Minimum requirements for Longhorn

[BF10]

I want to ask what are the minimal requirements for the Longhorn builds in certain ranges? Even though it is already a bad idea, I am trying to see if at least one other pre-reset build will run on PCem, since I got build 3718 to successfully run on it without being unstable (although a bit slow due to emulator lag and with no sound). All I know is that the 3xxx builds have the same minimum requirements as Windows XP (233Mhz processor and 128MB RAM), build 4053 requires a 500Mhz processor and 256MB RAM, and the post-reset builds will just straight up not run (since it requires ACPI which PCem cannot support).

This is not about using PCem on this, it is just wanting to know the minimum requirements of the builds in general since searching it up provides nothing helpful except "use the Vista RTM specs".

[oscareczek]

Use 86Box instead of PCem, downloadable here: http://ci.86box.net/job/86Box-Optimized/ , roms from here: http://tinyurl.com/rs20170915
This site has a lot of information about Longhorn req, but it's the recommended ones (just divide everything by 2 and it should be somewhere near minimal req) https://www.google.com/search?q=longhor ... s123nt.com

[AlphaBeta]

Running Longhorn on 86Box or PCem is a very bad idea, because you're not going to get it running alright on a 100 MHz Pentium and anything faster will not run at full speed and therefore will be even slower.

[BF10]

Running Longhorn on 86Box or PCem is a very bad idea, because you're not going to get it running alright on a 100 MHz Pentium and anything faster will not run at full speed and therefore will be even slower.

I do notice the major lag (a flaw that is also present in 2000, Me, and XP), but I just want to experience if Longhorn will work on it at least. I know that there is Microsoft Virtual PC and VMWare that does better in virtualization of Longhorn builds.

[LuLu]

vmware 5.5 is good for 3xxx range, even some in 4xxx like 4029
but you won't get all the nice things

6.x was 1st that supported 3D driver but is already heavier on system

[BF10]

Apparently build 4042 works and installs properly, but it is extremely slow and the S3 VIRGE drivers aren't working after the 2nd stage of setup (yes the taskbar is there but is hidden and will only show notification bubbles and the Start Menu. The sidebar is also missing). I also found that it also has a different "Safe to Shutdown" screen, so this screen is the last existing "Safe to Shutdown" screen.





So, in the end, I hit the deep end for PCem - 4042. I think higher is possible (Bob Pony got 4093 to get to the Preinstallation Environment but didn't manage to get past that), but 4093 is basically impossible unless you can leave the computer on for days. I'm now satisfied of the answer - it completely works on near-above-XP specs but in the end it will be slow. However, PCem still runs these builds pretty stable (I never had it crash on me besides myself terminating csrss.exe or winlogon.exe ), so it gets points for that. I am willing to see if anyone has managed to get anywhere higher than 4042 on PCem, but I highly doubt such thing will be an easy task.

[oscareczek]

As I said before: try 86Box.

[BF10]

As I said before: try 86Box.

Still, it wouldn't catch up with the speed of the Virutal Machine and could be slow as what AlphaBeta said.

Also, I managed to get the sidebar and taskbar to load, although Explorer kept crashing. Also PCem hardlocked once when I tried to log in.



The main lesson is once you hit Whistler for PCem, it will get slow, so Longhorn in the end will be a pain to install and run. Thus, you can run pre-reset Longhorn on an Windows XP PC with minimal stats, but don't expect it to last that long.

[oscareczek]

You don't understand. 86box is an improved version of PCem.

[BF10]

After waiting again for setup at the hardware part, I managed to get 4074 to work! Ironically, it is more stable and faster than 4042, but it makes it up for the ridiculous shutdown time which is slower than startup.

If I have time next week I will try to see 4093 (like what Bob Pony did). If successful, I will be the first person to actually get 4093 installed completely on any PCem build. 4074 still seems to support the original Pentium fine.






