Running Windows Vista Applications in Windows XP

[Rahul]

Windows Vista Sidebar on XP Instruction Guide

(by stevey)

1) Create a folder in C:\ (C is the harddrive where Windows XP is installed) and create a new directory called ?VAIO?

2) Extract the content of the downloaded file into C:\VAIO

Preview Build 1 (for Windows XP)

http://www.fromvistatoxp.com/vaio/vaioxp_b1r1_nov09.zip

Preview Build 1 (for Windows Server 2003)

http://www.fromvistatoxp.com/vaio/vaio2003_b1r1_nov09.zip

3) Make a new ?Environmental Variable?, to do this go to Start, right click ?My Computer? and select properties, click the ?Advance? Tab and select ?Environmental Variable? under the section titled ?User Variables for??? and select ?New? and enter this information:

Variable name: "VAIO"

Variable Value: "C:\VAIO"

4) Download the needed files from here

http://www.joejoe.org/forum/index.php?act=...p;id=1516(might need registration on JCXP)

and extract them to C:\VAIO

5) Launch ?setup.bat? from C:\VAIO and enter a RC2 product key, note that entering the key is optional, but some Vista applications check to see If the OS is activated in order for them to work.

6) Close any opened Windows and reboot, or log off and back on again.

7) Get any Windows Sidebar from RC1+ (RC2 I used) and make sure you have these files in your folder:

- Sidebar.exe

- sbdrop.dll

- wlsrvc.dll

- en-US (Folder)

- Gadgets (Folder)

- Settings.ini

After making sure you have all of them, make a folder in C:\Program Files, called ?Windows Sidebar? and place everything there.

Note: If it is not placed in Program Files, gadgets won't work.

8) Then go to Start> Run> and type ?cmd? (without quotes) and type in:

C:\VAIO\Tools\regtlib.exe C:\program files\windows sidebar\sidebar.exe

And watch it work its magic, (If it fails, go into the ?Windows Sidebar? directory, and right click sidebar.exe and select ?Patch and Run Vista Application?)

9) Copy C:\Windows\System32\regsvr32.exe into C:\Program Files\Windows Sidebar

10) Then copy mainifest.xml from C:\VAIO into C:\Program Files\Windows Sidebar and rename the copy to regsvr32.exe.mainfest

11) Go to Start> Run> and type in ?cmd? (Without quotes) and type in these to commands one at a time tho:

"C:\program files\windows sidebar\regsvr32.exe" C:\program files\windows sidebar\sbdrop.dll

If that fails type in:

"C:\program files\windows sidebar\regsvr32.exe" sbdrop.dll

Then repeat this process but change all references to sbdrop.dll to wlsrvc.dll

( "C:\program files\windows sidebar\regsvr32.exe" C:\program files\windows sidebar\wlsrvc.dll )

Then run sidebar.exe and see if it works

,if it doesn?t here are some extra steps to perform :

12) Go to C:\Program Files\Windows Sidebar and right click sbdrop.dll and select ?Patch Vista Library? and do the same for wlsrvc.dll, then try to launch sidebar.exe and if that fails, right click sidebar.exe and select ?Patch Vista Application?, try launching, if it says an error that files are missing, copy the entire C:\VAIO folder into C:\Program Files\Windows Sidebar and try launching sidebar.exe and it should work!

13) Download

http://www.dependencywalker.com/depends21_x86.zip

and extract the contents and run the .exe file within, after it loads up browse to the Windows Sidebar directory and open up sbdrop.dll and save it as sbdrop.*** (*** meaning whatever it assigns it to) in C:\Program Files\Windows Sidebar and do that same for wlsrvc.Written by Stevey of JCXPxe and I damn hope it works!

Written by Stevey of JCXP

(Also, you can now make other Vista apps work in XP, but I will let you work out that one! I have got Paint and Calculator to work so far!)

[demonskull]

is it working in SP1?

[zhangm Supervisor]

Don't know about SP1, but it does on SP2.

[demonskull]

above pic is the result? looks cool!

must try it then.

cheers.

[Rahul]

here is a screenie of my desktop running the vista sidebar (RC2) , very soon the other vista applications , namely Paint , Calculator , WMP & others will be slowly added to the list as well.

[j0nnymoe]

damn thts sweet, anyone here know how to code bat files, maybe someone could code up a script? :D

[Angel Blue01]

This should do the file copying and regsvr described in the first post.

I don't have the files so I can't test it.

Copy and paste into notepad and save as a file with .bat extension

"C:\VAIO\Tools\regtlib.exe" "C:\program files\windows sidebar\sidebar.exe"
copy "C:\Windows\System32\regsvr32.exe" "C:\Program Files\Windows Sidebar"
copy "C:\VAIO\mainifest.xml" C:\Program Files\Windows Sidebar\regsvr32.exe.mainfest"
"C:\program files\windows sidebar\regsvr32.exe" "C:\program files\windows sidebar\sbdrop.dll"
"C:\program files\windows sidebar\regsvr32.exe" "C:\program files\windows sidebar\wlsrv.dll"
start "C:\program files\windows sidebar\sidebar.exe"

[Niels.]

it doesn't work for me :s

when i try this:

"C:\program files\windows sidebar\regsvr32.exe" "C:\program files\windows sidebar\sbdrop.dll"

dos gives me this error (its translated from dutch): The loading to memory of the library (C:\program files\windows sidebar\sbdrop.dll) has failed - can't find given module.

