How to create a fully slipstreamed Windows NT 4 Service Pack Everything After 6 / Unofficial 7

March 6, I am pretty much done.

Bearwindows did a LOT of work already -- but all of this comes before doing his process.
Thanks to Nateklomp for his links, which I grabbed from his post -- much appreciated.

1. We’re going to assume the use of NT Server.

2. Get the Service Pack and hotfixes:


q243649 is supposedly contained in q299444, the Rollup, but you need one file from it.
Random note, because you might need to know this:
The last publicly available versions of NTKRNLMP.EXE and NTOSKRNL.EXE are both version 4.0.1381.7268 from 11-Oct-2004 and are found in hotfix 885835, which is listed above. I am not aware of a more recent version, including nonpublic fixes.

3. Get some Microsoft libraries and add-ons:


We will NOT be slipstreaming the "Patched EXPLORER.EXE for 256 color display." Why? Because it locks the system up on install! Also, TAPI 2.1 is included as of SP4, but download it, extract tcmapp.exe, MAKECAB it, and put it aside. It won't replace anything. You don't need any other files from the TAPI 2.1 since they were all made obsolete by hotfixes.

4. Get the following files from Windows 2000:


Drag and drop cabarc.exe, cabbench.exe, cabinet.dll, cabview.dll and makecab.exe into CABSDK and replace whatever is there. The only file that should still say 1997 will be extract.exe.

5. Get the necessary third party add-ons:


6. Dead links? You can also get the hotfixes at http://www.mdgx.com/wnt4.htm

7. FAT32 support. Do you really need it? Probably not. If you do, you have two choices:
7a. Winternals had a read/write driver for FAT32. When Microsoft bought them, they apparently paid those guys to kill it. If you can get it, and it is floating around, then download it. It's 4 files: chkfat32.exe, fat32.hlp, fat32.sys, and scnfat32.exe plus some reg keys.
7b. Ashedel makes two files that replace the NT4 versions that give FAT32 support.

I have tried using one, then the other, then both at the same time to try to install NT on a FAT32 drive (not just boot, but install on). It won't work. You have to install to FAT16 and convert that to FAT32 and then it will boot, but it cannot install to FAT32.

8. Extract SP6a into a folder, we’ll call it “sp6a” using the /x switch

9. Extract the post SP6a rollup files from q299444i.exe into a separate folder. Call that folder “q299444i” and use the /X switch again. Rename the BROWSER.DLL in this folder to BROWR.DLL, then rename BROWSER2.DLL to BROWSER.DLL (delete the 2).

10. Extract ALL of the REMAINING hotfixes into SEPARATE folders. Yes, I know! It's a pain in the butt! But see, here's the thing: some of the hotfixes have the same files, and if you extract into the same common folder, they will silently overwrite each other. So you would end up replacing newer files with older ones.

11. Extract ALL of the top-secret nonpublic Hotfixes you happen to have (and if you don’t have any, don’t worry about it) into SEPARATE folders. If you have nonpublic hotfix file KB872952, extract it and rename UNTFS2.DLL to UNTFS.DLL
Some of these passworded ZIP files will not be KBxxxxxx .EXE files. If they just extract the files right into the directory, that's okay.

12. Move ALL of these hotfix files, one by one, the files from your many hotfix folders into the q299444i directory (not into SP6a yet!!). Replace anything old with the new one according to filedate. There will be files that don’t replace anything in q299444i. That’s fine, move them over anyway. Delete all of the leftover files that were older (in other words, if a file was older than the destination, we don’t need it). If you set any files aside, like atl.dll and tcmapp.exe, add them now.

Here is where we are: all of the hotfix files should be in q299444i. Some will replace what's there because they are newer, some will not replace any because q299444 didn't have them, and some files we got rid of.

