[fdv]

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.

This post has been edited by fdv: 22 February 2008 - 01:17 PM

[Tomcat76]

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.

[tommyp]

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

[Tomcat76]

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)

This post has been edited by Tomcat76: 22 February 2008 - 07:03 PM

[tommyp]

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

[Tomcat76]

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

This post has been edited by Tomcat76: 22 February 2008 - 08:19 PM

[johndoe74]

tommyp, on Feb 22 2008, 09:04 PM, said:

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

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

[Tomcat76]

That's the German one.

[johndoe74]

oops sorry! this one looks certain to be english!

[nateklomp]

Here's an updated link list:

Service Pack and Rollup (Item 3a):

Quote

NT4 Service Pack 6a
q299444i.exe (post-SP6a hotfix rollup)

Sysinternals Files (List Item 3b):

Quote

PsTools v2.44
RegMon for Windows v7.04
FileMon for Windows v7.04
Process Explorer v11.04

TAPI 2.1 (List Item 3c):
<{POST_SNAPBACK}>
See above post

Windows Installer 2.0 (List Item 3d):

Quote

Windows Installer 2.0 Redistributable

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

 
[url="http://download.microsoft.com/download/winntsrv40/Patch/Spooler-fix/NT4/EN-US/Q243649.exe"]q243649.exe[/url]
[url="http://download.microsoft.com/download/winntsrv40/patch/tcp-sp6/nt4/en-us/q243835i.exe"]q243835i.exe[/url]
[url="http://download.microsoft.com/download/winntsrv40/Update/srvsvc/NT4/EN-US/Q246045.EXE"]q246045.exe[/url]
[url="http://download.microsoft.com/download/winntsp/Patch/LPC/NT4/EN-US/Q247869i.EXE"]q247869i.exe[/url]
[url="http://download.microsoft.com/download/winntsp/Patch/syskey/NT4/EN-US/Q248183.exe"]q248183.exe[/url]
[url="http://download.microsoft.com/download/winntsp/Patch/q248399/NT4ALPHA/EN-US/Q248399i.EXE"]q248399i.exe[/url]
[url="http://download.microsoft.com/download/winntsp/Patch/rdisk2/NT4/EN-US/Q249108i.EXE"]q249108i.exe[/url]
[url="http://download.microsoft.com/download/winntsp/Patch/RTF/NT4/EN-US/Q249973i.EXE"]q249973i.exe[/url]
[url="http://download.microsoft.com/download/winntterminal/Patch/Q257870/NT4/EN-US/Q257870i.EXE"]q257870i.exe[/url]
[url="http://download.microsoft.com/download/winntsp/Patch/Q259496/NT4/EN-US/Q259496i.exe"]q259496i.exe[/url]
[url="http://download.microsoft.com/download/winntterminal/Patch/Q259622/NT4ALPHA/EN-US/Q259622i.EXE"]q259622i.exe[/url]
[url="http://download.microsoft.com/download/winntterminal/Patch/Q259728/NT4ALPHA/EN-US/Q259728i.EXE"]q259728i.exe[/url]
[url="http://download.microsoft.com/download/winntsp/patch/q262694/nt4alpha/en-us/q262694i.exe"]q262694i.exe[/url]
[url="http://download.microsoft.com/download/winntterminal/Patch/Q265714/NT4/EN-US/Q265714i.exe"]q265714i.exe[/url]
[url="http://download.microsoft.com/download/winntterminal/Patch/q266433/NT4/EN-US/Q266433i.exe"]q266433i.exe[/url]
[url="http://download.microsoft.com/download/winntterminal/Patch/q269049/NT4ALPHA/EN-US/Q269049i.EXE"]q269049i.exe[/url]