EDIT: I am going to use longhorn.ms's version of 4093 to get this installed due to broken PE. So far I made it past the first stage and at the hardware stage. It is working without crashing or having PCem crash. So far vanilla PCem is running this part of setup stabler than 86Box seen in Bob Pony's video. If it fails here, then at least certain parts of 4093 works but not all of it.

[BF10]

Sorry for the double post, but I have finally managed to get Build 4093 to install on PCem completely. Setup still took 12 hours and first boot still took 30 minutes. For some reason though, it is faster than 4042 or 4074 and around as stable as 4074 but states that I am running very low on disk space.






As of this posting, I am the first and currently only person to get Longhorn 4093 to install completely on PCem. So as a result, pre-reset Longhorn still runs on XP specs and the minimal requirements got changed somewhere in the post-reset stage. Still, I do not recommend trying to install Longhorn on XP minimal specs.

EDIT: I'm not sure with the disk space warning, Explorer states I have 2.55GB of free space left. Yes, you can still load Explorer fine without crashing and thus this build is probably the most usable 4xxx build with the Slate theme. Do not ask me to get post-reset builds since like I said earlier, they require ACPI which PCem does not support. I would find 4074 and 4093 both stable, but I think somewhere in the 401x-404x range that makes the builds unstable.

EDIT 2: Turns out the 4001 setup checks the processor and prevents you from running it on a Pentium. It states you must use a Pentium III. I'm not sure why they got rid of that check in later versions.

EDIT 3: I decided to test build 4028 on PCem 13.1 to see if it makes any difference between my attempt on PCem 12 (which detected the graphics driver but did not boot after reboot). PCem 13.1 did not install the graphics driver.

[Bob Pony]

Impressive, but you should've used 86Box since it has a lot of more features than PCem.

[Lukas Marsik]

EDIT 2: Turns out the 4001 setup checks the processor and prevents you from running it on a Pentium. It states you must use a Pentium III. I'm not sure why they got rid of that check in later versions.

4001 is quite an odd build in terms of Setup tech. It's the only build we have that uses NetFx based setup in the PE. This was changed to the native one just a few builds later.

[MSUser2013]

Apparently build 4042 works and installs properly, but it is extremely slow and the S3 VIRGE drivers aren't working after the 2nd stage of setup (yes the taskbar is there but is hidden and will only show notification bubbles and the Start Menu. The sidebar is also missing).

As for the S3 graphics driver not working properly, that's a known issue even on Microsoft Virtual PC (which emulates an S3 Trio32/64 which is the 2D-only counterpart of the S3 ViRGE), I've found an old post here on how to get it to work which could be worth a shot to try if you're still working on this project.

EDIT 2: Turns out the 4001 setup checks the processor and prevents you from running it on a Pentium. It states you must use a Pentium III. I'm not sure why they got rid of that check in later versions.

EDIT 3: I decided to test build 4028 on PCem 13.1 to see if it makes any difference between my attempt on PCem 12 (which detected the graphics driver but did not boot after reboot). PCem 13.1 did not install the graphics driver.

I remember hearing that a Pentium III was the minimum recommended CPU for Longhorn so I imagine 4001 was the first (and maybe the only) build to check the CPU during setup. I'd check the builds in the 4008-4028 range to see which one removed the CPU check.

[BF10]

Sorry for the bump, but now I tried installing Windows Longhorn 4093 again on PCem 13.1 (that time it took 8 hours), and installed the S3 SuperSavage driver and Sound Blaster 16 (via this thread), and everything went smoothly (except the constant lag that is normal).









I also tried Windows Server 2008 build 4028 on PCem, but it apparently does not work, since setup hangs before the WinPE can load (at the blank blue background, not at "Starting Setup... One moment please" screen). Haven't tried 4066 yet, but it will probably work due to using i386. Does Windows Server 2008 build 4028/4066 needs ACPI, does it no longer support the Pentium 1, or is it a corrupted build I got and I need to get a better copy?

EDIT: I also tried Windows Server 2008 build 4066, but it decided to restart during "Registering components". After that setup basically tried to kill itself with errors relating to ngen.exe. I will try to see if upgrading from RTM Server 2003 will work.