Good news .....

KernelEx v4.5 Final released ...

By Xeno, December 30, 2010 1:49 am

The wait is finally over. KernelEx 4.5 has now gone final, which means this is the new stable release.
Because of the stability fixes it is a recommended update for 4.5 beta and RC users.

Check out our new Wiki. The wiki, and in particular its compatibility database requires your help to grow into something bigger and more useful. After free registration anyone can add new entries, but new users will be required to enter captcha code on every edit, to reduce spam problem.

What’s new:

* Reworked installer (should be more compatible with kernel32 updates)
* New welcome screen
* Fixed stability of extended TLS code
* Fixed hang issues with printers
* Added Windows Installer compatibility database for MSI files patching

Apps fixed / now working:

* Fixed: Foxit Reader 3.1 drag-and-drop crash
* Fixed: Qt 4.6+ hotkey issues
* Fixed: Opera 11 ‘about:’ pages
* Fixed: Firefox displaying file save dialog twice
* Fixed: caret not showing on some configurations (Opera)
* Now working: Google Earth 5.2 (6.0 beta experimentally)

This release includes new feature to ease installation of MSI format packages that contain a check for Windows NT system.
This feature uses a database which means it won’t magically work for all MSI files at once, it rather needs adding an entry for each and every MSI file.
Currently the database includes entries for Microsoft Word Viewer 2003, Microsoft Excel Viewer 2003, Microsoft Office 2007 File Format Converters, Google Earth 5.1, 5.2 and Adobe Reader 7.0 (all english versions only!).

KernelEx home page: http://kernelex.sourceforge.net/

KernelEx Wiki: http://kernelex.sourceforge.net/wiki/

Download: http://sourceforge.net/projects/kernelex/files/KernelEx/4.5%20Final/

MSFN Page:

http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/130936-kernelex-45-final/page__st__1100



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/30/2010 06:16PM by duffy98.

YES!! Just uninstalled, took the time to rebooted (I've learned that lesson ), then installed the brandnew stable version, and all works fine!!

Just one little thing: over at the Kex-Forum there are AGAIN a bunch of people saying they can't update nor uninstall the old version, since the backup of their original win98 kernel32.dll has somehow vanished (kernel32.bak, in my case dating from 2005). Now they must retrieve it from their win98 CD to continue. Can only pass that tip again, before installing the new version, make a manual copy of old version of c:/windows/system/kernel32.dll (check its date) and rename it to kernel32.dll.mybak, if you don't have your old CD handy ;-) And copy it with original name to c:/windows/sysbckup, someone said it was automatically found from there, unless I got him wrong...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/30/2010 10:16PM by siria.

Yes siria, I noticed that also at the KernelEx forum ... that will never happen to me again. Good you posted that info ... I will post what the KernelEx moderator told me to do last September to fix the problem. Also, if someone has a "Junk Cleaning" program installed, you may have to put the "kernel32.bak" file on a "protect" or "do not delete" list. That was also my part of my original problem since the cleaning program deleted .bak files.


Date: September 20, 2010 04:48AM

Well I was able to get a newer version of KernelEx installed. The developer of the program gave me the solution to my KernelEx problem. The "kernel32.bak" file was missing and I followed his instructions to fix everything ... version 4.5 RC 1 installed with no problem. I have not tried the newer K-Meleon Beta version yet ... was just happy to get a newer version of KernelEx installed ... now for the next part ... can I get a newer version of K-Meleon installed ??? I will go off line to try that now. I decided to try KernelEx 4.5 RC 1 first, if it doesn't seem to work very well then I will install the Beta version you are using.

What caused my KernelEx problem is that I have a hard drive "junk file" cleaning program on my computer and "bak" files are one of the type of files that it cleans. I have put the kernel32.bak on the Protect List and also made a spare backup copy to be burned to a CD. Shouldn't have this problem ever again.

In case someone else has this problem ... here are his instructions to fix the problem:

KernelEx Uninstall

This basically means that backup file for KERNEL32.DLL was missing during uninstall which couldn't be fully completed and you're locked at v4.0 final2

Follow these steps to recover from this situation and allow upgrades:

Quote
1. Click on "Start" button
2. Select "Run..."
3. Type "sfc" and click "OK" - this will run "System File Checker" utility
4. Select "Extract one file from installation disk"
5. Type "kernel32.dll" in the edit box below
6. Click on "Start"
7. Insert you Windows 98 SE CD-ROM
8. Choose approperiate path to CD, eg. "D:\WIN98\" in first edit box
9. Click "OK"
10. Choose if (and where) you want backup old file
11. When asked to reboot click "Yes"


News ... News ... News ... 12-30-2010

******* OK, I see that the KernelEx developer has changed where the kernel32.dll is now stored ... it is no longer a .bak file and is now stored in the Windows\Sysbckup folder. So it won't be deleted by any "cleaning tools" ... very good change.

... from KernelEx forum:

This basically means that the previous uninstallation of KernelEx wasn't 'clean' and kernel32.dll wasn't unpatched.

The common cause is KERNEL32.BAK file being deleted. The uninstaller is designed to not complain if it can't revert kernel32.dll modifications.

By previous uninstallation I mean any of KernelEx 4.5 RC1 through RC5 because al these releases shared the same patching scheme and they could detect that file has already had compatible patch applied and didn't complain, even when there was no original kernel32.dll.

KernelEx 4.5 Final uses different patch because of changes made to the installer. The backup of kernel32.dll is no longer stored in KernelEx directory, instead it's now stored under C:\WINDOWS\SYSBCKUP\KERNEL32.DLL so it won't be accidentally deleted by cleanup tools or user. The file stored under SYSBCKUP is always original (unpatched) file.



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 12/31/2010 12:15AM by duffy98.

na hey, da hatte isch ja echt recht alte versionen von den netten teilchen :-)

danke für die hinweise an guenter un siria :-) da is ja w98 doch noch ne abgestorben, wie geil!

Quote
duffy98

In case someone else has this problem ... here are his instructions to fix the problem:

KernelEx Uninstall

This basically means that backup file for KERNEL32.DLL was missing during uninstall which couldn't be fully completed and you're locked at v4.0 final2

Follow these steps to recover from this situation and allow upgrades:

Quote
1. Click on "Start" button
2. Select "Run..."
3. Type "sfc" and click "OK" - this will run "System File Checker" utility
4. Select "Extract one file from installation disk"
5. Type "kernel32.dll" in the edit box below
6. Click on "Start"
7. Insert you Windows 98 SE CD-ROM
8. Choose approperiate path to CD, eg. "D:\WIN98\" in first edit box
9. Click "OK"
10. Choose if (and where) you want backup old file
11. When asked to reboot click "Yes"

though if you have a large hard drive (which should be most common nowadays) better to store ALL the win98se setup files onto the hard drive. copy all the win98 se setup files from the CD onto a \win98\ or \win98se\ folder so that windows setup can just use the 98se setup files from the hard drive instead of the win98se cd. NO EXCUSES for not putting all the win98se installation files onto the hard disk drive!

and I was able to get KernelEx 4.5 final. now that dual-boot eMachines computer at my next-door neighbor's house that has win2k & win98se will be something when I try out KM 1.6 beta 2 and KM 1.7 alpha 2 on the win98se OS w/ Kernelex 4.5.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/08/2011 02:44AM by 4td8s.