[url="http://download.microsoft.com/download/winntterminal/Patch/q269239/NT4/EN-US/Q269239i.EXE"]q269239i.exe[/url]
[url="http://download.microsoft.com/download/winntsp/Patch/Q275567/NT4/EN-US/Q275567i.EXE"]q275567i.exe[/url]
[url="http://download.microsoft.com/download/winntsp/Patch/q276575/NT4/EN-US/Q276575i.EXE"]q276575i.exe[/url]
[url="http://download.microsoft.com/download/winntterminal/Patch/q279336/NT4/EN-US/Q279336i.exe"]q279336i.exe[/url]
[url="http://download.microsoft.com/download/winntterminal/Patch/Q280119/NT4/EN-US/Q280119i.exe"]q280119i.exe[/url]
[url="http://download.microsoft.com/download/winntsp/Patch/Q304158/NT4/EN-US/Q304158i.exe"]q304158i.exe[/url]
[url="http://download.microsoft.com/download/7/4/8/7482f535-0754-4795-bf13-f059f262066c/Q305399i.exe"]q305399i.exe[/url]
[url="http://download.microsoft.com/download/winntterminal/Patch/Q312895/NT4/EN-US/Q312895i.exe"]q312895i.exe[/url]
[url="http://download.microsoft.com/download/winntterminal/Patch/Q313829/NT4/EN-US/Q313829i.exe"]q313829i.exe[/url] 
[url="http://download.microsoft.com/download/winntsp/Patch/Q314147/NT4/EN-US/Q314147i.exe"]Q314147i.exe[/url]
[url="http://download.microsoft.com/download/winntsp/PatchSH/Q318138/NT4/EN-US/Q318138i.exe"]Q318138i.exe[/url]
[url="http://download.microsoft.com/download/winntsp/Patch/Q320206/NT4/EN-US/Q320206i.exe"]Q320206i.exe[/url]
[url="http://download.microsoft.com/download/winntsp/Patch/Q323172/NT4/EN-US/Q323172i.exe"]Q323172i.exe[/url]
[url="http://download.microsoft.com/download/winntsp/Patch/Q326830/NT4/EN-US/Q326830i.exe"]Q326830i.exe[/url]
[url="http://download.microsoft.com/download/b/5/5/b5506aac-f244-4eb8-9e7c-a18b7df563a3/Q328310i.EXE"]q328310i.exe[/url]
[url="http://download.microsoft.com/download/winntterminal/Patch/Q329115/NT4/EN-US/Q329115i.EXE"]q329115i.exe[/url] 
[url="http://download.microsoft.com/download/3/6/d/36d7bf6a-56b3-4e56-b332-e4bd4ced994e/Q810833i.EXE"]Q810833i.EXE[/url]
[url="http://download.microsoft.com/download/7/6/9/7694876b-3241-4e23-bacc-966ce97b038a/Q811493i.EXE"]q811493i.exe[/url] 
[url="http://download.microsoft.com/download/9/3/f/93f82d57-0f2f-40ab-9873-f41d0384e5ee/Q815021i.EXE"]Q815021i.EXE[/url]
[url="http://download.microsoft.com/download/0/a/9/0a95e33a-2bb7-4e0a-b389-8eaac99ef364/Q817606i.EXE"]Q817606i.EXE[/url]
[url="http://download.microsoft.com/download/b/2/c/b2cef22e-f8a7-4029-af63-87011a64586c/Q819696i.EXE"]q819696i.exe[/url]
[url="http://download.microsoft.com/download/4/6/c/46c9c414-19ea-4268-a430-53722188d489/Q823980i.EXE"]q823980i.exe[/url]
[url="http://download.microsoft.com/download/0/c/3/0c33cde6-931b-437d-985e-a9351111691f/WindowsNT4Server-KB823182-x86-ENU.EXE"]WindowsNT4Server-kb823182-x86-enu.exe[/url]
[url="http://download.microsoft.com/download/0/c/4/0c43ffdb-58fc-4231-83c6-4bfa69f70680/WindowsNT4Server-KB823803-x86-ENU.EXE"]WindowsNT4Server-KB823803-x86-ENU.EXE[/url] 
[url="http://download.microsoft.com/download/e/b/0/eb0efc08-a68b-4635-9287-7894b33276eb/WindowsNT4Server-KB824105-x86-ENU.EXE"]WindowsNT4Server-KB824105-x86-ENU.EXE[/url]
