VOGONS


First post, by jasa1063

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I like this screen saver, but it has a check for Windows XP will not run on new versions of Windows such as Windows XP x64. Is there any known patch to make it work on newer OSes?

Reply 1 of 7, by elszgensa

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I'm not set up to test this right now, so this is completely blind, but... Assuming your .scr file is 1634304 bytes, open it in a hex editor, go to offset 0x4827 and change it from 0x74 to 0xeb. That should ignore the result of the OS check at least. Other thing may still be broken later on, no idea.

Anyways. XP x86 to x64 isn't much of a jump so should work fine, but the later the OS the higher the likelihood of having changed/added screensaver API details, so even if a saver appears to work it might not actually keep your session safe. Caveat emptor.

Reply 2 of 7, by jasa1063

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elszgensa wrote on 2023-10-03, 11:15:

I'm not set up to test this right now, so this is completely blind, but... Assuming your .scr file is 1634304 bytes, open it in a hex editor, go to offset 0x4827 and change it from 0x74 to 0xeb. That should ignore the result of the OS check at least. Other thing may still be broken later on, no idea.

Anyways. XP x86 to x64 isn't much of a jump so should work fine, but the later the OS the higher the likelihood of having changed/added screensaver API details, so even if a saver appears to work it might not actually keep your session safe. Caveat emptor.

That did the trick, it even works on Windows 11!

Thanks!

Reply 3 of 7, by jasa1063

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I did some further testing and it even works on Windows 98SE and Windows 2000!

Reply 4 of 7, by jasa1063

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Here is a copy of the patched 3D Windows XP.scr screen saver.

Reply 5 of 7, by ldeveraux

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This wasn't really on my radar, but really cool that it works!

Reply 6 of 7, by Norton Commander

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elszgensa wrote on 2023-10-03, 11:15:

I'm not set up to test this right now, so this is completely blind, but... Assuming your .scr file is 1634304 bytes, open it in a hex editor, go to offset 0x4827 and change it from 0x74 to 0xeb. That should ignore the result of the OS check at least. Other thing may still be broken later on, no idea.

Anyways. XP x86 to x64 isn't much of a jump so should work fine, but the later the OS the higher the likelihood of having changed/added screensaver API details, so even if a saver appears to work it might not actually keep your session safe. Caveat emptor.

Nice work! I've been searching for years for a way to get this cool screensaver to work in other Windows OSes but was unsuccessful. I tried renaming it to EXE then using MS Application Compatibility Toolkit applying various tweaks but no luck.

jasa1063 wrote on 2023-10-04, 00:04:

Here is a copy of the patched 3D Windows XP.scr screen saver.

Thanks for the patched screensaver. The original 3D XP Screensaver can still be downloaded from Microsoft.

https://download.microsoft.com/download/whist … 3DwindowsXP.exe

Ironic since MS has bleached all things XP from its website.

Reply 7 of 7, by jasa1063

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Norton Commander wrote on 2023-10-04, 16:38:
Nice work! I've been searching for years for a way to get this cool screensaver to work in other Windows OSes but was unsuccess […]
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elszgensa wrote on 2023-10-03, 11:15:

I'm not set up to test this right now, so this is completely blind, but... Assuming your .scr file is 1634304 bytes, open it in a hex editor, go to offset 0x4827 and change it from 0x74 to 0xeb. That should ignore the result of the OS check at least. Other thing may still be broken later on, no idea.

Anyways. XP x86 to x64 isn't much of a jump so should work fine, but the later the OS the higher the likelihood of having changed/added screensaver API details, so even if a saver appears to work it might not actually keep your session safe. Caveat emptor.

Nice work! I've been searching for years for a way to get this cool screensaver to work in other Windows OSes but was unsuccessful. I tried renaming it to EXE then using MS Application Compatibility Toolkit applying various tweaks but no luck.

jasa1063 wrote on 2023-10-04, 00:04:

Here is a copy of the patched 3D Windows XP.scr screen saver.

Thanks for the patched screensaver. The original 3D XP Screensaver can still be downloaded from Microsoft.

https://download.microsoft.com/download/whist … 3DwindowsXP.exe

Ironic since MS has bleached all things XP from its website.

There is a whole lot of irony when it comes to Microsoft on so many fronts:)