You can use a Hex Editor to change the original hash in update.cat, then you will need to also update the hash in _manifest_.cix.xml for update.cat.

This will get past failure to verify the mum file, however, this invalidates the digital signature so I got:



I found some Windows Mobile Developer certs on my machine, so I tried signing my new .cat file with it. However, it's not a trusted cert, so I get:


I have no idea how to make it trusted. It should be possible to make developer test certs and make them trusted with tools from the Windows 7 SDK, but it's a 4GB download which will take me awhile to get.

Test Mode booting would then be required for x64 machines, or the ReadyDriver Plus BCD trick for unsigned driver booting. The only other way is to become a Premium MSDN member (as a developer partner) which costs a lot of money.

I'm pretty convinced you'd have better luck making a custom installer that extracts the required files from the original source MSU, and then adds registry entries/drivers manually - rather than trying to hack the security on Windows Hotfix catalogs

Yeah, you may be right.
I noticed my .cat file had an incorrect thumbprint, so I generated a new one using MakeCat.exe in the WDK.
I was able to successfully test-sign my new .cat file and installed the new certs into Trusted Root Certification Authorities and Trusted Publishers using these instructions:
http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread.php?t=33920573

I rebooted after "bcdedit /set testsigning on", and got the "Test Mode" indication on the lower right. I clicked on my update.cat, and was pleased to see it said my catalog file is valid and certificates are OK. So I tried DISM, and in CBS.log... same problem, CERT_E_UNTRUSTEDROOT! So either DISM ignores testsigning or I did something wrong.

A custom installer could be made, but it's probably more complicated than I can handle. I don't even fully understand everything the .manifest files do. I understand the file copy and registry parts, but there's other stuff in them.

A little program called InstallRite, while outrageously outdated, still works flawlessly under 2008 R2. In fact I'm using it right now to try and make a portable version of VMWare Player 3.

http://www.epsilonsquared.com/

Basically you can use it to take a 'snapshot' of the entire registry (or specific hives), and also optionally snapshot complete harddisks or specific paths - then you do whatever, install anything... change anything... reboot... heck even System Restore... then load the program and do an 'Analyse' and it'll list all the changes made since the last Snapshot.

Well System Restore might bugger it lol... but it stores it's own database in it's own file within the program folder, it's completely independant of the registry as far as I know (it works without installing but you need to manually specify it's database path if theres no reg details for the program).

99.9% of Windows system settings are in the registry, the rest are stored as files under C:\ProgramData\. If you run InstallRite as administrator, it catches everything you could ever need.

The only concern I have is that Hotfix installers tend to rely on runtime .manifest generation, because it fingerprints the install based on the current computers PID/SID or something like that. In which case, that'd be the real obstacle to overcome.

Thanks for the suggestion. I spent most of yesterday playing with InstallRite, and unfortunately, I didn't have a lot of luck with it.

There are apparently a ton of registry settings that change regularly on their own, so I had to determine which ones apply and which ones don't. It was a tedious task, but I managed to make a .reg file which didn't work because many keys seemed to be missing. I ran as Administrator, but maybe I missed something? So I decided to make another attempt at reading the manifest files. I made a new .reg file which loaded, but there are 4 root kernel-mode drivers and they couldn't be loaded. Even after setting permissions in the registry so my .reg file could write to their keys, they wouldn't load because they're unsigned. I guess if installed by the TrustedInstaller, it's okay if drivers are unsigned or somehow it's able to find the signature in the catalog file. I did also try editing the Default.iwc from InstallRite (just a renamed .mdb file), removing everything not pertaining to VirtualPC, and building an installation kit. Unfortunately, the install kit was unable to update protected registry settings nor copy files into System32 and its child folders, even when run as Administrator so I had to copy everything manually.

Anyway, even if all the files could be copied and the registry keys added, it still won't work because it won't load drivers and the services that depend on them due to being unsigned, or at least that's what I suspect. The drivers, being root drivers, don't show up in Device Manager so I had to check the Eventlog to see that they had failed to load.

I'm thinking best way is to somehow make a new update.cat file and find someone to legitimately sign it and install it the proper way with Windows Installer.

On the other hand, all I wanted XP Mode for was so I can use my old USB FM tuner which has no x64 drivers available. For all this trouble, I might as well just replace it with a new one!

Maybe this is working:

http://forum.thewindowsclub.com/downloa ... post143073

http://www.vmlite.com/

I will try it.

Wow, nice!
It's based on VirtualBox but it has all the seamless stuff, original XPMode have!
ps. If you don't need the seamless integration, you can also (probably) use old MS Virtual PC or regular VMware/VirtualBox, if you convert the image to its format.

Well, I tried it. It works great, but not everything is great...
It's based on VirtualBox, but it use incompatible (modified) drivers, which broke regular VirtualBox drivers. So, if I install "VMLite Workstation", I can't use VirtualBox any more.
btw. Also don't know, if this app is legal to use.

All greetings.
The register and files from XP mode windows 7 x64
It was not tested (my system does not support virtualization ). Access to folders overcome.
The driver work. The test is necessary.

http://www.filehoster.ru/files/dw0551

Tested your files. Does not work.