[url="http://download.microsoft.com/download/1/6/4/164a5dcf-f241-4bc0-8ed1-31d39fe88d9b/WindowsNT4Server-KB824141-x86-ENU.EXE"]WindowsNT4Server-kb824141-x86-enu.exe[/url]
[url="http://download.microsoft.com/download/6/2/1/6216d162-1283-4e05-a505-3dc67b70155c/WindowsNT4Server-KB824146-x86-ENU.EXE"]WindowsNT4Server-kb824146-x86-enu.exe[/url]
[url="http://download.microsoft.com/download/f/0/1/f01c0522-76bd-4889-a620-fd10992489b6/WindowsNT4Server-KB825119-x86-ENU.EXE"]WindowsNT4Server-kb825119-x86-enu.exe[/url]
[url="http://download.microsoft.com/download/9/f/1/9f14b3d5-9d44-47e2-8ba6-e562512ff7e2/WindowsNT4Server-KB828035-x86-ENU.EXE"]WindowsNT4Server-KB828035-x86-ENU.EXE[/url] 
[url="http://download.microsoft.com/download/1/0/8/1088f645-20b8-44ee-aafa-47b2fab94b7d/WindowsNT4Server-KB828741-x86-ENU.EXE"]WindowsNT4Server-KB828741-x86-ENU.EXE[/url]
[url="http://download.microsoft.com/download/6/d/7/6d7fcda4-1d50-49e7-b4dd-501fa54909c6/WindowsNT4Server-KB835732-x86-ENU.EXE"]WindowsNT4Server-KB835732-x86-ENU.EXE[/url]
[url="http://download.microsoft.com/download/a/b/3/ab36f6c2-67b8-4711-8d9a-0cf06b4153e1/WindowsNT4Server-KB839645-x86-ENU.exe"]WindowsNT4Server-KB839645-x86-ENU.exe[/url] 
[url="http://download.microsoft.com/download/2/d/a/2da1ee4a-b15f-435c-8c1e-488a9c4174cd/WindowsNT4Server-KB840987-x86-ENU.exe"]WindowsNT4Server-KB840987-x86-ENU.exe[/url]
[url="http://download.microsoft.com/download/4/4/e/44ec3f6b-3033-481f-a746-af19f8a2e850/WindowsNT4Server-KB841533-x86-ENU.exe"]WindowsNT4Server-KB841533-x86-ENU.exe[/url]
[url="http://download.microsoft.com/download/d/e/1/de1dd54f-a6b9-4206-8496-418a1709ae95/WindowsNT4Server-KB841872-x86-ENU.exe"]WindowsNT4Server-KB841872-x86-ENU.exe[/url]
[url="http://download.microsoft.com/download/f/e/c/fec9efe8-b73d-4731-aedf-461f90d5a77f/WindowsNT4Server-KB870763-x86-ENU.exe"]WindowsNT4Server-KB870763-x86-ENU.exe[/url]
[url="http://download.microsoft.com/download/9/0/1/9013c8d2-1586-4913-ae2f-8fa4a27224ea/WindowsNT4Server-KB873339-x86-ENU.exe"]WindowsNT4Server-KB873339-x86-ENU.exe[/url]
[url="http://download.microsoft.com/download/1/6/1/16145263-1a0d-4421-a6ac-112e200cf804/WindowsNT4Server-KB873350-x86-ENU.exe"]WindowsNT4Server-KB873350-x86-ENU.exe[/url]
[url="http://download.microsoft.com/download/6/9/8/6982ee0f-933a-4e90-9fb9-376c89ad3475/windowsnt4server-kb885249-x86-enu.exe"]windowsnt4server-kb885249-x86-enu.exe[/url]
[url="http://download.microsoft.com/download/a/5/7/a57ea457-fac7-42fa-bb7f-dc1782a03d4e/WindowsNT4Server-KB885834-x86-ENU.exe"]WindowsNT4Server-KB885834-x86-ENU.exe[/url]
[url="http://download.microsoft.com/download/8/3/f/83f2502c-6196-41a7-b2a4-11199a50a5e6/WindowsNT4Server-KB885835-x86-ENU.exe"]WindowsNT4Server-KB885835-x86-ENU.exe[/url]
[url="http://download.microsoft.com/download/2/c/b/2cb94fd1-9180-4338-a353-ab17004ae347/WindowsNT4Server-KB885836-x86-ENU.exe"]WindowsNT4Server-KB885836-x86-ENU.exe[/url]
[url="http://download.microsoft.com/download/2/e/4/2e4d50d5-854c-48c3-a928-80c5ddc958e4/WindowsNT4Server-KB891711-x86-ENU.exe"]WindowsNT4Server-KB891711-x86-ENU.exe[/url]
 

