Windows 7 x86 porting 32-bit UEFI boot

[ZhuMa]

This is a very interesting study. This feature is ported from the Windows beta.
Although it is officially claimed that only Windows 8 and later versions support x86 UEFI boot, In fact Microsoft introduced 32-bit UEFI boot support as early as the beta version of Windows Vista. Of course, versions earlier than Windows 8 still require CSM support by default when UEFI boot.
The first Windows system build to support UEFI-IA32 boot was 6.0.5219, but this feature was removed by Microsoft after building 6.0.5477.

Until the 32-bit UEFI boot appeared again at build 6.1.7850 and has been retained to this day, the build is also the first Windows system to support exFAT boot.


At present, I have successfully implemented 32-bit UEFI booting of Windows XP and Vista, but I still cannot achieve 32-bit UEFI booting of Windows 7.
I ported the UEFI boot file of Build 5219 to Windows XP Build 5.1.2600.5512 to boot successfully.

Then I ported the UEFI boot file of Build 5477 to Windows Vista Build 6.0.6000.16386 and it was able to boot successfully.

But when I ported the UEFI boot file of Build 7850 to Windows 7 Build 6.1.7600.16385, the boot failed and the BSOD 0x00000100 appeared.



According to the situation in the screenshot, is there a way to solve this problem?

[Hyoenmadan86]

This is a very interesting study. This feature is ported from the Windows beta.
...
At present, I have successfully implemented 32-bit UEFI booting of Windows XP and Vista, but I still cannot achieve 32-bit UEFI booting of Windows 7.
I ported the UEFI boot file of Build 5219 to Windows XP Build 5.1.2600.5512 to boot successfully.
...

First of all, this doesn't qualify as "porting" or "implementing"... "port" requires at least file disassembling and patching, and "implement" requires coding your own solutions, yes or yes.
You are just transplanting files between windows editions. Call thing by their proper name.

Second, Vista Beta Winload is incompatible with Win7 in both x32 and x64 versions. That's because there was big change in the way the memory is mapped by Winload and then passed to NTOSKRNL during early kernel initialization stages. This is very early in the process, because this crash doesn't even appear in WinDBG (kernel support for it still hasn't bee initialized when it occurs). I really doubt this can be fixed by simple patching, because it involves changes in many parts of Winload booting code.

[AlphaBeta]

Maybe Windows 8 bootmgr/winload would be a better fit?

[Meow]

Maybe Windows 8 bootmgr/winload would be a better fit?

It certainly is. I used the 8 bootmgr to boot 7 on UEFI and it worked perfectly.

[Octal450]

This is very interesting, but I've had problems with UEFI on newer systems with Vista/7. I believe it related to the graphics drivers not being supported in UEFI mode, as if I slipstream the video driver it sometimes fixes it.

J

[Marlen Maksumov]

Hi, can you say how you made Windows Vista boot in IA32 UEFI, you could upload the files that are needed to boot properly so others can also try.

[2015Windows10]

Hi, can you say how you made Windows Vista boot in IA32 UEFI, you could upload the files that are needed to boot properly so others can also try.

I imagine it would be the exact same files used to boot XP on UEFI with BCD.

[wyf180]

Maybe you could use depends to find lack api in win7 ntoskrnl.exe to use winload 7850 then add it to ntoskrn8.sys https://github.com/MovAX0xDEAD/NTOSKRNL_Emu at last to fix the winload.efi .

[George King]

@wyf180 I don't see any imports in winload.efi in Depency Walker or Depencies

[Meow]

Maybe you could use depends to find lack api in win7 ntoskrnl.exe to use winload 7850 then add it to ntoskrn8.sys https://github.com/MovAX0xDEAD/NTOSKRNL_Emu at last to fix the winload.efi .

You don’t even need to do this.

You can just use the Windows 8 efi bootmgr and load 7 that way.
If you’re on a class 3 uefi system (no csm) then you can use something called UefiSeven to get display output.

[SONBTV]

Maybe you could use depends to find lack api in win7 ntoskrnl.exe to use winload 7850 then add it to ntoskrn8.sys https://github.com/MovAX0xDEAD/NTOSKRNL_Emu at last to fix the winload.efi .

You don’t even need to do this.

You can just use the Windows 8 efi bootmgr and load 7 that way.
If you’re on a class 3 uefi system (no csm) then you can use something called UefiSeven to get display output.

But the weird thing that he is trying to boot Windows 7 x86 with Windows 8 bootmgfw.efi and winload.efi on UEFI with CSM

[AlphaBeta]

Well then no further action is required, that should just work

[JPanag1982]

I tried Windows 7 x86 SP1, with the UEFI files of Windows 8 7850 but it doesn't work. Any advice please? Thank you very much

P.S.: The laptop has no CSM and it has UEFI 32bit

[2015Windows10]

This is a very interesting study. This feature is ported from the Windows beta.
Although it is officially claimed that only Windows 8 and later versions support x86 UEFI boot, In fact Microsoft introduced 32-bit UEFI boot support as early as the beta version of Windows Vista. Of course, versions earlier than Windows 8 still require CSM support by default when UEFI boot.
The first Windows system build to support UEFI-IA32 boot was 6.0.5219, but this feature was removed by Microsoft after building 6.0.5477.

Until the 32-bit UEFI boot appeared again at build 6.1.7850 and has been retained to this day, the build is also the first Windows system to support exFAT boot.


At present, I have successfully implemented 32-bit UEFI booting of Windows XP and Vista, but I still cannot achieve 32-bit UEFI booting of Windows 7.
I ported the UEFI boot file of Build 5219 to Windows XP Build 5.1.2600.5512 to boot successfully.

Then I ported the UEFI boot file of Build 5477 to Windows Vista Build 6.0.6000.16386 and it was able to boot successfully.

But when I ported the UEFI boot file of Build 7850 to Windows 7 Build 6.1.7600.16385, the boot failed and the BSOD 0x00000100 appeared.



According to the situation in the screenshot, is there a way to solve this problem?

How did you get Vista booting on 32-bit UEFI? I installed it in CSM, then added the 5477 UEFI files, but got the 0x00000079 BSOD.