V9x Remote Agent v0.17.0

Everything since v0.15.0, newest first.

0.17.0 (2026-11-12)

Remote-help operator-friction improvements (2026-11-12).

Added

• wait-desktop -DismissLogon: wait inside the guest, optionally cancel an
  English Windows 9x startup logon dialog, and report LogonDismissed.
  No credentials, provider changes or password-list changes. Unknown dialogs
  and NT logons are left alone. Cancellation is recorded in the activity log.
• reboot / reset -DismissLogon: after reconnect proof, cancel the logon
  and wait for Explorer on the same connection. -WaitSeconds bounds each
  phase separately. Unsupported agents are refused before power control.
  MCP: dismiss_logon on the desktop wait and reboot/reset tools.
• Protocol: DESKTOP_WAIT_REQUEST / response 0x0065 / 0x8065,
  capability V9X_CAP_LOGON_DISMISS 0x02000000 (Win9x only). One request
  waits at most 60 s, like PROCESS_WAIT, so a caller that drops mid-wait
  cannot hold a connection or relay session; CLI and MCP repeat it up to
  -WaitSeconds.
• Positional guest paths for list, cat, stat, get and hash, including
  their aliases. Named paths remain supported; duplicate paths are rejected.
• reg -Set -Key <key> -Name <value> -String <text> | -Dword <n> and
  reg -DeleteValue: one value per operation, with the old value returned
  and recorded in the activity log. Hive roots, HKLM system/security/hardware
  branches, HKCC/HKDD and the agent's startup entries are protected. No key
  tree deletion. New/current values are limited to 1024 bytes. MCP:
  v9x_reg_write (set_string, set_dword, delete_value).
• display [-Restore]: current versus registry mode; restore calls
  ChangeDisplaySettings(NULL, 0). kill -RestoreDisplay waits for the
  process to exit before restoring. MCP: v9x_display, restore_display
  on v9x_kill. If the exit wait or restore fails, the completed kill is
  still reported (CLI: kill result plus Display.Error, exit 51).
• input -Window <title>: select one window by literal, case-insensitive
  title substring, foreground it and verify focus before sending input.
  When the foreground lock refuses the switch, the agent retries once with
  its thread attached to the current foreground input queue.
  Missing/ambiguous/unfocusable targets are refused; losing focus stops
  remaining actions and releases keys/buttons pressed by that batch.
  New input replies include ForegroundBefore, KeyboardWindow (last
  key press/typed character) and ForegroundAfter, with HWND, PID and title. MCP
  input tools use window, also used for an optional screenshot crop.
• Guest-side PROCESS_WAIT uses a real process handle in bounded chunks
  of at most 60 seconds, reducing repeated relay process-list requests.
  CLI/MCP use it for a PID or one exact-name match; wildcard/multiple-name
  waits and older agents retain the existing process-list path.

Changed

• set-autologon.ps1 forwards -Relay / -RelayServer to every operation.
  Its -Dismiss now uses cancellation through wait-desktop -DismissLogon
  (requires 0.17.0+), without registry export or a foreground Enter key.
  -Enable retains its explicit blank-password logon behavior.
• Relay reconnects now use the wait's remaining budget instead of opening
  every session with a minimum 150-second allowance. The relay's open
  deadline includes the initial HTTP request. Guest-side waits allow
  transport overhead separately, including the measured slow relay path.
• Discovery's host fixture waits for an actual ready responder instead of
  a fixed startup sleep; network waits are bounded so failure cannot hang
  cleanup.

Live-tested in 86Box. Windows 98 SE: reset -DismissLogon cancelled the
startup logon dialog and reached Explorer; targeted input behind
another window and into a minimized one; display and kill -RestoreDisplay.
Windows 2000 SP4: targeted input past the foreground lock (including a
minimized target after another window had keyboard input), display,
kill -RestoreDisplay, registry set/change/delete with protected-key refusal,
and the native process wait. The physical machine's network-password variant
and the relay path are not yet live-tested. The original 0.15.0 process-wait
hang has not been reproduced: the reconnect-budget defect is fixed and the
new process wait avoids the repeated relay polling path, without claiming
that the original incident's root cause is proven.

0.16.0 (2026-11-06)

Crash detection in one call: wait until a program exits or a fault dialog
about it appears, and get the dialog's text back, instead of polling
windows and processes or taking screenshots.

Added

• wait-fault [-Pid <id> | -Name <image>] [-Dismiss]: exit 0 with
  Outcome = Exited when the process ends, exit 50 with Outcome = Fault
  when a fault dialog about it appears. Fault holds the dialog's Title,
  Message, Details and Buttons. On Windows 9x, Details is the
  register dump ("CRASHPRB caused an invalid page fault in module
  CRASHPRB.EXE at 016f:004010e8. Registers: ..."), read without pressing
  Details. On Windows 2000 it waits for Dr. Watson to finish its log
  (closing the box earlier cancels the log) and gives the exception line
  ("c0000094 (divide by zero)"). The dialog is matched by the image name in
  its title or text as well as by owner, because Windows 9x shows it from
  the KERNEL32 system process and Windows 2000 from Dr. Watson or CSRSS.
  Faults are checked before exit, because the dialog outlives the process.
  Without -Pid/-Name it watches every program until -WaitSeconds
  (exit 0, Outcome = NoFault). -Dismiss closes the dialog. Alias
  wait-crash. MCP: v9x_wait_fault.
• close-window -Title <text>: WM_CLOSE to the one matching top-level
  window, then wait until it is gone. It refuses the desktop, the taskbar
  and the agent. MCP: v9x_close_window.
• windows -Controls: each window's buttons, labels and edit text.
  MCP: v9x_windows controls.
• Protocol: WINDOW_TEXT_REQUEST 0x0063 / 0x8063 and
  WINDOW_CLOSE_REQUEST 0x0064 / 0x8064, capability
  V9X_CAP_WINDOW_TOOLS 0x01000000.
• tests\integration\crashprb.c: a program that crashes (NULL write,
  divide by zero), exits, shows a message box or hangs on request.

Changed

• exec -WaitForExit returns on a crash. A crashed program stays alive
  while its fault dialog is up, so the wait used to sit out -WaitSeconds
  (an hour by default). On a 0.16.0+ agent it uses the wait-fault probe:
  exit 50 with Outcome and Fault, and it takes -Dismiss (MCP
  wait_for_exit sets result: "fault" and takes dismiss). Older agents
  wait as before.

Tested on Windows 98 SE and Windows 2000 SP4 in 86Box: NULL write, divide
by zero, a delayed crash, clean exit, an ordinary message box (not a
fault), a quiet watch, and -Dismiss leaving no dialog behind.

0.15.1 (2026-11-06)

Fixed

• update -Relay replaced only the agent. Its version check and the
  replacement of V9XVNC.EXE and SETUP.EXE ran as inner v9xctl calls
  that dropped -Relay and went to the local default port, so on
  remote-help machines VNC and the tray's Settings page stayed on the old
  version ("WARNING: V9XVNC.EXE was not updated: Agent at
  127.0.0.1:9869 is unreachable"). The inner calls now use the same
  relay machine and server. Host-side only; the guest agent is unchanged.