Compatibility 9x

Running WinPaletter on Windows 9x

Tip

This is for fun and experimentation. It is an unsupported, experimental setup. Do not use it on a machine you care about.

WinPaletter is a .NET Framework 4.8 application. Windows 98 SE can run .NET Framework 4.8 programs through the community project dotnet48-win98, which patches the CLR and wraps missing Win32 APIs (on top of KernelEx). This guide covers getting WinPaletter running on top of it, and the problems you should expect.

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⚠️ Read this first

• Use a virtual machine, and take a snapshot before you start. Expect Windows misconfigurations, and keep the snapshot to roll back to.
• Use it for fun. It is not stable and not meant for real use.

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Requirements

Item	Details
WinPaletter Version	1.1.0.0 and higher
OS	Windows 98 SE or Millenium Edition (in a VM). Windows 95 is not supported.
Compatibility layer	KernelEx 4.5.2 or later (included in the dotnet48-win98 release, third_party\kernelex-4.5.2)
CPU	SSE2-capable (set the VM's CPU accordingly)
RAM	512 MB minimum. 1 GB or more is recommended, together with the RAM patches.
Disk	About 1 GB free on the drive that runs the installer, plus about 300 MB on C:
.NET runtime	.NET Framework 4.8 via dotnet48-win98
GDI+	gdiplus_dnld.exe (mandatory, see below)
mscoree.dll	32-bit .NET 4.x-era copy from a Windows 10/11 PC (C:\Windows\SysWOW64\mscoree.dll)
Extraction tool	7-Zip 9.20, the last version that runs on Windows 98

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Why Windows 95 is not supported

Windows 95 is not supported because none of the layers WinPaletter depends on target it, and running it there did not work in testing.

• dotnet48-win98 is built for Windows 98 SE only. Windows 95 is not in its requirements.
• KernelEx targets Windows 98 and Millennium. Windows 95 is not among its listed targets.
• The compatibility shims are written around Windows 98 behavior (version spoofing, SEC_IMAGE mapping, VirtualAlloc and TLS workarounds). Windows 95 is an older codebase and is missing KERNEL32 functions that Windows 98 added.

Suggested wording for the guide:

Windows 95 is not supported. dotnet48-win98 targets Windows 98 SE, KernelEx does not list Windows 95, and WinPaletter did not work on it in testing.

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Installation

1. Prepare the VM

1. Create a Windows 98 SE virtual machine with 512 MB of RAM or more (see RAM).
2. Install Windows 98 SE and make sure it boots reliably.
3. Take a snapshot of the clean install. Take another one after each major step below.

2. Install KernelEx

1. Copy the dotnet48-win98 release to the VM (see step 3).
2. Run the KernelEx 4.5.2 installer from third_party\kernelex-4.5.2.
3. Restart.

3. Install .NET Framework 4.8 (dotnet48-win98)

1. Download the latest release zip, dotnet48-win98-x.y.z.zip, from the Releases page.
2. Copy it into the VM and extract it inside Windows 98 itself with 7-Zip 9.20. This keeps long file names. If you see short names such as WIN98S~1.BAT, the install will fail.
3. Copy the 32-bit mscoree.dll from a Windows 10/11 PC into the extracted folder, beside WIN98SETUP.BAT.
4. Open an MS-DOS Prompt inside Windows (not real-mode DOS), change to the extracted folder and run:

   WIN98SETUP.BAT
   

   The VM needs internet access for this step, unless you place NDP48-x86-x64-AllOS-ENU.exe and gdiplus.dll beside the batch file for an offline install.
5. Restart.
6. After the restart, Notepad opens with the result of a quick check. HELLO48 OK means .NET 4.8 works. You can re-run the check later with C:\DOTNET48\VERIFY.BAT.
7. Take a snapshot.

4. Install GDI+ (gdiplus_dnld.exe) — required

You must install GDI+ before running WinPaletter. Without it you will get GDI+ exceptions (for example "A generic error occurred in GDI+" or TypeInitializationException errors from System.Drawing).

