NT4VU3 Beta 2

The aim NT4VU3 is to patch every image resource in NT4 possible with newer
resources mainly from Windows XP and Vista. Dialogs and Wizards are also
updated to give a nice and newer feel.

NT4VU3 Patches:
Desktop Icons
Dialog Images
App Icons
CPL Icons and Images
Internet Explorer 6 Icons
Internet Explorer 6 Bitmaps
Outlook Express Icons
Start Menu Icons
Folder Icons
Setup Icons
Notepad Shortcuts
Systray Icons
Windows Media Player 6.4 Icons
Windows Media Player 7 Icons \ Dialogs
Terminal Server Client Icons
Printer Wizard Update
Network Dialog
Proxy Login Dialog
Logon Screensaver
(Thats all I think.)

[New Features in NT4VU3 Beta 2]
NT4 Server support.
Shell Update support reinstated again.
New Logon BMP
Seperation into Packages

[Updated in NT4VU3 Beta 2]
Fixes here and there.

[System Requirements]
Windows NT4 Workstaion
Service Pack 6
Internet Explorer 6 (Not required)
(OE6 for OE stuff and wmp7.0 and or wmp6.4 for wmp stuff)
A computer capable of Running Windows NT4
Video card capable of 32bit Colour may be required for some icons and definately required
to see NT4VU3 Beta 1 in all its glory.
(Shell Update is not supported in this release)

Screenshot


[Packages]
NT4VU is now seperated into different packages. This means that you can choose to an extent what stuff you want which means the size should be smaller. The base package uses the NSIS installer present in previous versions, the other packages are zip archives which need to be extracted into the resources folder. For NT4 Workstation you need to choose either the standard shell which is the default shell or the shell update which comes with IE4. I have not made a shell update package for NT4 Server because I do not believe this necessary.

NT4VU3_B2_Base: The base package needed by everyone.
NT4VU3B2_IE6: Needed if you have installed IE6.
NT4VU3B2_Server: Needed if you have installed Windows NT4 Server.
NT4VU3B2_Workstation: Needed if you have installed Windows NT4 Workstation.
NT4VU3B2_Workstation_Shell-Update: Needed if you have installed the Shell Update on Windows NT4 Workstation.
NT4VU3B2_Workstation_Standared-Shell: Needed if you have not installed the Shell Update on Windows NT4 Workstation.

Screenshots, please.

Thanks.

added one main screenshot to the first post will add more if there is more interest

Can you try Windows 2000 RP on NT4?

when i tried to register rpl2k.dll it failed.
I had a look at rpl2k.dll in dependency walker and it is missing
GDI32.DLL : GdiAlphaBlend

New version NT4 Visual Update Alpha 2 (0.6)
Fixes:
User32.dll is no longer included as it didnt work im about that i thought it wasnt there
Features:
Slightly newer looking logon screen
Better installer, no need to go into dos to install it now (you will need to restart afterwards though)
Slightly better compression

Download 1.54MB
http://savefile.com/files/529142

New version NT4 Visual Update Beta 1 (0.7)
Fixes:
Deldold.bat is included so that you can delete those *.d.old files created by the installer (use this if installing over 0.6)
Dont need to have nt installed at C:\winnt anymore

Features:
improved logon screen and lock screen
CPLs files are now patched
winver image is now patched
comes with 2k like visual theme (not selected in appearance tab)

Download 2.38MB
http://savefile.com/files/533187


Would anyone mind if i distributed this in a 7z file?
Can i have some feedback please.
Should this be in the customising windows forum instead?

Hello ,
can you put your NT4 Visual Update in an other link ,
I can't dl it to try !!
Thanks

Yay! interest.

New version NT4 Visual Update Beta 2 (0.8)
Fixes:
winver image removed because it causes user32.dll errors
removed giant start menu icons

Features:
- Newer looking installer still relies on batch files but the front end is an installer if you choose to install it and you can
install only the things you want, no need to have mstask.dll if you havent got scheduled tasks
- Patched systray however havent got a 256 colour systray patch.
- Patched a few more shell32 icons
- Patched some network dialogues and network icons
- Patched browsing icons

Download unfortunatly you have to wait for a ticket
http://files-upload.com/130679/nt4vub2.exe.html

Notes:
- will restore winver image in next version.
- will try to do user32.dll icons as well.

Installed it yesterday on NT4 I have in a virtual machine. It's nice. Well done.

The icons do not update even after reboot unless I go in the Plus tab of the display properties and select big icons, apply and deselect it to go back to normal icons.

And this on copy, move, delete :



Emptying the recycle bin transparency is fine.

thanks
have added the deletion of shelliconcache to the installation
not sure what to do about transparancy

Maybe they just need a red background and not a pink one. The avi for emptying the recycle bin has a red background and it appears transparent.

