[GnatGoSplat]

@JonusC wrote:

AsciiWolf and GnatGoSplat – could you guys release your work so far (4shared link is dead) so I can make sure all our work is inclusive 🙂

Jonus, it’s been awhile, but I don’t believe I’ve made any progress since the post where I attached my registry:
viewtopic.php?p=5551#p5551

[GnatGoSplat]

Thanks for the suggestion. I spent most of yesterday playing with InstallRite, and unfortunately, I didn’t have a lot of luck with it.

There are apparently a ton of registry settings that change regularly on their own, so I had to determine which ones apply and which ones don’t. It was a tedious task, but I managed to make a .reg file which didn’t work because many keys seemed to be missing. I ran as Administrator, but maybe I missed something? So I decided to make another attempt at reading the manifest files. I made a new .reg file which loaded, but there are 4 root kernel-mode drivers and they couldn’t be loaded. Even after setting permissions in the registry so my .reg file could write to their keys, they wouldn’t load because they’re unsigned. I guess if installed by the TrustedInstaller, it’s okay if drivers are unsigned or somehow it’s able to find the signature in the catalog file. I did also try editing the Default.iwc from InstallRite (just a renamed .mdb file), removing everything not pertaining to VirtualPC, and building an installation kit. Unfortunately, the install kit was unable to update protected registry settings nor copy files into System32 and its child folders, even when run as Administrator so I had to copy everything manually.

Anyway, even if all the files could be copied and the registry keys added, it still won’t work because it won’t load drivers and the services that depend on them due to being unsigned, or at least that’s what I suspect. The drivers, being root drivers, don’t show up in Device Manager so I had to check the Eventlog to see that they had failed to load.

I’m thinking best way is to somehow make a new update.cat file and find someone to legitimately sign it and install it the proper way with Windows Installer.

On the other hand, all I wanted XP Mode for was so I can use my old USB FM tuner which has no x64 drivers available. For all this trouble, I might as well just replace it with a new one!

[GnatGoSplat]

Yeah, you may be right.
I noticed my .cat file had an incorrect thumbprint, so I generated a new one using MakeCat.exe in the WDK.
I was able to successfully test-sign my new .cat file and installed the new certs into Trusted Root Certification Authorities and Trusted Publishers using these instructions:
http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread.php?t=33920573

I rebooted after “bcdedit /set testsigning on”, and got the “Test Mode” indication on the lower right. I clicked on my update.cat, and was pleased to see it said my catalog file is valid and certificates are OK. So I tried DISM, and in CBS.log… same problem, CERT_E_UNTRUSTEDROOT! So either DISM ignores testsigning or I did something wrong. 🙁

A custom installer could be made, but it’s probably more complicated than I can handle. I don’t even fully understand everything the .manifest files do. I understand the file copy and registry parts, but there’s other stuff in them.

[GnatGoSplat]

@AsciiWolf wrote:

Looks like I must also create new update.cat file…
But there’s one small problem – I don’t know how to do it… :/

You can use a Hex Editor to change the original hash in update.cat, then you will need to also update the hash in _manifest_.cix.xml for update.cat.

This will get past failure to verify the mum file, however, this invalidates the digital signature so I got:

2009-11-11 11:47:17, Error                 CBS    Failed to verify if catalog file \?C:Userssrl1994AppDataLocalTempE93BB9A6-6B55-4084-B99F-19CB56AFD89Cupdate.cat is valid. [HRESULT = 0x800b0100 - TRUST_E_NOSIGNATURE]

I found some Windows Mobile Developer certs on my machine, so I tried signing my new .cat file with it. However, it’s not a trusted cert, so I get:

2009-11-11 11:52:48, Error                 CBS    Failed to verify if catalog file \?C:Userssrl1994AppDataLocalTemp3803F4C8-37A5-48CC-9F1C-B1F60F1120ADupdate.cat is valid. [HRESULT = 0x800b0109 - CERT_E_UNTRUSTEDROOT]

I have no idea how to make it trusted. It should be possible to make developer test certs and make them trusted with tools from the Windows 7 SDK, but it’s a 4GB download which will take me awhile to get.

[GnatGoSplat]

Yeah, I don’t really care about ReadyBoost at all. The only reason I’m even looking into it is the registry values seem to give an impression that ReadyBoost, SuperFetch, and ReadyBoot are all tightly integrated with each other. That makes me wonder if it’s an “all or none” situation.

No, Windows 7 does not even have an ecache.sys file nor emdmgmt.dll. That gives me more reason to suspect maybe ReadyBoost and SuperFetch are integrated together.

Here are the files I copied over:
c:windowssystem32sysmain.dll
c:windowssystem32en-USsysmain.dll.mui
c:windowssystem32driversrdyboost.sys

I’ve file-attached my .reg file because it’s too big to put in the post (there is a huge registry key for ReadyBoost in it).
[attachment=0:vvegucra]SuperFetch.rar[/attachment:vvegucra]

Also, “sysmain” needs to be added to HKLMSOFTWAREMicrosoftWindows NTCurrentVersionSvchostLocalSystemNetworkRestricted. It’s a “Multi-SZ” value and I didn’t want to overwrite it with the one from Windows 7 so I added it manually.