13. Now it’s time to manually merge all of the q299444i files into the sp6a folder. Just drag and drop files from q299444i into sp6a, and replace older files with newer ones again using the file’s date as your guideline. Here below are most of the files you will be left over with (in other words, don't bother dragging and dropping them into the SP6a folder, just leave them alone for now):


There will probably be a few more too. Don’t worry about it for now. All of the hotfix files are now merged with the leftovers in q299444i. Oh No, you say! What about Registry edits? Relax, I’ve got you covered.

14. *These marked files will be going into a totally new directory in Windows NT called WINNT\system32\netmon\parsers. You need to make edits to TXTSETUP and LAYOUT, like this:
[SourceDisksNames.x86]
1 ... 26
27 = system32\netmon\parsers ; new directory for post SP6a NT Server files
The files above will be listed like this:
atalk.dll = 1,,,,,,,27,0,0
See the END NOTES for more detail on this.

Here is where we are: we have merged ALL of the hotifx files into the Service Pack6a. We have a bunch of leftover files from q299444i which are left alone in that directory.

15. Download the Unofficial Direct X 5 Distribution for NT 4. I have no idea, Google for it. Maybe try here. Once you have it, expand it to a folder such as “dx5” and don’t worry about the REG file that is distributed with Unofficial DX5, I have that covered, so delete the REG file. Drag and drop (some of) the files in the DX5 folder into the sp6a folder EXCEPT for these, which you can move to the q299444i folder (remember, q299444i is holding leftovers right now):


16. Some of those leftover files from hotfixes don't replace files in SP6a, but they do replace files in Windows NT i386. Because of the way the Bearwindows slipstreaming program works (it replaces anything in i386 with the same name from sp6a, whether the file was actually from sp6a or not), we can add the following files from the leftovers to sp6a:


17. Get http://browsers.evolt.org/download.php?/ie...SP2/ie55sp2.exe
Get http://browsers.evolt.org/download.php?/ie.../ie55sp2_nt.zip
Extract the following files and put them aside:

ZOMG Internet Explorer?!? I know, I know. But we're going to put it as an optional component during setup so that you can have better program compatibility with programs that think they need to see IE. It won't even be a functional browser. We're just dumping IE DLLs optionally.

18. Now is the time to add whatever else will go into Windows NT such as an ASPI driver or some libraries or small freeware apps, etc. Open my TXTSETUP file and search for the word “newfiles” and you will see what I added. If you don’t want to add something or don’t have it, comment it out with a semicolon. Then open LAYOUT and do the same thing. See the end note.

19. Copy the i386 folder from your CD to your hard drive. Name it “i386bak” You will also copy i386 again to the C: drive at the next step also. It’s just good to have a backup, trust me.

20. No go here and follow this process: http://www.bearwindows.boot-land.net/winnt4.htm

21. When you’re done, move the new i386 directory to whatever drive you were working on. You’ll also need the CDROM_S.40 file.

22. You'll have leftover stuff that you'll wonder about. Files like crlupd.exe for example. You won't know where it came from or how you got it or if it's important... but if I don't make mention of it or tell you to replace a file in i386 with it, then it can be deleted.

The astute reader will notice that I have been updating this every few days.

March 6

Registering DLLs on bootup will be tough; not only is IERNONCE.DLL required, but new versions of EXPLORER and SHELL32.DLL that IE installs are required, too. Microsoft issued post SP6a hotfixes for EXPLORER.EXE and SHELL32.DLL but the shell32 causes problems with some software, and that defeats the purpose of running an OS in the first place. Because I have a nonpublic beta of NT5 that predated Win2000, I might try running that version of explorer and shell32 to see if it even works.

The IE Desktop Update is NOT just available with IE 4. It's available with IE 5, 5.5, and 6, but Microsoft hides it from you. You have to start the install and edit the IESETUP.CIF file in the TEMP directory to make the Desktop Update option visible. The "Update" replaces EXPLORER and SHELL32 with HTML-aware files that are older than the versions from hotfixes. No thanks.

