Neptune's Activity Center...

Discuss Windows 2000, NT, XP and Windows Server 2000, 2003, SBS 2003.
zchri9
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Post by zchri9 »

i cant be bothered downloading neptune so can you just email me in a .zip file what i need to run it on my pc?
zchri9@hotmail.com
thx Namiee

betaluva
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Post by betaluva »

i had a idea, for the media center, what dont we reshack vplayer? http://rapidshare.com/files/82559334/vplayer.zip

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Post by betaluva »

i just posted a video of the windows millenium avctivity center and this time i remembered to give due credit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVgykpsk6kQ
Last edited by betaluva on Tue Jan 15, 2008 2:57 am, edited 1 time in total.

KenOath

Post by KenOath »

betaluva wrote:i had a idea, for the media center, what dont we reshack vplayer? http://rapidshare.com/files/82559334/vplayer.zip
I'll take a look at it , though I was rather hoping to keep all apps
in the fix I was doing all genuine MS apps...
betaluva wrote:i just posted a video of the windows millenium avctivity center, im hoping thats its the real thing, not a home made hack. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCc4NGgkovo
Was that the psiren fix running the Activity Centers.? I noticed you never
got an MSHTA.EXE error when customising the page, from a standard
install where it also installs the start menu links, I get that error when
1st running it, though it all runs & works OK...
Plus I wonder why you have a grey square in the main page of yours...
Mine doesn't...
Although funny enough, in an attempt to addressing this mshta error I
get, I managed to fix the scripting error I used to get when 1st running IE...

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Post by betaluva »

no, i found this rar,it appears to be namroinia,s release, which i then ran on windows neptune, funnily enough the iso called "winows neptune with activity centers" doesnt have the activity centers? as for the grey square,its got something to do with a gif file being saved in a incorrect format, i tried replacine the windows millenium logo with a neptune logo but all it would show is a grey square, i think its to do with color depth, maybe the gifs need to be 16 bit or 24 bit,not 32 bit color? heres a link to that rar : http://rapidshare.com/files/82610220/win.rar
Last edited by betaluva on Tue Jan 15, 2008 2:58 am, edited 1 time in total.

KenOath

Post by KenOath »

That's the one Namronia posted a link to a while ago, seems to be a copy
that was extracted then modded...
Mine actually completely extracts a new copy of itself from the accore.dll
& installs the appropriate start menu links & icons...

That vplayer's a bit dull though,
If I were to install a non MS app it'd have to be xmplayer, it's probably
the sexiest media player around, & has over 100 skins, some that are
mind blowing...

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Post by betaluva »

yeah, i know vplayer is dull, i was trying to stick to the old win98 silver style, plus its skinnable so it would be possible to make a windows neptune themed skin, i suppose the best idea is hardcode a link to windows mediaplyer 6.4 ?

KenOath

Post by KenOath »

betaluva wrote:i suppose the best idea is hardcode a link to windows mediaplyer 6.4 ?
Already have done, it's just that the activity center page says
"Play music CD's & record music"
6.4 only plays, although the classic version I had install looks as though
it might be capable of recording as well...

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Post by compact-mac »

This looks great. Keep up the good work
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KenOath

Post by KenOath »

I don't know if i'm perhaps taking this Neptune mod of
mine too far, Iv'e now gone & spent some time modifying the appropriate
strings in the appropriate files to give it a start / restart / hibernate
menu the same as Windows 2000, yet it's done modifying the original
files strings & retaining all Neptune looks / features...
You can now logoff from the start menu, restart from the start menu,
or shutdown from the start menu, although it still says "Hibernate"
for the shutdown process....
It seems all the Windows 2000 strings are still there, waiting to be used
or modded...
I' think i'm going to have a break from this though for a while, it's
chewing way too much of my time up at the moment,, but gee's it's fun
working it all out, if you have the patience to do so....
I also have it installing msconfig & the msconfig help file to run
from the msconfig help button, done so just by modifying the appropriate
files to have it copy it over to the system32 folder & register it so it runs
just by typing msconfig from the start/run menu, no need to copy it over
after installation...
Here's a few screenshots...
It still shows the Hibernation screen when shutting down, as it did
originally...

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Post by betaluva »

Nice Job ken, you should be proud of your work, if i didnt know better i would think this a MS release

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Post by dirtwarrior »

With the original it wouldnt shut down. Did you fix this? Neptune was way ahead of its time then and is still exciting.

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Post by Rob Jansen »

I can shutdown the original.

Just go to control panel and then power options, dont use hibernation and then the power off button will shutdown windows.

KenOath

Post by KenOath »

dirtwarrior wrote:With the original it wouldnt shut down. Did you fix this? Neptune was way ahead of its time then and is still exciting.
No the original still did shutdown, though it said it was hibernating it still
shut down, however, it now has the option of restarting, logging off &
back on, & shutting down from the start menu, just from playing with
strings in a few files, the option was still there as the files started out as
Win2000 versions, the code was still left behind, just disabled...