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

Quote

Q831579S.EXE - Non-public Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 SP6a Multiple Networks Errors Fix (English)

DirectX Files (List Item 10):

Quote

Unofficial DirectX5 for NT4

Other project-related files:

 
[url="ftp://ftp.cs.pu.edu.tw/Windows/MsSecurity/Microsoft-os/IE/ie6/enu/ie6sp1-enu.exe"]Internet Explorer 6.0 SP1 Full[/url]

Complete* list of [Unofficial] hotfixes on MDGx's NT4 page (hosted by MDGx):

[url="http://www.mdgx.com/wnt4.htm#NT4"]Q932590.EXE - Unofficial Windows 95/OSR1/OSR2/98/98 SP1/98 SE/NT4/ME TZ Environment Variable Errors Fix[/url]
[url="http://www.mdgx.com/wnt4.htm#NT4"]EXPLORNT.EXE - Unofficial Windows NT 4.0 256 Colors Icons Explorer Fix[/url]
[url="http://www.mdgx.com/wnt4.htm#NT4"]NT924667.EXE - Unofficial Windows NT 4.0 SP6a Microsoft Foundation Classes (MFC) Security Vulnerability Fix[/url]
[url="http://www.mdgx.com/wnt4.htm#NT4"]SERVICNT.EXE - Unofficial Windows NT4/2000/XP/2003 SERVICES Update[/url]
[url="http://www.mdgx.com/wnt4.htm#NT4"]NT912919.EXE - Unofficial Windows NT 4.0 SP6a WMF Graphics Rendering Engine (GRE) Security Vulnerability Fix[/url]
[url="http://www.mdgx.com/wnt4.htm#NT4"]Q920670.EXE - Unofficial Windows 98/98 SP1/98 SE/NT4 SP6a/ME Hyperlink Object Security Vulnerability Fix[/url]
[url="http://www.mdgx.com/wnt4.htm#NT4"]NT908519.EXE - Unofficial Windows NT 4.0 SP6a Embedded Web Fonts Security Vulnerability Fix[/url]

Complete* list of Official hotfixes listed on MDGx's NT4 page which are NOT on FDV's list:

[url="http://download.microsoft.com/download/7/d/4/7d4b1e60-4443-41a5-a9d4-76becf23fa1e/VB6-KB924053-x86-ENU.exe"]VB6-KB924053-x86-ENU.exe[/url]
[url="http://download.microsoft.com/download/5/2/b/52bbd8be-78e7-4275-83f6-3a90a87938ae/WindowsNT4Server-KB841356-x86-ENU.exe"]WindowsNT4Server-KB841356-x86-ENU.exe[/url]
[url="http://download.microsoft.com/download/e/c/3/ec35e11c-fee1-44a4-9144-e65141da2ed2/WindowsNT4OptionPack-KB883935-x86-enu.EXE"]WindowsNT4OptionPack-KB883935-x86-enu.EXE[/url]
[url="http://download.microsoft.com/download/a/9/7/a9799893-a559-4ac1-bc88-f9667b5954c4/Q841373I.exe"]Q841373I.exe[/url]
[url="http://download.microsoft.com/download/3/0/8/308972d8-3907-4c48-935b-f0e00248cc99/Q823492i.EXE"]Q823492i.EXE[/url]
[url="http://download.microsoft.com/download/e/f/2/ef23e6c9-f0fd-494c-a989-1e7ffc006085/Windows-KB823559-ENU.EXE"]Windows-KB823559-ENU.EXE[/url]
[url="http://download.microsoft.com/download/2/6/2/26287382-4eff-4e39-b331-624eba8abdae/Q278499i.EXE"]Q278499i.EXE[/url]

 

Great work so far!
Can't wait!