And if i try to patch the sidebar.exe and run it, xp tells me that the volume of the file has been externally altered, so much that it cannot run :s

if i don't patch sidebar.exe it tells me it isn't a valid Win32 application

can somebody please help me?

btw Angel Blue01, you have 2 typos in your dos code. this should be it:

"C:\VAIO\Tools\regtlib.exe" "C:\program files\windows sidebar\sidebar.exe"
copy "C:\Windows\System32\regsvr32.exe" "C:\Program Files\Windows Sidebar"
copy "C:\VAIO\manifest.xml" C:\Program Files\Windows Sidebar\regsvr32.exe.manifest"
"C:\program files\windows sidebar\regsvr32.exe" "C:\program files\windows sidebar\sbdrop.dll"
"C:\program files\windows sidebar\regsvr32.exe" "C:\program files\windows sidebar\wlsrv.dll"
start "C:\program files\windows sidebar\sidebar.exe"

[RaptorX]

Where can you get the Vista Sidebar?

[MarkusDarkus]

from Vista

[Julius Caro]

Please tell me I can run vista's spider solitaire from XP!!

[RaptorX]

from Vista

But I don't have it.

[zhangm Supervisor]

Buy it in January.

[Garry]

here is a screenie of my desktop running the vista sidebar (RC2) , very soon the other vista applications , namely Paint , Calculator , WMP & others will be slowly added to the list as well.

I'm VERY surprised that the sidebar is supporting alpha transparency on XP...

[JustGeorge]

The patching failed for me and I don't quite understand what you mean by " (If it fails, go into the ?Windows Sidebar? directory, and right click sidebar.exe and select ?Patch and Run Vista Application?)". I've got no such option right-clicking on the file from explorer. Anyway, I'm installing 5744 on a test rig to extract the sidebar from it so I can try again. The version I was using was from RC1 I think.

[JustGeorge]

I give up :( Something isn't right about these instructions. There are just too many "If that doesn't work, try this." mumbo jumbo. We're all running XP here so one standard method should work for everyone unless you left out something.

[Denney]

@denzilla: You need to use the command like this:

C:\VAIO\Tools\regtlib.exe "C:\Program Files\Windows Sidebar\sidebar.exe"

Note the quotes!

[Niels.]

that failed for me too, but that's because there are spaces in the path to sidebar.exe

try this command:

C:\VAIO\Tools\regtlib.exe "C:\Program Files\Windows Sidebar\sidebar.exe"

and for all other commands that have paths in them with spaces, just put "" around them.

[JustGeorge]

I didn't use the quotes because:

8) Then go to Start> Run> and type ‘cmd’ (without quotes) and type in:

I just assumed the no quotes counted for the commands as well, sorry.

Anyway, it said it registered sidebar.exe but I still get the not a valid win32 crap :(

I ran dependencywalker and it can't open either dll because it can't find DWMAPI.DLL??

Edited November 16, 2006 by denzilla

[NightmarE D]

That guide written by stevey has a lot of typos in it and it's causing most people to screw it all up

For one, you need Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Redistributable Package installed for it to work at all.

You also need Windows Internet Explorer 7 installed for the gadgets to look right. Or else you'll get pink backgrounds on most gadgets.

Rafael wrote a document that explains it all more clearly. You can find it on the VAIO site.

When you go to register wlsrvc.dll and sbdrop.dll make sure you do it the right way. You have to run the command from within the Windows Sidebar folder and use "./regsvr32.exe sbdrop.dll" instead of "regsvr32.exe sbdrop.dll"

I'm VERY surprised that the sidebar is supporting alpha transparency on XP...

Those are transparent .PNG images. As long as Internet Explorer 7 is installed you'll get transparency in it.

Also, the exact command to register the sidebar.exe is:

%VAIO%\Tools\regtlib.exe "c:\Program Files\Windows Sidebar\sidebar.exe"

Please tell me I can run vista's spider solitaire from XP!!

I'm not sure, but I don't think Vista's Spider Solitaire is working yet. You can check the progress of everything VAIO will do on the site

[RaptorX]

I've finally got it working & got the sidebar from a friend who had Vista.

1024x700

[Rahul]

I'm VERY surprised that the sidebar is supporting alpha transparency on XP...

Actually it isn't i had to reshack the sidebar.exe & put in a png with transparency for the desired effect

[sundayx Veteran]

ah, so another reason dropped for buying vista, that is, for some of the eye candy

[JustGeorge]

Actually it isn't i had to reshack the sidebar.exe & put in a png with transparency for the desired effect

Would you be so kind as to share that png and some quick instructions :) Also anyone having trouble with the weather gadget being unable to get info?

Edited November 16, 2006 by denzilla

[zhangm Supervisor]

PNG is either 20001 or 20035, I believe, in RCDATA.

Try typing in a little part of your location and letting the Weather gadget search on its own.