Longhorn 2008 Beta

[LPMK]

Hi,

I don’t know if is the right place to be asking a question or not, but I thought maybe if I ask I will find out soon.

Is there a place on the internet that still has a copy of “Longhorn 2008 Beta”?, I’ve looked all over and can’t find a place that has it still. Please message ASAP.

Thanks

[AS95678]

Input http://thounsell.co.uk/files/lh08-b2.exe into the Wayback Machine

[LPMK]

Thanks for the help, I have two other questions related to longhorn but are not relevant to Longhorn 2008 Beta.
There first one is, is a place that still hosts a copy of "Longhorn Reloaded"? I know Microsoft sent a C&D letter, but wondered if anyone still has the ISO.
The second question is, I saw on another page on BetaArchive of somebody that had managed to get WinFS working on Build 4074 and I wondered how that was done and how to do it my self.

Thanks for all the help

[yourepicfailure]

I may still have a copy of Longhorn Reloaded. I'll have to go digging, but I know it's on one of my drives.

EDIT: Found it, check your PM. I'll probably put up a public link later.



It uses an old i386 setup, with the billboards changed to some subtly humorous text. Even mentions the defunct iexbeta forum.
The actual reloaded components are installed via a $oem$ rig using installshield. You can even see that they did not have the necessary data to enable the full aero, and do note taskbar and sidebar skins differ slightly from TWIWMTB and Longhorn 2008.
The preview pane is not animated, it's just a still aurora image.

[mrpijey]

Is this "Reloaded" cracked in some way, i.e has its evaluation/beta trial period or licensing bypassed?

[Lucas Brooks]

It was modified with shell32, explorer and other bunch of files patched.

[DFUsr]

I have another patch called "Longhorn R2" which is pretty similar to other ones, but it is considered the first one. I think Reloaded was based on it.

[yourepicfailure]

Its timebomb was semi-patched with the setupreg.hiv fix, however it still has the 60 day trial limitation before WGA invades the login. I guess that was one way they were able to put it on iexbeta without it fully qualifying as "cracked" to that forum's rules.
Eg this release's gray position is why I was reluctant to put out a public link immediately.

[LPMK]

https://www.betaarchive.com/imageupload ... .50321.jpg

Does anyone know why I am having this problem? I've tried Longhorn 4047 Original, TWIWMTB and Reloaded and they all do the same thing. On the original and TWIWMTB, I put the compatibilty of VMware to 6.5x and installed the 6.5 drivers and nothing worked, for Reloaded, I installed Virtual-Box Guest Additions (on Virtual-Box obviously) and that did the same thing. The link is what happens above is what happens every time I try to start the DWM. I have added the keys AND installed the Longhorn 08 Beta 2 patch but non of that seems to work.

Please help

[yourepicfailure]

Look closely at that error message. It says system cannot find the file specified. That should give a clue.
Longhorn reloaded comes with a smart sbctl program, open it in start menu and its icon pops up in the notification tray. Try that for dce, it worked for my screenshot.

[LPMK]

The smart_sbctl didn't work at all it doesn't do anything

[yourepicfailure]

Did you check the notification tray? An icon similar to the run dialog one will pop up.
Either left or right click it and a context menu will appear.

[LPMK]

https://www.betaarchive.com/imageupload ... .61286.jpg

I am back on standard Longhorn, I added the keys, then got to the Beta Patch and back to this problem. I am so confused, please help

[yourepicfailure]

Yes, look in the error message. What file is missing?
Move the scroll bar to the right.

[LPMK]

There wasn't anything when I scrolled to the right, so here is a copy of the whole error presented on all PCs and VMs that I've tried Aero on.

[LPMK]

See the end of this message for details on invoking
just-in-time (JIT) debugging instead of this dialog box.

************** Exception Text **************
System.ComponentModel.Win32Exception: The system cannot find the file specified
at System.Diagnostics.Process.StartWithShellExecuteEx(ProcessStartInfo startInfo)
at System.Diagnostics.Process.Start()
at System.Diagnostics.Process.Start(ProcessStartInfo startInfo)
at System.Diagnostics.Process.Start(String fileName)
at Avalon_Controls_V_13.MainForm.Button1Click(Object sender, EventArgs e)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.OnClick(EventArgs e)
at System.Windows.Forms.Button.OnClick(EventArgs e)
at System.Windows.Forms.Button.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.Button.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.ControlNativeWindow.OnMessage(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.ControlNativeWindow.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.ControlNativeWindow.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.NativeWindow.Callback(IntPtr hWnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wparam, IntPtr lparam)