Also I did not find the 2k color scheme as a choice in the list for an account I have created after applying the patch.

Maybe it should be installed there :

HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Appearance\Schemes

It doesnt seem to work for me there, the original works
HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Appearance\Schemes

you can try it if you like
Click to view attachment

I've said this for almost every pack released:

Icons in start menu are wrong! They are too big. You have to use the smaller ones from xp's shell32. Take a closer look and you will find them.

you have?
i fixed them but i havent shown a screenshot

Update: NT4 Visual Update Beta 3

Fixes:
Fixed Backup so it includes all files modified

Features:
Patched more ie icons
Patched more cpl icons
Patched more start menu icons
Patched more shell icons
Patched notepad so now with shortcut keys

DOWNLOAD
http://files-upload.com/151013/nt4vub3.exe.html

CPLS

Hello ,
can you put your NT4 Visual Update in an other link ,
I can't dl it !!
Thanks , Merci

Update: NT4 Visual Update Release Candidate 1 (0.95)

Fixes:
Fixed Backup so it copies files to %windir%\nt4vubck instead of C:\nt4vubck.
Fixed Readme so its up to date.

Features:
Patched icons here and there.
Patched Dialup Networking Icon.
Patched Web Folders Icon.
Created proper Restore that can be used in windows and includes all files that have been changed.
Installer now includes more options.

DOWNLOAD 7.11MB
http://files-upload.com/179723/nt4vurc1.exe.html

ScreenShots

Logon Screen:
http://awergh.110mb.com/logon.jpg
http://awergh.110mb.com/logon2.jpg
http://awergh.110mb.com/logon3.jpg

My Computer:
http://awergh.110mb.com/mycomputer.jpg

Control Panel:
http://awergh.110mb.com/controlpanel.jpg

PS: I really should find a proper file hoster but i havent yet.

hosting on files-upload is fine, anyone can download from there.
however, your screenshots cannot be seen (403 - Forbidden "You don't have permission to access /logon3.jpg on this server.")...

How did you manage to inflate small icon library to 7+MB? Using multiple installers within installers?

well, i sort of umm, didnt work out how to patch the files so i just included the whole file thats how it got to 7mb if you look inside the archive it is about 20mb, i havent worked out how to patch the files

fixed the screenshots you can now access them
the contents of the archive is just some exe, dll, and cpl files that can replace the winnt files
some batch files and a delphi prog which is all pretty looking which allows you to have optional components and stuff

Still can't see the pics! Try www.imagevenue.com

thats odd i hadnt noticed, well one of the images works ill post some more elsewhere when I build another nt4 box

Nice project....

But, can u provide us with some screenshots that are not horrible like those... I mean JPG compression is terrible... It killed the point of those images... Try compressing bmps with Irfan View pls cuzz i cannot see lots from those images...

Screenshots
http://img107.imagevenue.com/aAfkjfp01fo1i..._122_1176lo.jpg
http://img177.imagevenue.com/aAfkjfp01fo1i...l_122_445lo.jpg
http://img31.imagevenue.com/aAfkjfp01fo1i-...p_122_751lo.jpg
http://img31.imagevenue.com/aAfkjfp01fo1i-...k_122_698lo.jpg
http://img153.imagevenue.com/aAfkjfp01fo1i...k_122_546lo.jpg

No... these are invalid too....

oh! lets try this again
http://img170.imageshack.us/img170/7827/cdrivejd8.jpg
http://img170.imageshack.us/img170/1866/cplnu0.jpg
http://img170.imageshack.us/img170/9264/mycompcu1.jpg
http://img170.imageshack.us/img170/1756/networkgs4.jpg
http://img170.imageshack.us/img170/3585/startdeskco7.jpg

i started modifing it so now the system dlls are being patched instead of copying a file to replace the orginal which means the package is smaller the uncompressed form is 14.4mb instead of 20mb now i havent done all of them yet and i dont think i want to do shell32.dll using my method

Nice effort, but you fail.

Just reminds me of those Calmira things for Windows 3.1.

I might give this a go at some point, if I can find a copy of NT4 lying around.

i fail in what way?

Well no offence but it doesn't look like a "Visual Update", it just looks like a poorly ripped set of XP resources on an old older OS. The icons don't match the window appearance, neither do the replacement dialog resources, etc. Everything just looks jumbled and mis-matched like Windows Neptune.

Nice effort, but needs a more discerning eye to pull something like this off.

U cannot say something like that... Man tries and works and those icons are not poorly ripped it the OS that doesn't have 32-bit icon support... So u should do something first other then remembering Windows Neptune....