This post has been edited by nateklomp: 27 February 2008 - 07:22 AM

[fdv]

Thanks for the links, Nate!

The topic of this post is getting NT to say "Service Pack 7" on bootup. Wow, what a hassle.

here's how to do it.

In Windows NT, i.e. while you are running it:
1. copy DEFAULT and SYSTEM from the ISO or CD-ROM drive to your desktop and set their properties to NOT be read-only
2. load REGEDT32.EXE
3. While a registry branch is selected, go to File and Load Hive
4. Load the DEFAULT file you copied
5. This is a default registry that loads at installation. Make any changes you need to.
6. Save the changes by going to File and export, then close hive.
7. Load the SYSTEM file you copied
8. Go to ControlSet001\Control\Windows
9. Create a new key, called CSDVersion
10. Give it a hex value of 07 (for Service Pack 7).

Wow, what a pain. Anyway, you can make changes to NT registry settings here by loading these hives, changing them, exporting them, then unloading the hives, then taking these exported files and putting them into i386, replacing the originals (rename the originals to back them up).

[os2fan2]

I'm looking at a fast script to add .INF files directly into the hives. This is what happens when Win2k etc load HIVE*.INF in the text mode.

In essence, one can use the reg.exe interface, or something in the rexx.exe in the NT4 service pack to feed lines into the registry.

[Tomcat76]

@Wendy... "looking at" or "looking for"?


BTW... Does anyone know which INF file regulates the installation and registration of the binaries inside the IENT_x.CAB packages? I can't seem to find any. This seems to be done through iebatch.exe which isn't really slipstream-friendly. I may have to downlevel IE.INF from a Win2K source to accomplish this, but I want to make sure all languages are still supported.

[os2fan2]

I'm "looking at" a script.

At the moment, it seems pretty straight forward to convert INF Regadd and Regdel lines into REXX commands to add lines to registry. I suppose one can use reg2inf to do registry lines. It's just a matter of string processing.

You mount appropriate hives as hklm\dsoftware etc, with an extra 'd'. It's pretty straight forward to add d to the beginning of a string.

At the moment i am assessing known issues.

* [Strings] is best pre-processed. I am hoping that munge will do this. Case sensitivity is the issue here.
* CurrentControlSet should be made to point to ControlSet001. There is no need to do Controlset002.
* Need to map the data type onto rexx input. Should not be hard. [doco issue]
* Need to consider which hives to load. This is a look at Windows 3.x and 4.x registry hives. (needs to handle 3.x as well).



I am slowly assembling the assorted files that fdv used, largely to assemble a fairly straight-forward fix pack with little addin, based on workstation.

With IE, some of the registry stuff hides in shell32.dll, i think.

Edit: FDV accidentally deleted the post! Restored completely.

This post has been edited by fdv: 04 March 2008 - 08:19 AM

[fdv]

I am slowly assembling the assorted files that fdv used, largely to assemble a fairly straight-forward fix pack with little addin, based on workstation.

Thank God. I really didn't want to do that myself. I presume you'll at least make the UPDATE.INF publicly available? That's a task I really was NOT looking forward to.

[os2fan2]

See, eg http://www.msfn.org/...-SP-t82169.html for some existing attempt at this.

The idea here was to add all of the post sp6a stuff into sp6a. The post gives the first SI (what needs to be added to the 299444 update.inf), based on the fixes listed as http://nt4ref.zcm.com.au/patch.htm . This is the hardest bit (from lots of little bits and pieces), one creates 299444+additions. and then one merges this into SP6A.

It largely works, it gives 'revised service pack 6a'. It's pretty straight forward, but largely the process is moribound.

Plans were made to add extra stuff like directx 5.

I am currently looking at doing an SI tape (superimposition tape), that will both slipstream NT4 and act as a standalone service pack 7. I am not sure how far i will get to, but the plan is to build SP7 as an install, and then add slipstreaming of it (largely based on REXX scripts: rexx and the necessary DLLs will form part of the package. [OS/2 includes Rexx ]. I still don't know about having rexx in the final install.

A lot of the stuff from this will be Win 3.51 usable too, since updating the registry is pretty much the same.

