First NT6+ application support in ReactOS

[Colin Finck]

Hi all!

Starting with build 0.4.8-dev-655-g63a3a2c, ReactOS has first support
for NT6+ applications (aka programs written for Windows Vista, Windows
7, etc.). Please retest such applications under ReactOS!

As newer Windows APIs are still missing in ReactOS, I would be surprised
if a high number of NT6+ applications suddenly works.
However, many applications may just be compiled by a new Visual Studio
without using any modern APIs. They could work now.

My "Hello World" compiled by VS 2017 v141 toolchain printed many
messages about missing apiset DLLs in the debug log, but otherwise works
well. So the next step should obviously be finishing and integrating
Mark's work on the apiset DLLs in
https://github.com/learn-more/reactos/commits/apisets
But interestingly, the build produced by the v141_xp toolchain also
looks for these apiset DLLs. Therefore, it would be possible that an
application expects a full NT6 system when finding them. Consequently,
application compatibility could be compromised if we just dump all
apiset DLLs into ReactOS, applications now expect NT6, but the OS
continues to behave like NT5 by default.

This is why I suggest detecting an NT6+ application in ntdll to have it
auto-apply a shim that lets ReactOS behave like an NT6 OS. The apiset
DLLs should only be available in this mode, but not for the NT5
personality of ReactOS. Let's not import the apisets before the ntdll
shim work is done in order to preserve our existing application
compatibility.


Cheers,

Colin

[7th Element]

Wow,

Awesome work!!!
Keep up the good work and give us more news like this!

BR,
Peter

>   On 10 Jan 2018, at 11:05, Colin Finck
> <colin(a)reactos.org> wrote:
>  
>  Hi all!
>  
>  Starting with build 0.4.8-dev-655-g63a3a2c, ReactOS has first support
>  for NT6+ applications (aka programs written for Windows Vista, Windows
>  7, etc.). Please retest such applications under ReactOS!
>  
>  As newer Windows APIs are still missing in ReactOS, I would be surprised
>  if a high number of NT6+ applications suddenly works.
>  However, many applications may just be compiled by a new Visual Studio
>  without using any modern APIs. They could work now.
>  
>  My "Hello World" compiled by VS 2017 v141 toolchain printed many
>  messages about missing apiset DLLs in the debug log, but otherwise works
>  well. So the next step should obviously be finishing and integrating
>  Mark's work on the apiset DLLs in
>  https://github.com/learn-more/reactos/commits/apisets
>  But interestingly, the build produced by the v141_xp toolchain also
>  looks for these apiset DLLs. Therefore, it would be possible that an
>  application expects a full NT6 system when finding them. Consequently,
>  application compatibility could be compromised if we just dump all
>  apiset DLLs into ReactOS, applications now expect NT6, but the OS
>  continues to behave like NT5 by default.
>  
>  This is why I suggest detecting an NT6+ application in ntdll to have it
>  auto-apply a shim that lets ReactOS behave like an NT6 OS. The apiset
>  DLLs should only be available in this mode, but not for the NT5
>  personality of ReactOS. Let's not import the apisets before the ntdll
>  shim work is done in order to preserve our existing application
>  compatibility.
>  
>  
>  Cheers,
>  
>  Colin
>  
>  _______________________________________________
>  Ros-dev mailing list
>  Ros-dev(a)reactos.org
>  http://www.reactos.org/mailman/listinfo/ros-dev
>

[Javier Agustìn Fernàndez Arroyo]

errr... sorry, but.... ReactOS is still barely installable on Real
Hardware, with (i would say) a great lack on driver support... and you´re
thinking about NT6+???

Yes, its good news, no doubt about it! but... is it a priority?

Now you can ban me if you wish :P

On Wed, Jan 10, 2018 at 11:01 AM, 7th Element <7element(a)mail.bg> wrote:

>   Wow,
>
>  Awesome work!!!
>  Keep up the good work and give us more news like this!
>
>  BR,
>  Peter
>
> >   On 10 Jan 2018, at 11:05, Colin Finck
> > <colin(a)reactos.org> wrote:
> >
> >  Hi all!
> >
> >  Starting with build 0.4.8-dev-655-g63a3a2c, ReactOS has first support
> >  for NT6+ applications (aka programs written for Windows Vista, Windows
> >  7, etc.). Please retest such applications under ReactOS!
> >
> >  As newer Windows APIs are still missing in ReactOS, I would be surprised
> >  if a high number of NT6+ applications suddenly works.
> >  However, many applications may just be compiled by a new Visual Studio
> >  without using any modern APIs. They could work now.
> >
> >  My "Hello World" compiled by VS 2017 v141 toolchain printed many
> >  messages about missing apiset DLLs in the debug log, but otherwise works
> >  well. So the next step should obviously be finishing and integrating
> >  Mark's work on the apiset DLLs in
> >  https://github.com/learn-more/reactos/commits/apisets
> >  But interestingly, the build produced by the v141_xp toolchain also
> >  looks for these apiset DLLs. Therefore, it would be possible that an
> >  application expects a full NT6 system when finding them. Consequently,
> >  application compatibility could be compromised if we just dump all
> >  apiset DLLs into ReactOS, applications now expect NT6, but the OS
> >  continues to behave like NT5 by default.
> >
> >  This is why I suggest detecting an NT6+ application in ntdll to have it
> >  auto-apply a shim that lets ReactOS behave like an NT6 OS. The apiset
> >  DLLs should only be available in this mode, but not for the NT5
> >  personality of ReactOS. Let's not import the apisets before the ntdll
> >  shim work is done in order to preserve our existing application
> >  compatibility.
> >
> >
> >  Cheers,
> >
> >  Colin
> >
> >  _______________________________________________
> >  Ros-dev mailing list
> >  Ros-dev(a)reactos.org
> >  http://www.reactos.org/mailman/listinfo/ros-dev
> >  
>  _______________________________________________
>  Ros-dev mailing list
>  Ros-dev(a)reactos.org
>  http://www.reactos.org/mailman/listinfo/ros-dev
>