END NOTES
Here are the extra files I added to TXTSETUP and LAYOUT. This list is good for BOTH files.

Very interesting...

I'm probably sounding like an... behind... but... that doesn't really bring anything new. Every slipstreaming tutorial talks about slipstreaming SP6a, but then at the end they sneakily mention that you still need to apply SP6a separately after Windows installed.

There just gotta be a better way...

No, no, you're right... they always pull that little gotcha.
I wonder if all the files needed are copied over... as for registry edits, those are easy. I forget the name of the snapshot compare tool to see how an NT system has changed, but if I found it, I'd figure it out and make an INF file to eliminate the need for the last step of re-applying SP6a.

I believe Regshot is what you're looking for.

Ladies and gentlemen....FDV IS BACK!



tommyp recommended that tool to me once. So I'm inclined to agree with your suggestion.

ok, so anyone has soem news about this?
i am looking for a way to integrate the servicepack myself without that last step so...
i really want to know man

anyone?

damian666

yeah maybe the fellowship of the slipstream that's gathered here could make something automated out of this

i'd be interested myself not because i'm gonna be using NT4 again anytime soon (hopefully) so I'll give it a go just for the heck of it because at one time I used to be insanely in love with NT4 - when everybody I knew was on Windows 98, I was raving about how wonderful NTWKS was!

Well... It had Pinball, hehe

Waves Hey, Tain!

Well, damian666, this is something that The Fellowship Of The Slipstream has been discussing off and on and off for a loong time

I have started compiling the SP6a registry information. If someone wants to be so kind as to install NT4 in a VM, install regsnap, then add the SP6a and see what new files were added (registry settings too if you want) then we can get this underway, I suppose. I could do this too I guess. I am in a position to do this insofar as narrating a method and editing NT install INFs.

This is crazy, here we are talking about slipstreaming NT4 purely for academic study and "just because" even though none of us use it LOL

well, thats not really true man, i use nt4 for testing purposes and because i am involved in the
nt4vu project, a visual upgrade project for nt4.
so i am really not only academic interested, but because i need it...
so want me to install nt4 then? i got it running in a vm allready...
the only drawback is that i dont have net at home.
so i can only talk with you guys here on my work, 3 days a week...
so maybe its better to do it yourself?


let me know man

damian666

Yeah, ok, I am feeling like I do have some spare time here and there. This shouldn't be too, too hard.
I believe that I have all of the hotfixes, but does anyone know where there is a 100% listing of ALL of them?
Before someone says "Google is your friend, Fred!" know that each site that lists them all have fewer of them than I have now... so something's wrong somewhere.

damian666, can you send me a boot sector for nt4? I have one somewhere but I am not finding it.

You should be able to get most if not all of the registry changes from the INF file, making sure you use the SVR sections for Server and the WKS sections for Workstation. The only difficulty would be the FontSubstitutes sections which depend on the source language (which countries belong to Eastern Europe, Cyrillic and Baltic areas?). The time zones could use yet another update too.

Incidentally... Are the NT4 binaries for IE6 (including the Windows Desktop Update) still available from the Microsoft server?

well windows update still worked for nt4 when i used it a couple of days ago, so the binaries are probably there

i have the full IE6 download (works on Win98, NT4 and above) and can upload somewhere if you want

well, i have the nt4 iso, but well stupid qestion, but how to get the bootsector?
there are several ways but which is the prevered?

let me know man

damian666

Wow, this is an unlikely process.

The amount of work required to just get Regsnap working was re-god-darn-diculous. And after all the trouble, it didn't work in NT4. For whatever reason (it just won't take a snapshot. It does nada).

So. I got it on the VM. I am looking for other NT4 compatible versions of registry comparison software. That's where I stand at the moment.

I'm either using InstallRite from Epsilon Squared or ART (Advanced Registry Tracer) from Elcomsoft.

According to the info on their web sites, both programs are compatible with NT4.