There's so much code left behind in files when recompiled for another OS,
it wouldn't surprise me that if XP was made from scratch, making new
files without the bloat, that you couldn't aleast trim 100 mb off a typical
XP Pro or Win2000 ISO...
I've decided to start remaking the chm files now, removing any instance
of Win2000 with Neptune...

Am I going too far with this, probably, but -I really dont care, I'm making
sure that ALL instances of Win2000 are gone where ever I can find it...
Sure the new restart/logoff/shutdown hack looks like Win2000, but without
the option of restarting from the start button, it was pretty useless not
having the option...

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Post by Rob Jansen »

Min says: Windows is shutting down...

Here:
Image

KenOath

Post by KenOath »

& what about wanting to do a restart or log off & back as another user,
what then...
That was the main reason for me making the changes...

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Post by betaluva »

i like kenoaths idea better, it gives you more options.

KenOath

Post by KenOath »

Bit of a bump I know, but an old friend from OSBA got me fired up on Neptune
again last week, so I plodded away a little more at fixing up more of the dead
activity centers links, & got to playing around with the install on a real machine,
& in doing so, worked out why I was getting that mshta error message when
customising the main homepage, it seems that mshta can't edit the startpl.xml
whilst the homepage is open, close the homepage after clicking the "customise"
link, & no errors at all...
Then I discovered that if you run the main activity center homepage as an
"active desktop" item the error also never shows, in fact, after playing around
with my latest fix, i'm convinced that the homepage was designed to be an
"active desktop" wallpaper by default...
So one of my next fixes will be the standard install will have this as a standard
installation, not something that has to be enabled...
& I don't mean the Millennium Desktop wallpaper that shows when choosing
a desktop wallpaper, I mean actually activating the homepage as an
"Active Desktop" via other means...

here's a few progress pics, & a demo of how to enable it, for those playing
around with it themselves...

1st up, enable active desktop
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Then click the "New" button, then browse to the activity's main homepage
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Now it appears as an "active desktop" item, with a maximise/minimise button on top
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Hover your mouse over the top until you see the maximise option on top
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Maximise it
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Remove the desktop icons as in this pic below after right clicking the desktop
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Place your mouse over the left border & stretch it as far left as you can
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Done..! you can open all STD icons on the right, even right click on my computer
for properties options

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The alternative theme option
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& everything runs off the links, no need for the start menu
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This is the option that MOST people are familiar with, but wont do the same
as running the homepage as the "active desktop"

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The screens of this latest fix with activity centers has been uploaded to the
BA screens sectionHERE

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Post by fzajac »

Wow, great work!

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Post by teriaki 511 »

that really is nice work dude, who would have thought of using the activity centers as an active desktop!

KenOath

Post by KenOath »

Thanks, I've played some more with it tonight, seems the Millennium Wallpaper
does in fact run the Activity Center as the "active desktop" , but only if enabled
the way I showed above, although I've since found an easier way...
& surprise surprise, what does windows call the active desktop if using the
Millennium wallpaper, "Windows Start page"
No wonder the Welcome.exe doesn't start on 1st boot with this beta, it does
with all the 2000 betas before & after it, even the whistler build run the welcome, or
tour...
I'm convinced now that this was meant to be run from the 1st boot as an active desktop,
similar to how Win95C has an active desktop on 1st boot from a clean install...
Since playing tonight, I've worked out how to enable it as running from 1st bootup
as well, a bit of hive editing is all thats needed...
Typical, I go & add resources to the mshta.exe so it has icons, for the start menu
link, then find this...
I might remove the start menu links & just have it install as the active desktop only...

here's the quicker way to enable it

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Here it is with the taskbar auto-hiding
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Post by Dr Eggman »

Wow. So if i go do this in the Neptune Build thats on the servers will it work?


Or do i need to change other things too?
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KenOath

Post by KenOath »

Dr Eggman wrote:Wow. So if i go do this in the Neptune Build thats on the servers will it work?
Or do i need to change other things too?
From what I've read here, there's 2 versions on the server, & although one is
labeled as being Neptune with activity centers, it doesn't install the activity centers....
But if you install neptune that's on the server here, you can copy the Accore.dll
to the Winnt\System32 folder, then open the start\run command & type in
regsvr32 accore.dll, & it should indeed work, though I've not personally tried
it that way, I've hacked a couple of files, allowing me to edit the layout.inf &
any other "normally" digitally protected installation files, so it just installs with
the OS...
If & when I'm happy with the progress I've made, it'll eventually become available sometime,
just a bit hard working all the problems out myself so it's taking time....

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Post by Dr Eggman »

Ok, gotcha.


But I also read that modifying the PHOTOCTR.INF will get the 1st screen of the Center's working.

So then are there 2 methods?
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Post by betaluva »

why not leave the taskbar there but set it to auto-hide, then all you have to do is go to the bottom of the screen and the taskbar will appear.

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