W [Message number 324 = 18*18]

This post has been edited by os2fan2: 05 March 2008 - 01:51 AM

[Tomcat76]

Basic slipstreamer for WKS and SRV (SP6a, rollup, Windows Installer 2.0 and select hotfixes).
Download (pick latest)
Read _readme.txt as well as the _support*.txt file that applies to your edition (Terminal Server not supported yet).

This project may merge with HFSLIP.

[Muppet Hunter]

fdv

A good defragger for NT4 can be found here http://ultradefrag.sourceforge.net/

The best defragger I've found (and I've tried loads over the years) is JKDefrag (http://www.kessels.com/JkDefrag/) which supports all sorts of optimisation methods. Although it only works on Windows 2000 and later, it could be made to work on NT4 according to the program's author in this thread on their forum. As the program is open source, it's surely got to be a subproject for someone profficient in C programming.

As an aside, I'm sure NT4 won't install on preformatted ntfs but instead converts from FAT after you pick the partition at install. Also, I seem to remember that the default ntfs cluster size is less than 4k (2k iirc) and the only solution I know of is to use Partition Magic boot media to resize the clusters up to 4k. It would be good if anyone knew of a way round these limitations.

MH

[fdv]

Muppet Hunter, on Mar 10 2008, 06:02 AM, said:

As an aside, I'm sure NT4 won't install on preformatted ntfs but instead converts from FAT after you pick the partition at install. Also, I seem to remember that the default ntfs cluster size is less than 4k (2k iirc) and the only solution I know of is to use Partition Magic boot media to resize the clusters up to 4k. It would be good if anyone knew of a way round these limitations.

Actually, NT4 will see a valid NTFS volume, whether v4 or v5, and offer to let you install on it leaving it "unchanged." It only creates FAT16 and then converts the FAT to NTFS on new installs onto unformatted media.

I do agree that preformatting with Partition Magic or Paragon. There's SwissKnife Tools which is freeware which works also. The best approach is to build a PE and do it that way IMO.

About the defrag: I looked at the other forum post. It's interesting to note that the author talks about the defrag API maybe being in NT4, which it definitely is. I have recently been working with MS VC++ and the Win32 SDK and any software you write these days is a big question mark as far as NT is concerned, because you can download the Vista/Server 2008 SDK and only the XP and 2003 SDKs (they are separate) if you try really hard to find them (MS hides them, and will soon drop them -- get them while you can. They are free.) Anyway, my point is that when compiling Windows software in the future, it's going to be harder to get stuff to run on NT4 because MS will simply stop offering the tools that would allow you to do it. The same's going to happen for Win2k and XP, I am sure, but I have not looked at the new Win32 SDK, so that's only my guess.

Edit: I tried a beta of Firefox 3 on NT4 and it refused to install. Not that it matters but I am very curious and plan to examine the FF3 source to determine if this limitation is fake or if FF relies on some APIs not present in NT4. Somehow I doubt it's real. In related news, I have been playing with the source for FF 2.0.0.12 to compile the mythical ActiveX control, and surprise surprise!! The Mozilla Build Environment 1.2 is FULL of (poorly documented) bugs!

This post has been edited by fdv: 11 March 2008 - 12:22 PM

[Muppet Hunter]

fdv

It's a while since I tried to set up NT4 (including hacking all the infs) although I'm not sure why I had the problem installing onto ntfs. Anyway, I've read about (but not used) PE's and they do seem to be good for things like formatting, partitioning (and even defragging). At the moment I use linux-based LiveCDs like Parted Magic and Clonezilla for preparing and backing up my drives - they've really started to become viable recently. I think Parted Magic uses linux-ntfs to create the filesystem and it supports ntfs v4 and later, but I'm not sure if it does this out of the box (ie command line switches are probably needed). I think ntfs-3g supports v4 too iirc.

You're probably right regarding the SDK tools, but I'm sure a lot of programmers are just slack or lazy in not supporting 9X and NT4. I suppose NT4 compatible software might need to become a separate thread, but a lot of stuff these days doesn't support anything below 2K. Sadly it looks like Firefox 3 has gone down this route, see http://en.wikipedia....Backend_changes. Opera still explicitly supports Windows 95 btw