I see Epsilon Squared also has a program called InstallWatch but I never tried it yet.

As far as ART goes, I normally use version 1.5, which is free, but doesn't work in a VM. The latest versions work in a VM but they have a 30-day trial period.

Worked perfectly!
I have created new installer files for NT4 now, TXTSETUP and LAYOUT, that include all files up to and including SP6a.
I have a REG file that I need to convert to INF.
Happened faster than I thought... Anyway, more later

You probably know this, but I wanna point it out for completeness: different binaries are taken from the SP6a package depending on the edition (WS or SVR) -- some even need to be renamed -- and the same goes for the registry edits.

Also, I would've rewritten the SP6a installation INF file (ie, write a new heading like HFSLIP does), execute it after installation, and then fire up InstallRite to install SP6a on top. This way, only the registry edits that are not mentioned in the INF file are recorded which should make it a lot easier to convert from REG to INF.

[OBSOLETE, SEE FIRST POST]

i read a long time back that changing a couple registry entries in NT4WKS essentially resulted in its conversion to NT4SVR. I never tried this personally so I don't really know if its a fact or just plain myth - will need a bit of research

here's some info from anetforums:

some more information here, here and here

NTSwitch is a bit like Fight Club.
"You don't talk about NTSwitch."

Anyway, without even needing to be clever, you can turn NT4 into Terminal Server using hotfixes. But you can bet I'm not gonna say how...

I am still going through the list of hotfixes and making the INF file still. Will announce progress here.
Can't believe I'm doing this.

attached pic: Terminal Server! (Hey, how'd he do that?!)
Click to view attachment

so hows much progress has the fellowship made so far ?

no one waiting for this??? thats what you think man...
i am, and i know some more.
i hope to automate this when you are done with it man.
i will create a installer or something for it.
but this is not all?
i think it misses something? or am i crazy?

damian666

that's too much to ask for fdv. so the answer is simply no. But MDGx is pretty much close to almost 100%. Check out his NT4 Essential Free Upgrades/Fixes page:
http://www.mdgx.com/wnt4.htm

Any post-SP6a hotfixes for NT4 that are missing I can try to obtain them by using the MS Hotfix Request form.

I never really got into using NT4 as a desktop OS, but once this slipstreaming project is finished, I'm sure that I'll give it a try.

Boy, do I like when people reasons like that!

jaclaz

Thought I'd throw in an update.
I gotta revise this process I wrote about a little... some things I missed earlier, like for example, a hotfix that contains a BROWSER.DLL should not overwrite the existing BROWSER.DLL. The actual update to the Computer Browser Service, BROWSER, is called "BROWSER2.DLL." Yeah, it's little stuff like that that makes no sense that you just have to know otherwise NT will have problems. I also was seeing new files that I couldn't figure out where to put... so I just added a new directory for them in TXTSETUP and LAYOUT:
27 = system32\netmon\parsers ; new directory for post SP6a NT Server files
The additions I made to TXTSETUP and LAYOUT were:


I have no idea what turns this service on, or if a DLL calls it, or some new service. No real clue, but all the files are there. Oh by the way I will make a fileset available to assist everyone on this project so you don't have to edit your TXTSETUP and LAYOUT files too badly. Random note: there is a file in Server called NT40.PDF that isn't really a Portable Document File. It's something else, and you should open it and look inside. Also, note files in the Service Pack that say LanManWorkstation versus LanManServer, etc.

More notes as they come to mind... forget trying to get "ask-for-them" hotfixes from Microsoft now. They are gone, I confirmed this with Microsoft. Maybe there are some left but the guy I talked to on the phone told me that a few years after NT4 left extended support, they don't have these hotfixes available anymore. Sure, maybe they have them on a gold CD in a locked case in a cave below Microsoft, but there's no way to get them now.

