Welcome to Microsoft Codename Longhorn XP (Alpha Build 3683) Multi-Bootable CD

Longhorn will become a major Windows Release by Microsoft, it is expected to be in the shops early in 2005.  The Longhorn Build 3683 on this CD came from one of those Alpha Builds which made their way onto the Internet in September.  This multi-bootable CD corrected some mistakes existing in the leaked version of Longhorn and there are some other improvements being made as well.

Features:

• Corrected cdtagfile-name to win51 & win51ip (which were incorrectly named as win51.dat & win51ip.dat in the leaked version).
• Installation of Longhorn can now be done by booting the CD directly or by running the \i386\winnt.exe under DOS environment.  (The leaked version was unable to do this because of the wrong cdtagfile-name.)
• As usual, Install/Upgrade can also be done from Win32 GUI.
• Fixed the LONGHORN.JPG which was responsible for the Bliss Wallpaper.

• The 180 days Timebomb has been removed from the SETUPREG.HIV.  Since the SETUPREG.HIV is now of the "Full Version", we are able to remove those "Evaluation" messages from the installed Longhorn Desktop.  (Removing Timebomb from SETUPREG.HIV does not mean that we can use the Longhorn forever because it may contradict to some other coding which M$ put onto this Alpha product.  Please do NOT play by pushing your Calendar ahead!)

• Using Boot Scriptor Version 1.2.14b, the CD is now able to display BMP images during the booting time.

• In addtion to booting to install the Microsoft Longhorn XP, the Multi-Bootable CD is also capable to boot the Rescue Menu from which it can boot MS-DOS 6.22, PC-DOS 7.0, Win98 + CMD Support, Win98 + NTFS Support, Partition Magic 8, Partition Recovery, NAV & Ghost 2003, Bart's Network, SCSI-Tools & CDROM Boot-Disk , EZRecovery, Drive Image 6, SpinRite 5, GNU/Linux & NT-Password Administration

.

• Under Win32 environment, the Autorun CD-Menu will allow Setup of Microsoft Codename Longhorn as usual.

Installation:

• Install with the following Product-Key: CKY24-Q8QRH-X3KMR-C6BCY-T847Y (14days)

If you're a .NET 2003 beta tester, you can use your Microsoft provided key.  Please note that RESET 4.04 & 5.01 are NOT going to work with this version of LONGHORN, and you have to ACTIVATE in order to make Longhorn to work beyonds the 14 days grace period.

• Install with any one of the following approaches:

1. Boot from CD and select "1" from the Install & Interactive Menu to install Longhorn
2. Under DOS, run \i386\winnt.exe (it is strongly recommended to run DOS smartdrv.exe first). e.g. X:\i386\winnt.exe /s:X:\i386 /t:D (X is the drive letter of your CD and D is the drive letter of your target hard-disk where you want the copied temporary files to be put and the Longhorn XP to be installed)
3. Under Windows 9x/ME/NT/2000/XP, run setup.exe or \i386\winnt32.exe of your selected XP.  e.g. X:\i386\winnt32.exe /s:X:\i386 /tempdrive:D
4. Under Windows 9x/ME/NT/2000/XP, you can also use the Autorun CD-Menu to install the Longhorn XP.

• Notes for removing "Evaluation" Stuffs from desktop:

To get rid of the Evaluation Stuffs off the desktop, remove the following two registry keys:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\SystemCertificates\CA\Certificates\FEE449EE0E3965A5246F000E87FDE2A065FD89D4]

and

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\SystemCertificates\ROOT\Certificates\2BD63D28D7BCD0E251195AEB519243C13142EBC3]

Enjoy!

by Michael K.H. Au-Yeung, on November 23, 2002.