Cool. I loved NT 4.

This would look much better with the shell update installed, though.

do you mean the ie4 shell update, well i havent aimed it at that but i could do that, i just thought most people avoided web intergration in nt4

Is that possible ?

do you mean design a it so that you can have the ie4 shell update installed
I wont do that in the current version but i can in the next if you want it

Anyway i decided to release Version 1.00 i dont think i tested it as much as i should have though but anyway

NT4 Visual Update 1.00
Fixes:
Fixed some of the Copying AVI dialogs

Features:
Much Smaller Size
File Patching including Explorer, CPls, IEdlls etc
Added some more icons here and there

Concerns:
There are a lot of files in the archive just a warning
and I forget to make the archive into a self extractor so it is just a 7z file and i didnt want to upload it again so hopefully you can open it

Download 3.8MB
http://www.divshare.com/download/563000-8ec

Future Versions
NT4 Visual Update 2.xx Series
Im no longer restricting myself to XP icons Vista is going to be my primary source.

Features:
Newer icons
Newer AVIs
Newer Bitmaps
Support for NT4 Terminal Server
Support for IE4 Shell Update

Fixes:
Better installer or atleast better installation structure

I will try to patch every icon, AVI and Bitmap i can find
And with TM0d's help I can include files without the 16 Colour Icon Limitations
Also TM0d has been doing some other proper Bitmaps to replace my attempts to copy the XP Logon Dialog

That's interesting.

well i dont know how many 16 colour limitations TM0d will be able to overcome but he overcame the 16 colour limitation in explorer.exe for the systray

I've managed to destroy those stupid 16 colour icons and the patch is at http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=97315

Working on 32-bit icons support... Enjoy in patch...

Cry?

If u cannot give a constructive reply do not reply at all u are not helping and it doesn't look good as u think it is...

That's a really encouraging thing to say.

awergh, good job on this. Keep up the good work on it man. Glad to see someone is finally shifting focus to Windows NT

If you'd like to provide something constructive to this conversation, like being that "discerning eye" to add value, please do (I'm sure help on this project isn't frowned upon). However, if you simply want to bash, take it somewhere else on the 'net where that sort of thing isn't frowned upon, because it's against the rules here. Relevant forum rule:

awergh, don't get discouraged by those who only know how to criticize others (but don't know s*** about doing anything themselves hehe).
Youre doing great job from what I see on your screencaps, and even though I'm not XP or Vista icons fan, I do appreciate the fact you at least try to DO IT.

PS
Im trying to solve 'the riddle' of high color icons that most of the time disappear after shell update (I reinstalled quite few times NT4 on the same test machine, installed SP6 /postSP6/drivers/and did few settings and 9 out of 10 I loose the original high color icons when installing IE6 with shell update, but few times somehow they stayed there after shell update and its driving me nuts not to know what causes this )
Maybe you know anything about it?

dunno, most of the time ive been playing with nt4 without the shell update

im not upploading nt4vu2 alpha 1 today but i will upload some of the screenshots











TM0d did the msgina image

Looks great

thanks
i still havent uploaded it because i have some work i need to do but here are some more screenshots

with shell update, so there is no 256 colour systray fix


i will fix the icons in a later version

@BOFH

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NT4 Visual Update 2 Alpha 1

[New Features]
Shell Update Support
Newer image resources from Vista
More App Icons Patched
Includes TM0d's Explorer.exe Patch (Without Shell Update)
Better install Structure (less batch files)
Better installer.exe

[Notes (My installations)]
In the Internet Dialog when click on the Conection Tab Explorer.exe has crashed.
Winmsd.exe Complains about user32.dll shell relocation if shell update is not installed.
can anyone verify this?

NT4VU2 Patches:
Desktop Icons
Dialog Images
App Icons
CPL Icons and Images
Internet Explorer Icons
Start Menu Icons
Folder Icons
Setup Icons
Notepad Shortcuts
Systray Icons
(Thats all I think.)

(This is still a patcher it doesnt copy whole files except explorer.exe for an install without shell update)
Download 7.7MB
http://www.divshare.com/download/714856-0d7

awergh, personally I prefer 7z too, but probably most of people never heard of it.
I just had to explain to webbuddy whom I gave link to your update how to eat it bcause he thought its "some linux or Mac file"

PS
Perhaps you should consider i.e. rar at highest compression, or even better - make it selfextract? (~200kB more on a 7-8MB file doesn't matter anymore IMHO) for your next version.

i tried to make it an exe file but when i uploaded it, it complained that i wasnt allowed to do that, but only after id finished uploading so i uploaded it as 7z, ill host it as an exe next time