There are some hotfixes you don't actually want!! I made a beta of my NT4 SP7 for three, uh, "prominent users" here that had the VERY latest publicly available fixes that I know of... and ya know what? A bunch of software that worked with just SP6a, didn't work with the files from these certain hotfixes! These were all Type 2's, so if you do this process and you find a Type 2 that replaces an existing file in i386, don't use it! So, I went back and made fixes. BTW to those three guys, I will update you soon.

The whole mess that started this really as most people have read are the registry edits that SP6a adds. The Post SP6a hotfixes also add some, which I have taken care of. But I am overhauling the SP6a registry work, because a lot of it is digital certificate stuff for Internet Explorer that's obsolete. Can anyone confirm that NT's 128 bit-ness (aka "the strong encryption files") only apply to IE and nothing else? It's what I seem to be discovering, but I want to make sure.

I was playing with Win98, the 98lite'd version, earlier in the week. Wow, what a royal, royal pain in the a** using 98 is... I had forgotten that even with IE gone and the Win95 shell in place, it's still a disk drive hog. I did a total slipstream of 98 too, BTW, by extracting and editing files. I remember even on old hardware, I had to copy all of the install files from CD to a partition on C:\ because on first reboot, Win98 fails to recognize the CD Rom drive because it didn't load real-mode drivers, and it hasn't installed the VXD yet...

Issues like these that make me think that a suggestion of TommyP's, to make NT4 a slimmed down OS, might be a good idea in terms of running an old OS because IMO it's probably better than 98. I mean, sure, there is no USB support, and I have yet to figure out how to add it... things like that... and of course Direct X on NT only goes up to 5. If anyone wants to figure out how to test the DX7 files from Windows 2000 on NT4, please be my guest! It's beyond what I feel like doing.

By the way, Axcel216's list at http://www.mdgx.com/wnt4.htm, linked above, is a really good resource. It's what I used way back to get the fixes I need, and I recommend it highly.

More later, I gotta get back to testing.

i concur absolutely. compared to NT4, 98 is worth crap when it comes to stability or performance, even an un-slimmed down NT4. I say this cuz like I said earlier, I used to have NT4WKS as my main OS when 98 was all the rage and everybody was raving about how *cough* awesome 98 was .

I used to absolutely love NT4WKS, had mine fully tweaked out, wouldn't even have switched from NT4 to 98 if somebody had put a gun to my head .

I even found a third party utility to have it power off when it was shut down and once NT4 was properly/carefully/lovingly configured, it didn't crash, period!

not true, fdv! I've just requested certain NT4 hotfixes from MS by email via a MS Hotfix Request Web Submission Form (instead of phone) and I have gotten them over the weekend. Here are the hotfixes I've obtained:

Q280334 explorer.exe
Q307866 Srpfixup.exe < run this file after installing NT4 Q299444 SRP pack
Q319560 msimain.sdb for Windows Installer 2.0 < I have both Server and Workstation editions of this hotfix
Q325986 tcpip.sys
Q326643 Ntfs.sys
Q872952 autochk.exe, chkdsk.exe, fmifs.dll, untfs2.dll

Contact me either by email or send me a PM (personal message) if you need any of these NT4 hotfixes.

I have about 50 more to go but many of them are still available. Forget the phone method of asking MS for NT4 hotfixes, use the email method by using the MS Hotfix Request Form. In the "Product and version affected" section, type in Windows NT 4.0 SP6a and the KB hotfix article number (ex. KB307866), select 32bit Operating System (x86) in the Platform section, select the language(s) you want for the hotfix and put in your email address. Then click the Submit Request button and wait for several hours for MS to respond by email. Most of the time, I get the NT4 hotfixes on the first try.

Read Mike's blog here about the MS Hotfix Request Web Submission Form:
http://theessentialexchange.com/blogs/mich...ssion-form.aspx

If any of you are having trouble getting any existing post-SP6a hotfixes for Windows NT4 by email method, leave it to me. I can take care of this kind of hard work.

