[other] Windows 2000 XP API Wrapper Pack
Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2008 2:12 pm
Just found this interesting project by OldCigarette:
I really don't know if this could be usefull for ROS, btw this guy seems skilled...Official 3ad@Windows 2000 Gaming forum wrote:This is a collection of my various API fixes for compatibility with XP games. Unlike most other API fixes these are not EXE hacks! These are DLL wrappers which means only the portions of code that are XP specific are changed, your windows 2000 code is left intact! These strive for a high level of compatibility so that they can be used for ANY game. Also my kernel32 wrapper has additional features such as GetVersion faking and other options that may be useful. Below is the latest readme, if your game is missing one of the API calls listed it is likely this pack will fix it!
Latest Readme wrote:Windows 2000 XP API Wrapper Pack
--------------------------------
!!!!!!!DISCLAIMER!!!!!!!
THIS PACK IS NOT CREATED/SUPPORTED BY MICROSOFT IN ANYWAY.
WHEN MESSING WITH SYSTEM DLLS YOU CAN HOSE YOUR SYSTEM, READ WHAT THIS DOC SAYS AND FOLLOW IT'S
ADVICE. YOU SHOULD NOT DELETE ANYTHING FROM SYSTEM32, THESE WRAPPERS ARE NOT INTENDED TO BE PLACED
THERE! FOLLOW THIS AND YOU SHOULD BE SAFE. IF YOU ARE A DEV AND KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING YOU CAN
BUT DO NOT COME CRYING TO ME. NO WARRANTY, SEE THE END OF THIS FILE FOR MORE INFORMATION.
The Win2k wrapper pack is a collection of DLLs (dynamic loaded libraries) that
'wrap' the Windows API. These wrapper DLLs 'target' original copies of the system DLLs.
Most of these fixes were chosen to get newer games working on 2K. But they might be useful in
other situations as well.
This is NOT meant as a general XP compatibility kit to drop in your system32, while that does
work in MOST cases it is kind of dangerous and I don't recommend it. Rather these DLLs
should be placed along side the executable or in the start directory of the application.
In order to use these wrapper DLLs you MUST copy the original system DLLs somewhere in the
DLL search path with the TARGET name listed below. In my case I have a folder in my PATH
(WINXP_DLLS) that are unique to XP, ie no 2k equivalent. I place my TARGET DLLs here as well.
In some cases (kernel32.dll & user32.dll) the DLL search path must be modified due to 'KnownDLLs'
These KnownDLLs are only loaded from the system32, but this functionality can be disabled by
Regedt32. (*IMPORTANT regedit.exe won't work*) Simply add the DLLs to exclude from 'KnownDLLs' to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\ExcludeFromKnownDlls
this is a multiline value, so place a dll on each line.
Included in this pack should be a ExcludeFromKnownDlls.reg which will set this to kernel32.dll &
user32.dll. A reboot is needed for this to take effect. To see a list of KnownDLLs see
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\KnownDLLs
For more info on DLL search paths see this awesome page
DLL Loading Rules in Win32 [http://home.att.net/~raffles1/older/dll ... _win32.htm]