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[h8raid]

Just wondering, after scouring this board, I have not noticed much serious progress going on with getting windows going on the Xbox.  Now, I have seen that some people are successfully using windows, but are not getting any kind of performance.  I am understanding that the ram upgrade to 128mb does help, but not much.  Has anybody with both the cpu and ram upgrades attempted a windows installation?  If so, are you getting any kind of performance to even make it worth the effort?  I am in progress of a huge project, doing research now because I would like to have a drive for windows because the focus of my project is simplicity, and while linux is very nice, if you are not a somewhat experienced computer user, it is not as easy for morons to use.  So, that said, if nobody steps forward about having this done and the performance they are getting with both upgrades from friendtech, I will attempt it, but it will be a while before I get around to doing anything with it, my time is preoccupied with too many other parts of the project right now, and it will be my last efforts on the project.  Anybody got any information on this subject, lets hear it.  Anybody got information on serious projects, lets hear it.  Not trying to start a flame war because I know this is not a vastly popular topic, but it would be a nice addition to my project, so I am approaching it for the first time now.
Thanks in advance,
-H8raid

[h8raid]

Soooo...NOBODY thought it might be a good idea to try this?  Come on, if you can get it running but people are ocmplaining it is slow, of course it is slow, look what you are running it on.  Double the power and RAM, all benchmarks with the upgrades from Friendtech show the speed doubles.  So now you are halfway there, you should have just made Windows run twice as fast.  Now go through and get rid of all the useless services and whatnot, and you have improved it even more, now you should be running at least with a tolerable speed.

[fire2501]

I think instead of focussing on windows xp and others, we should be focussing on finding a good programmer with the skills to right a good windows embedded version for the xbox... i think embedded would run wicked on the box since it boots to the desktop faster then my monitor kiks on on my computer.. good luck!

[Potato Bob]

i have that eval windows xp embedded kit but i dont know the xboxs specs nor can i run the exe to find out

[h8raid]

Well, that wasn't really what the thread was about at all, but since you mention it, yes I also feel we are treading down the wrong path with getting windows running.  Embedded would be a good solution, but yet as you mentioned the problem is coding it for the xbox.  We need to get a team together, I for one, cannot code, so I am of no use, but I can help find the people with the skills to do it.  Anybody else agree that we need to scout out some new people to work on this project and get them working together as a team?  Each of us on the board knows a little about a different part of the xbox, so maybe with out knowledge so far, and their knowledge of code, we might be able to get enough of a start on the project to generate some serious interest from the guys coding for xbox and maybe they would kind of take over from there and work out the bugs and sort of finish off the code.  Seems like a good idea to me, we just need to get a group of "scouts" together to compile a GOOD team of people that will be able to work together on this.

[Scan-C]

even if you get the people together they'll run into the same problem as anyone before. there's no source code for windows. it has to not adress some areas of the ram because this locks up the xbox and it has to not scan the pci bus otherwise lockup.
these are the mayor problems with windows. another thing are the drivers. there are none.

the people who have windows running use it through bochs or linux with vmware.
don't get me wrong. i'm not saying it can't be done but it will be hard and without source code you will need a way to readress the ramparts and stop the pci bus scan.

it's exactly the part where i am with my freedos port. i'm just lacking the programming skills but i'm learning right now at least freedos is open source so i can rewrite it.

[h8raid]

I had read something about the scans, but couldn't remember what exactly it was that was causing problems, thanks for the info.  Would it be possible to instead of redoing the code for windows, make it so the bios will not allow the checks that are causing problems and possibly redirect them if they have to run, or stop the checks through the bios and force it to tell the software that the checks passed?  Sorry if this is stupid, just trying to take a different approach at things.

[Scan-C]

a bios would be pretty complicated. but maybe load a program into memory that does this before the actual windows bootloader kicks in. what i mean is some kind of a layer between hardware and windows. i'm not experienced enough to write such code but i think it should be possible.

[h8raid]

That's a really good idea.  Has this been thought of or attempted before?  GreenGiant is working on a project for me for remote drive switching.  I have another thread about that, but basically everything is going to be configurable through a program on the xbox if you decide to change your setting for each drive later on, this will be accomplished by loading the settings into memory on either a smartxx or xenium chip.  Would this be along the lines of the same setup that you are proposing?  I want to approach GG about this idea, but do not want to waste his time with an idea that has not been researched as to how complex and how feasible the solution is, plus will it even work if it is done?

[fire2501]

but with embedded shouldn't this be a hell of a lot easier?? to skip pci scans and stuff like that?? my teacher at the UofC for visual basic and c++ MAY be able to help with the project.. we need more people interested.. maybe thro a call out on the xbox-scene main page for experienced xbox coders, and xp analysists??