Hiya All,
FYI:
Hard-as-heck to find TAPI 2.0, anywhere. Hope this helps:

Found at Michael Dunn's TAPI Site: TAPI 2.1 SDK

Can't wait for the finished project...
Thanks for all your hard work!

I've added the makecabbed TCMAPP.EX_ as an attachment.
Hopefully will save Mr. Dunn some bandwidth.

Also--as you may be aware, the entire IE4 Shell update is located in the ie5 download, in IE4SHLNT.CAB. It's installed via ie4shell.inf, from that cab.

Thanks to all participating.
I thought that I would add some NT4 trivia, randomly, in no particular order. The Magnificent Seven can skip this they already know it.

I tried at TommyP's request to use HFSLIP to see what happens. Many extraction errors occur.

If NT installs without EXPLORER.EXE, it still works and shows a desktop, but you cannot move any of the objects.

Anything (anything AT ALL) in the SYSTEM directory of an NT-based OS is USELESS. It's all a holdover from Windows NT 3.51! Windows NT4, Windows 2000, Windows XP, it doesn't matter, if it's in C:\WINNT\SYSTEM, it can be deleted. (Does Nuhi know this?)

In TXTSETUP.SIF, again in any NT-based OS, all of the files under the x86 files can be added to main the main copy files section (you have to arrange commas) if you wanted to. All files under the other architectures like alpha, ppc, or ia64 can be deleted.

To repeat myself in case anyone missed it, if you do a global replace in both TXTSETUP.SIF and LAYOUT.INF of ",_x," to ",," (deleting the _x between the commas -- don't just delete the _x in the whole doc!) then no files will be checked for sizes specified in LAYOUT and no errors will result (yes, LAYOUT really can be modified).

I used almost no Type 2 hotfixes. They seem to create compatibility issues with a lot of software.

Remember that trick of editing SETUPP.INI in Windows 2000? Guess what?

FAT32: NT cannot install onto it, but it CAN boot from it. Considering you'd have to format the drive after installing onto FAT16, this is clearly more trouble than it's worth unless you need to dual boot, and really, who does? It's 2008. I use the Winternals driver, but there are other drivers at http://ashedel.chat.ru/fat32/

Alter not only makes a SATA driver for NT, he makes a better USB stack than Woodhead.

A VMWare Virtual PC video driver is available in the VMWare Tools, so you can work at a higher resolution. Just wait until NT 4 is running and install the VMware tools. It shows up as a CD to NT. Explore the CD and you will find a folder with the NT Video driver in it. If you're really clever, you can copy this and integrate it into NT so it's always available to you.

Keeping small? Running on old hardware? NT "just sitting there" will take about 24 megs of RAM. The lowest Windows 2000 amount of RAM used I have seen was 42 megs, IIRC. Bearwindows told me that he ran a stripped down version in 6mb. I still have to ask him how he did that.

Speaking of low memory overhead, the world's smallest browser is OffByOne. Don't forget that NT generally needs some way to browse the 'net to download stuff.

The Microsoft Management Console (MMC) is available for Windows NT. I integrate it, because here is a defragger called O&O Defrag Free that requires the MMC. But is the MMC used for anything else? Anyone know?

The RegOnceEx key is NOT compatible with NT 4 unless you have installed "Internet Explorer with Desktop
Update." Microsoft says you have to install IE4 to get this as it is not available in any other version of IE. As usual, they are lying. You have to start the install and go to the TEMP directory and modify the iesetup.cif file (see here)

The real details of RegOnce stuff is not documented, but TommyP has a wealth of knowledge developed during his creating HFSLIP. He's explained how DLL registration works but the rules are different for NT 4. At TommyP's mention I looked at Gosh's site but this didn't help as it implied you only need one DLL, iernonce.dll and a few registry keys in place for it to work. When IE Desktop Update is installed, RunOnceEx works. When JUST iernonce.dll is put into system32 and the Active Desktop key is added per Gosh's suggestion, it doesn't. That leaves me with having to reverse engineer what's going on in order to add RunOnceEx functionality without having to destroy the OS (considering also the IE4SHLNT.CAB, thanks Nate).

