP1 and SP2 had better upgrade).

This beta is the first (almost) feature complete release that includes almost everything XPize 4.7 does with a few notable exceptions (but there are a few things in this release that aren't in 4.7). There's also a large chunk that's missing from the final release later this spring or summer:

• Missing from this release that was in XPize 4.7
  • WinRAR and eMule application skins
  • Some visual styles (but Royale and "Luna Royale" are included in this one)
  • Updated file type icons for mp3s, pdfs, etc
  • TaskSwitchXP
  • I386 patching
  • Uninstalling (sorry!)
• New in this release
  • Widescreen boot screen option (currently buggy though)
  • Changes to the logon screen environment
  • 30% faster than XIS installer with 100% managed code base (GPL too!)
  • SP3 UxTheme support
• Missing from this release that will be in the final
  • Everything that was in 4.7 but currently missing (i.e. see above)
  • IE8 resources
  • Luna Element and Luna Blue resources
  • Luna Element (and possibly Watercolor Emico) visual styles
  • x64 support (that includes full NT5.2 support)
  • Fully skinned and customized all-in-one installer.
  • I386 patching
  • Uninstalling

Take note: the lack of uninstallation support makes this a feature-incomplete beta. xpize 5 shouldn't break your system such that you'd need to uninstall it, and System Restore support is there.

I've also made a youtube video showing how relatively painless the installation process is. Here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOZYWBV_s9Q

Also, news on the Vize front: whilst I have three Windows Server 2008 x64 boxes churning away (one of which serves the xpize and Vize websites) I don't have any non-VM Vista environments to develop Vize 2 against. If anyone would like to assist me with developing Vize it would be greatly appreciated.

Downloads:

• xpize 5 Beta 2 Anolis Package (*.anop) file
• Anolis Installer 0.8

Take care,
David

This post has been edited by W3bbo: May 4 2009, 06:38 PM

[ricktendo64]

i386 patching yay

[hood]

thanx a lot. install w/o problem. i think i would be good if u add in release of XPize some thin styles 4 netbook support.

This post has been edited by hood: May 4 2009, 06:40 PM

[W3bbo]

thanx a lot. install w/o problem. i think i would be good if u add in release of XPize some thin styles 4 netbook support.

What's that? An installation of mine went by without problems?

I think you're in the wrong parallel universe, hood. People complain about my software erasing their harddrives and sacrificing their kittens to the elder-god Cthulhu almost every day via the contact form on my website.

This post has been edited by W3bbo: May 4 2009, 06:50 PM

[ricktendo64]

Can I make a request?

Add the msiexec.exe icon to msi.dll to update this icon



Also missed these bitmaps in shell32.dll

[manikant]

Thanks,

Was waiting for this release.

[clavicle]

Wonderful! Thanks.

[hood]

i have a BSOD 2 times after install (((

thanx a lot. install w/o problem. i think i would be good if u add in release of XPize some thin styles 4 netbook support.

What's that? An installation of mine went by without problems?

I think you're in the wrong parallel universe, hood. People complain about my software erasing their harddrives and sacrificing their kittens to the elder-god Cthulhu almost every day via the contact form on my website.

yeah i mean that - without problems. t think that people that complain u have wrong pair of hand in they body and sick state of mind. btw thanx great Cthulhu )

This post has been edited by hood: May 4 2009, 10:14 PM

[lucanasci]

Also missed these bitmaps in shell32.dll

Yes i can confirm that too. For the rest it's very good! Thank you for the work

[W3bbo]

Also missed these bitmaps in shell32.dll

Yes i can confirm that too. For the rest it's very good! Thank you for the work

I'll need to look into that. Can you confirm the bitmap is in shell32?

What's the Install Language of your OS?

[Smiley89]

Nice, downloaded and installed a few hours ago.

All seems to work properly. My first impression is absolutely positive!

Nice work!

[ricktendo64]

My install language is Spanish and the names of my bitmaps in shell32.dll (v6.0.2900.5753 - KB960253) are:

CODE

14351.bmp
14353.bmp
14354.bmp
14355.bmp
14356.bmp

BTW how about doing some .scr files like I requested here?

This post has been edited by ricktendo64: May 5 2009, 09:11 AM

[W3bbo]

My install language is Spanish and the names of my bitmaps in shell32.dll (v6.0.2900.5753 - KB960253) are:

CODE

14351.bmp
14353.bmp
14354.bmp
14355.bmp
14356.bmp

BTW how about doing some .scr files like I requested here?