[David Quintana (gigaherz)]

Remember that ReactOS is mostly developed by volunteers, which means we do
what we want, not necessarily what would be most important. We try to
choose important tasks, but if we don't feel like it, there's no contract
forcing us to do them.

Every passing day, more people are interested in seeing NT6 applications
work in ReactOS, this DOES include people from the team. For now, we have
the beginning of the application compatibility system, ready to be used for
compatibility shims, so if someone does want to work on that, there is no
reason to reject their contributions.

Before Colin's commits, there were two factors preventing NT6 executables
from loading:
1. The PE header's version number, and
2. Unimplemented APIs.

#1 is the one that has been removed: now ReactOS will try to load any PE
executable (NT3.10 onward), no matter how new it is. If might fail due to
missing API exports, but it will at least TRY to work.

Now the doors are open for someone else who wants to work on this and not
something else, to implement compatibility shims for the missing features.

It does NOT mean we'll forget about stability improvements, it just allows
people to do what they enjoy.

Any (proper) contribution is better than no contributions at all.

On 11 January 2018 at 23:05, Javier Agustìn Fernàndez Arroyo <
elhoir(a)gmail.com&gt; wrote:

>   errr... sorry, but.... ReactOS is still barely
> installable on Real
>  Hardware, with (i would say) a great lack on driver support... and you´re
>  thinking about NT6+???
>
>  Yes, its good news, no doubt about it! but... is it a priority?
>
>  Now you can ban me if you wish :P
>
>  On Wed, Jan 10, 2018 at 11:01 AM, 7th Element &lt;7element(a)mail.bg&gt; wrote:
>
> >   Wow,
> >
> >  Awesome work!!!
> >  Keep up the good work and give us more news like this!
> >
> >  BR,
> >  Peter
> >
> > >   On 10 Jan 2018, at 11:05, Colin Finck
> > > &lt;colin(a)reactos.org&gt; wrote:
> > >
> > >  Hi all!
> > >
> > >  Starting with build 0.4.8-dev-655-g63a3a2c, ReactOS has first support
> > >  for NT6+ applications (aka programs written for Windows Vista, Windows
> > >  7, etc.). Please retest such applications under ReactOS!
> > >
> > >  As newer Windows APIs are still missing in ReactOS, I would be surprised
> > >  if a high number of NT6+ applications suddenly works.
> > >  However, many applications may just be compiled by a new Visual Studio
> > >  without using any modern APIs. They could work now.
> > >
> > >  My "Hello World" compiled by VS 2017 v141 toolchain printed many
> > >  messages about missing apiset DLLs in the debug log, but otherwise works
> > >  well. So the next step should obviously be finishing and integrating
> > >  Mark's work on the apiset DLLs in
> > >  https://github.com/learn-more/reactos/commits/apisets
> > >  But interestingly, the build produced by the v141_xp toolchain also
> > >  looks for these apiset DLLs. Therefore, it would be possible that an
> > >  application expects a full NT6 system when finding them. Consequently,
> > >  application compatibility could be compromised if we just dump all
> > >  apiset DLLs into ReactOS, applications now expect NT6, but the OS
> > >  continues to behave like NT5 by default.
> > >
> > >  This is why I suggest detecting an NT6+ application in ntdll to have it
> > >  auto-apply a shim that lets ReactOS behave like an NT6 OS. The apiset
> > >  DLLs should only be available in this mode, but not for the NT5
> > >  personality of ReactOS. Let's not import the apisets before the ntdll
> > >  shim work is done in order to preserve our existing application
> > >  compatibility.
> > >
> > >
> > >  Cheers,
> > >
> > >  Colin
> > >
> > >  _______________________________________________
> > >  Ros-dev mailing list
> > >  Ros-dev(a)reactos.org
> > >  http://www.reactos.org/mailman/listinfo/ros-dev
> > >  
> >  _______________________________________________
> >  Ros-dev mailing list
> >  Ros-dev(a)reactos.org
> >  http://www.reactos.org/mailman/listinfo/ros-dev
> >  
>
>  _______________________________________________
>  Ros-dev mailing list
>  Ros-dev(a)reactos.org
>  http://www.reactos.org/mailman/listinfo/ros-dev
>