Lastly, I am thinking of the Gurgelmeyer Unofficial Service Pack 5 and the Unofficial Windows 98 Service Pack here... does anyone know the legality of those projects? I could easily create a SP7 for NT but how would I distribute it without problems?

In NT4 the best way to do setup stuff like this is not RunOnceEx (which is part of OE Update Service), but RunOnce (which is a Winlogon.exe-initiated script). How I've seen it used: insert a Run (every time Winlogon.exe starts) or RunOnce (only at next Winlogon.exe instance) Key in the reg, then it's deleted it after running. RunOnceEx only works in other versions because they've got OE/IE integrated. Windows 4.0 versions don't have OE integrated. See MSDN Article for once source; I actually first saw this used in a script on a Scandinavian webpage (Swedish? Can't find it right now)when researching an automated install of NT4.

Supposedly the MMC was created to allow "developers and users" to "easily create" plugins to do system tasks. Yes, I've tried both the Win2K and XP mmc snapins, none of them work properly in NT4. *sheds a tear for lack of device manager MMC snapin* :'(

Why IE55SP2 and not IE60SP1 for NT4? Does it also work for slipstreaming? IE6 support in NT4 is one of its major pluses for me, I need it to work.
If it could be slipstreamed...( I know, this is FDV I'm talking to, but still) this would be the most awesome project EVER for NT4.

IIRC (check it out in Hotstream posts), Gurgelmeyer consulted with a lawyer, or MS rep, or both, before release.

BTW, do you know where I can find the other files listed in #9 & 11? I'm using all the files found on MDGx's NT4 page, and I've got only a small portion of those you've listed.
Normally I'd look first on erpman/erpdude's page, but it's down ATM.

Never had an occasion to try it, but there is an update thingie made by asiekierka :
http://www.msfn.org/board/Integrating-NT-4...wto-t99030.html
cannot say if there is anything useful for you within it.

jaclaz

I saw asiekierka's thread but if you look at the downloads... it's a huge kludge.
What many miss is that a number of hotfixes:
1. replace files in SP6a because they have the same name, but they should NOT replace those files, and
2. there are new files in hotfixes, and they are easy to put into the correct directory if you add a new file location in TXTSETUP, and
3. there is garbage in the OS that is obsolete and needs to be taken out, whether DLLs or registry entries.

Ultimately what I would create is something with compressed files that you just drag and drop into your i386 dirtectory, with my own Registry INF files that create what's needed and omit what's obsolete.

Nateklomp, did you examine my IEXPLORE.INF? (Are you one of the ones I emailed?) I am making use of Run, RunOnce, and RunOnceEx which is actually dependent on iernonce.dll, and the AD-enabled shell32.dll and explorer.exe. It appears Run is the best bet to make the MMC run. Which I gather is not necessary, since it's only for a defragger I use anyway (anyone know of a free defragger for NT4?) And the AD-enabled shell32 creates compatability problems with the before-and-after comparison software Tomcat76 suggested, as well as a few other programs I don't recall.

IE6, yes, it can be integrated. But since TommyP is the Black Belt of IE6 integration I'll leave it to him. I can throw the DLLs in place and add some reg entries, but as he explained to me, it's not so simple -- a LOT of things have to take place at JUST the exact right time for IE to actually work. So, I'll leave that to him. He is currently evaluating certain possibilities in this area as he has the same curiosity the rest of us do on this project -- that is, we probably won't actually run the OS but it's an intellectual challenge

As for files in #9, that's a Post SP6a Rollup, #11 is just what I had left over from like 25 hotfixes. I will list them in a future post (I am not at home right now to pipe the dir contrents to a text file).