I did notice HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindows NTCurrentVersionSuperfetchDiskAssessment gets populated with new values, so the Superfetch service does do something!

[GnatGoSplat]

Yeah, you’re right, I think my Superfetch isn’t working. 🙁
Mainly because I think if it were working, Rdyboost should be loaded, but it isn’t.
I do get in the Event Log, “The Superfetch service entered the running state.” However, I also get:

The following boot-start or system-start driver(s) failed to load:
rdyboost

Too bad! I had copied SYSMAIN.DLL, SYSMAIN.DLL.MUI, and RDYBOOST.SYS over, then imported all registry keys relating to those files. I think the ReadyBoot may be part of the RDYBOOST.SYS driver as the keys relating to ReadyBoot are under the RDYBOOST service. I have a ReadyBoost/Operational Event Log handler category, but it’s empty (as opposed to Windows 7 which has ReadyBoost and ReadyBoot event items in it).

I got a BSOD when I tried to add “rdyboost” under LowerFilters in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlClass{71A27CDD-812A-11D0-BEC7-08002BE2092F} as it is in Windows 7.

I did notice in Safe Mode it lists RDYBOOST.SYS as one of the files it is trying to load.

Oh well, maybe someone will figure it out.

[GnatGoSplat]

I initially thought it happened every time, but I’ve been experimenting and found it does NOT happen every time.

I timed it with a stopwatch and it took 3min 56sec to shutdown the first time.
Then I booted into Safe Mode, it took less than 5-seconds!
So I rebooted, suspecting maybe it was VMware Player’s services. I shut those off. Shutdown took only 7-seconds from the time I clicked the button.
I thought I was onto something, booted up again, didn’t touch any services, shutdown again. Shutdown took 7-seconds. Darn, I guess it’s not VMware’s services so I guess I really have a mystery.

I’m strongly suspecting that it might still be connected to VMware Player 3.0 somehow. I think anytime I use the VM, maybe that makes shutdown slow. I’ll have to spend a lot more time to confirm this though.

I have no roles installed. I have performed steps 3-8 from http://www.win2008r2workstation.com/. I am connected to a domain. MS Live Messenger and VMware Player 3.0 and WinRAR were the only apps that were installed when I first started noticing the problem.
Machine is a Dell Optiplex 745, 4GB RAM, 2.1GHz Core 2 Duo, 80GB HDD, ATI X1300 video.

[GnatGoSplat]

I’m just guessing, but I think maybe the file update.mum inside Windows6.1-KB958559-x64.cab is what’s preventing VPC from installing. The file update.mum appears to have a list of valid OS’s, and I think theoretically if we could inject this into the list, it would see R2 as a valid OS.

However, I wasn’t able to test this because I don’t know how to modify a .cab file. I tried creating a new one with CabPack 1.4, but dism.exe couldn’t open it. Even if it could open it, it would probably fail because then the hashes in the update.cat would be wrong.

Is there a way to execute the individual .manifest files? Those appear to tell what folders to put the files into, what components to register, and what keys to add into the registry.

[GnatGoSplat]

Ugh, I should have checked here first. I spent most of the morning trying to figure out how to get Superfetch to work thinking that if I didn’t find info in Google, it must not have been done. Now it seems I spent most of the morning re-inventing the wheel.

Anyhow, I got my Superfetch to appear as though it’s working. Service is started. Now, how do I prove or disprove it is working? I’m getting .pf files in Prefetch, when I load programs, the drive grinds away for a long time initially, but when I close the app and re-run the program, it pops up instantly. Adobe Reader, Outlook 2007, IE, WMP, and PowerShell, they all took time to load the first time and now pop up instantly. Could be it was the standard prefetching and not Superfetch responsible for that, I don’t know?

The one that stands out in my head is PowerShell. I spent most of the early morning using it to try to get XP Mode to install. PowerShell was really slow to load every time I loaded it prior to Superfetch and I was thinking I should just use the regular command prompt, but now that I have enabled Superfetch, PowerShell loads up fast. I just wonder if that’s Superfetch in action, or placebo-effect?

[GnatGoSplat]

Thanks, I did see that option in the Power Options control panel, but my PC is kind of a reach and I’m lazy. 😆 I made a shortcut icon on my desktop that launches “shutdown.exe /h”, but I’d still prefer Hibernate in its proper spot in the Start Menu along with the other shutdown/sleep options if possible.

I ended up going with K-Lite CODEC pack to make DVD playback work. It only works with 32-bit Media Player… the K-Lite CODEC Pack x64 didn’t work with 64-bit Media Player for some reason. I guess it’s okay, my media buttons default to 32-bit Media Player anyway and I don’t know how to change that.

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