1. Get Microsoft's GDI+ redistributable, gdiplus_dnld.exe (version 5.1.3102.1360 was used for testing). It is archived on the Internet Archive: gdiplus_dnld.exe
2. Install it, or open it with 7-Zip and use the gdiplus.exe inside to obtain gdiplus.dll.
3. Make sure gdiplus.dll ends up in C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM.
4. Restart.
5. Take a snapshot.

The dotnet48-win98 setup also downloads GDI+ itself when the VM is online. Doing this step explicitly makes sure the DLL is present and is the right version.

5. Run WinPaletter

1. Download a WinPaletter release that has a version of 1.1.0.0 or higher within WinPaletter repository and copy it into the VM.
2. Double-click WinPaletter.exe.
3. If it does not start, set NETSHIM_LOG=1 and run it again. Then check NETSHIM_EXCEPTIONS.LOG (next to NETSHIM.DLL in C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319) for the original exception.

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Known limitations

RAM usage

• Always expect OutOfMemoryException errors, both in WinPaletter itself and in other Windows applications.
• WinPaletter's RAM usage is high relative to what Windows 9x can handle.
• Use 512 MB of RAM or more. 1 GB or more works better with RAM patches.

Stability

• Random crashes can happen at any time.
• UIAutomationCore.dll crashes when you close forms.
• Random crashes when applying themes and when closing WinPaletter.
• WinPaletter will most likely fail to run on the 3rd relaunch (or later).
• Windows Restart will hang after a few WinPaletter runs. Do a forced reboot (VM reset or power off) instead of using Windows Restart.

Missing features

• No network access from WinPaletter. This means:
  • no in-app updates
  • no Themes Store
  • no GitHub manager
• Cannot log off or restart Explorer from WinPaletter.
• Windows restore points do not work. Your VM snapshot is the only safety net.
• Application logging (Which is implemented by SeriLog) does not work.
• Multiple users targeting.
• Installing and running services (WinPaletter System Events Sounds Service).

MS Sans Serif issue

• On Windows 9x the system UI font is MS Sans Serif, a bitmap (.FON) font.
• GDI+ and .NET Font objects support only TrueType/OpenType fonts, so MS Sans Serif cannot be loaded as a Font. It will not appear in the font dialog, in FontFamily.Families or in the installed fonts list.
• WinPaletter therefore cannot display or edit this font correctly and may substitute another one. Expect wrong previews and incorrect font names for system fonts.
• Fonts applied to the system should keep their original LOGFONT data to avoid corrupting the setting.

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Usage tip: apply one aspect, not a full theme

Applying a full Windows theme changes many settings at once, which makes crashes, hangs and misconfigurations more likely. It is better to open a single aspect (for example colors, or metrics and fonts) and apply only that. Take a snapshot before applying, and apply aspects one at a time.

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Troubleshooting

Problem	What to try
GDI+ exceptions when drawing	Install gdiplus_dnld.exe (step 4), make sure gdiplus.dll is in C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM, and restart
OutOfMemoryException	Increase VM RAM to 1 GB or more, close other programs and restart the VM
WinPaletter will not launch (3rd or later relaunch)	Force a reboot of the VM, then launch it again
Windows hangs on Restart	Use a forced reboot or VM reset instead
Vague errors such as TypeInitializationException	Set NETSHIM_LOG=1, rerun, and read NETSHIM_EXCEPTIONS.LOG
Assembly fails to load with 0x8007001F	Delete old copies of DNADVAPI.DLL, DNKERNEL.DLL, CORADV32.DLL, BCRYPT.DLL, W2_32W.DLL or TLS98.DLL found beside the app
Windows behaves strangely after applying a theme	Restore the VM snapshot (restore points don't work). Next time apply a single aspect instead of a full theme

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Uninstalling

To remove .NET 4.8 from Windows 98, run UNINSTALL.BAT from the dotnet48-win98 folder and restart. Or restore your clean snapshot. It leaves gdiplus.dll and dbghelp.dll in place.

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Credits

• dotnet48-win98 by 11EJDE11
• dotnet9x by itsmattkc
• KernelEx
• WinPaletter