Hmm, I think I missed those bitmaps out (whoops), but can you confirm that the Shutdown selection screen has the new background image?

As for those *.scr icons, I'll look into it, but looks doable.

[ricktendo64]

msgina.dll bitmaps (shutdown dialog) is fine, only the shell32.dll bitmaps (wait dialog and logoff dialog) are the problem

This post has been edited by ricktendo64: May 5 2009, 01:38 PM

[W3bbo]

msgina.dll bitmaps (shutdown dialog) is fine, only the shell32.dll bitmaps (wait dialog and logoff dialog) are the problem

Gotcha.

I'll see if I can come out with a later release this month. It won't be the final release but it'll be close.... in terms of resource-related features. Implementing I386 and Uninstallation support will be a long coding job.

On the technical side, I think I'll copy XPero's approach of manually Shell()-invoking the expand and makecab executables included in Windows since there aren't any fully managed CAB libraries furthermore: why fix something that isn't broken?

Implementing uninstallation may or may not be trivial, it depends. Implementing a backup procedure is easy, but I can't implement it until I know how I'll restore the system state afterwards.

Nonetheless, spread the word around

[9898]

Looking forward to the offical XPize 5 release. Just wondering if it could be possible to update the Log Off & Turn Off Computer icons in the start menu under "Windows Classic Style"? See attached image.

 Start_Menu_in_Windows_Classic_Style.JPG ( 29.89K ) Number of downloads: 15

[W3bbo]

Looking forward to the offical XPize 5 release. Just wondering if it could be possible to update the Log Off & Turn Off Computer icons in the start menu under "Windows Classic Style"? See attached image.

Hmm, that's a tricky one. The images for those buttons are resources 7010 and 7011 in explorer.exe and those are replaced by xpize 5 Beta 2.

Can you fire up Resourcer and open up explorer.exe and tell me of the state of bitmaps 7010 and 7011?

thanks

[9898]

Never mind. I was in the process of manipulating files and I guess I goobered it up. I was using the standard WinXP style at the time. I switched it to Windows Classic style, reran XPize and all is good. I blame myself for this one. Thanks for the rapid response.

Any chance of updating the Windows Defender icons to the green forward/back arrow buttons as was in XPize Darkside or do I still have a problem on my end?

Thanks again.

[W3bbo]

Any chance of updating the Windows Defender icons to the green forward/back arrow buttons as was in XPize Darkside or do I still have a problem on my end?

XPize Darkside (made by Zedox, not XPero nor me) patches some more files not present in vanilla XPize 4.x. Seeming as Zedox has done all the hard work for me I can easily include it in xpize 5.

Zedox hasn't updated XPize Darkside since 2007, I'll email him and ask him if I can include his stuff in xpize 5 (not that I'd need permission: most of the changes he made were XPero's "MCE Blue"-themed bitmaps replaced with black ones which is nothing I can't do myself right now, but it would be rendering his product obsolete

I've long been planning to combine the Luna Element and Luna Blue XPize "mod" resources with the main product, but adding the black MCE theme (aka Darkside) would push up the size of the download by at least another 7MB or so. For those of you on broadband this isn't an issue, but I've got my own bandwidth bills to pay[1] and there are a people still on dial-up where an extra 7MB means another 40 minutes downloading.

[1]xpize.net consumes about 70GB a month since I removed the links to mirrors (which were all broken) and self-hosted the files. There were 28,885 requests for XPize47F1.exe (XPize 4.7 Full, Release 1) in April 2009. But it only consumed about 44GB which means there were a maximum of 5,400 full downloads; this means roughly 18% of people who started a download actually finished it. I don't have any statistics on how many people completed an installation.

I'm tempted to add a reporting feature to Anolis Installer where it would send a post-installation report to the author of a package whenever it was installed or if the installation was cancelled or failed. There are privacy implications (well, the user's IP address would be revealed) but there are a large number of people who instinctively click "Do not send information" regardless so I'd have to bury the option away somewhere, but then I'd get criticised for it. I'll have to choose my words wisely.

This post has been edited by W3bbo: May 7 2009, 06:17 AM

[hood]

but I've got my own bandwidth bills to pay and there are a people still on dial-up where an extra 7MB means another 40 minutes downloading.

sorry for offtop but... in present days in UK people still using dial-up? unbelievable sad =(

dear W3bbo. it's great that you're worried about reducing the size of the package. but many people download and install a much more extensive packages (for example Vistamizer etc. or MS Service Packs).

This post has been edited by hood: May 7 2009, 06:23 AM