I think I have Gurglemeyer's real email address from some years ago, so I will try emailing him to ask about providing one big SP for NT and the issues surrounding that. Given what I know now, that would probably be pretty easy to do. Right now, Bearwindows does make a slipstreamer, but only for SP6a, not post hotfixes. The possibility of an HFSLIP for NT4 has been discussed (obviously, if I'm posting in this forum) but so far no decision has been made since the options of feasibility and whether or not it's worth it (as opposed to a big file that you drag and drop the contents into i386) have not been decided.

In completely other news, I am working on an FDV fileset for Windows 2000 Server. I use a Core II Duo at work with Win2000, and it sees two processors, and it runs FAST. Windows 2000 would see four processors in a Quad Core, but only the Server version can see more than two processors... and if I'm gonna continue to use Windows, it sure ain't gonna be XP or Vista (all the compatibility problems of ReactOS, and four hundred times the size!!). Oh yeah, and with a contributor's help, I perfected the whole "use the Mozilla ActiveX control instead of IE" thing, which I will unveil shortly.

BTW anyone used ReactOS recently? I tried .36 the other day. Dodgy, but impressive considering what they're doing without any help from Microsoft.

Hey, anyone wanna collaborate on a fully patched OS/2?? (KIDDING!)

Didn't know other people here were in this as well. I'm also working on a script which would eventually do most of what HFSLIP does, but I'm taking it one step at a time.

There are a couple of things I wonder about concerning SP6a...

The Intel sections... INTLFXSR.SYS is a new binary and it comes with a few extra registry settings but they obviously shouldn't be processed on non-Intel systems. So I'll have to find out which installation file covers the Intel files and somehow edit that without abandoning support for localized distros. All localized installation files in NT4 sources I've seen are in ANSI, but that's still no guarantee for things to work out (see the time zone hotfix issues).

What is "Softex"? I'm deleting the .SOFTEX files right now but I need to know if that's OK.

The Font sections could be problematic on localized distros because I don't know how to differentiate between them (I think I mentioned this before).

What to do with the IIS 4.2 files? SP6a contains updates for IIS 4.0 (IIS sections in INF), but also upgrade files for IIS 4.2 (IIS4 sections in INF). Was IIS 4.2 ever released as a standalone package? I can't think of any other reason to explain this.

INTLFIXSR should be left out. It's a floating point error fix for Pentium I's (not a typo -- Pentium One). When I ran with it installed, it slowed the OS down and eventually caused a crash.

softex are BIOS files for specific hardware. Ditch them.

IIS 4.2 as far as I saw was never released standalone. It might have installed with some other product you wouldn't expect, like maybe a Terminal Server update or something. Since IIS 4.x was riddled with problems, I'd leave it out.

Thanks -- that makes it pretty easy. I'll just update the IIS 4.0 files then and ditch the IIS 4.2 binaries (which are quite a few).

BTW... If you're intending to make an SP7, I think that you should check that it works on a Gold source too. You use an official SP3 build as a base which may contain more files.

Can someone point me to the IE6 cab files for NT4?

ient_s1.CAB through ient_s6.CAB.

Each one contains a CAB file (IENT_1.CAB through IENT_6.CAB).

1) Extract each ient_s*.CAB
2) Extract IENT_1.CAB (only this one)

Thanks TC, but can you provide a link on where to get it from?

I could've sworn we've gotten an e-mail for that some time ago...

hi tp, this link looks promising. lemme know if it doesn't work out and I'll find you something else

That's the German one.

oops sorry! this one looks certain to be english!

Here's an updated link list:

Service Pack and Rollup (Item 3a):

Sysinternals Files (List Item 3b):

TAPI 2.1 (List Item 3c):

See above post

Windows Installer 2.0 (List Item 3d):

FDV's Hotfix List URLs (List Item 6):

Non-Public Hotfixes on FDV's List (get it from MDGx's site):

DirectX Files (List Item 10):

Other project-related files:

Great work so far!
Can't wait!