************** Loaded Assemblies **************
mscorlib
Assembly Version: 2.0.3600.0
Win32 Version: 2.0.31113.25 (pd2.040108-2105)
CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/Microsoft.NET/Framework/v2.0.31113/mscorlib.dll
----------------------------------------
Avalon Controls V 1.3
Assembly Version: 1.0.2389.35108
Win32 Version: 1.0.2389.35108
CodeBase: file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/All%20Users/Start%20Menu/Programs/System%20Tools/DWM%20Controls%20V%201.3.exe
----------------------------------------
System.Windows.Forms
Assembly Version: 2.0.3600.0
Win32 Version: 2.0.31113.25 (pd2.040108-2105)
CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Windows.Forms/2.0.3600.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Windows.Forms.dll
----------------------------------------
System
Assembly Version: 2.0.3600.0
Win32 Version: 2.0.31113.25 (pd2.040108-2105)
CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System/2.0.3600.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Drawing
Assembly Version: 2.0.3600.0
Win32 Version: 2.0.31113.25 (pd2.040108-2105)
CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Drawing/2.0.3600.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/System.Drawing.dll
----------------------------------------
Accessibility
Assembly Version: 2.0.3600.0
Win32 Version: 2.0.31113.25 (pd2.040108-2105)
CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/Accessibility/2.0.3600.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/Accessibility.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Xml
Assembly Version: 2.0.3600.0
Win32 Version: 2.0.31113.25 (pd2.040108-2105)
CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Xml/2.0.3600.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Xml.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Security
Assembly Version: 2.0.3600.0
Win32 Version: 2.0.31113.25 (pd2.040108-2105)
CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Security/2.0.3600.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/System.Security.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Soap
Assembly Version: 2.0.3600.0
Win32 Version: 2.0.31113.25 (pd2.040108-2105)
CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Soap/2.0.3600.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Soap.dll
----------------------------------------
System.Runtime.Remoting
Assembly Version: 2.0.3600.0
Win32 Version: 2.0.31113.25 (pd2.040108-2105)
CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.Runtime.Remoting/2.0.3600.0__b77a5c561934e089/System.Runtime.Remoting.dll
----------------------------------------
System.DirectoryServices
Assembly Version: 2.0.3600.0
Win32 Version: 2.0.31113.25 (pd2.040108-2105)
CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/System.DirectoryServices/2.0.3600.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/System.DirectoryServices.dll
----------------------------------------
cscompmgd
Assembly Version: 8.0.1200.0
Win32 Version: 8.0.31113.25
CodeBase: file:///C:/WINDOWS/assembly/GAC_MSIL/cscompmgd/8.0.1200.0__b03f5f7f11d50a3a/cscompmgd.dll
----------------------------------------

************** JIT Debugging **************
To enable just in time (JIT) debugging, the config file for this
application or machine (machine.config) must have the
jitDebugging value set in the system.windows.forms section.
The application must also be compiled with debugging
enabled.

For example:

<configuration>
<system.windows.forms jitDebugging="true" />
</configuration>

When JIT debugging is enabled, any unhandled exception
will be sent to the JIT debugger registered on the machine
rather than being handled by this dialog.

[yourepicfailure]

Yup that's the error when sbctl is not existent. Check that sbctl.exe exists in both windows\i386 and windows\system32.

seriously though rather than fiddle with a "smart sbctl" controller, use

Code: Select all

rundll32 %systemdrive%\windows\system32\uxdesk.dll,DwmStartComposition
%systemdrive%\windows\i386\sbctl.exe start

In cmd courtesy of melcher. If you don't think this works better, see my longhorn reloaded screenshot.
You can get DCE working too!

[LPMK]

It exists in the i386 folder but not in System32.....

PS: I have used this in a .bat file (found from Melcher which includes that in the file) and that just crashes explorer and freezes the machine....

[yourepicfailure]

It exists in the i386 folder but not in System32.....

PS: I have used this in a .bat file (found from Melcher which includes that in the file) and that just crashes explorer and freezes the machine....

Did you install the svga driver and enable 3d acceleration in vmware?

[LPMK]

Yes, I installed the SVGA driver from the hounsell driver pack off longhorn.ms and 3d acceleration is enabled

[yourepicfailure]

Here's the question that may come as a blow to you. What vmware version are you using? No matter what version you set it to for compatibility, a version too new will flat-out not work.
I use 7.1.4 and it works flawlessly.

[LPMK]

I use VMware Workstation 15, with compatibility set to 6.5x

[yourepicfailure]

And that's the sad part. Right around 9 or 10 it started getting glitchy with longhorn, and I remember seeing posts back in 2014 saying DCE outright won't function on 12 and beyond. Something about changes with the vmware graphics engine implementation.

That's something compatibility mode won't fix.
And afaik, I haven't seen anyone pulling it off with a modern vmware. Someone could've but that person is not me.

[LPMK]

How would I get around this issue?
The strange part is that it did the same thing on my Vista era laptop.

PS: I was looking in the C: drive and the sbctl.exe exits in the i386 folder but not in the system32 folder.

[yourepicfailure]

You have to accept the fact that certain graphics drivers and devices just do not work with longhorn dce.
On my d600 (16 years old to date) there was only one specific driver version that worked with longhorn dce.

Try moving sbctl.exe to system32. Some of these smart sbctl programs call it from there even though sbctl by default only exists in i386.
If that doesn't work, just move the smart sbctl program into i386 and run it from there.