0.4.13 in Real Steel doing real work.

[Kevin Castro]

I’ve been mucking around, trying to get audio. I tried five different drivers, bricking the install several times. Then I purchased an XP-compatible sound card and that bricked the install again. (This purchase may, one day, come in handy if I buy a second-hand motherboard with a blown front audio output stage—in my experience, system sounds don’t work through the rear audio.)

[Kevin Castro]

The current install seems a bit glitchy and I don’t intend to do much with it. Even though I did the Fonts folder backing-up-thing as part of the installation of Office 2000, the system fonts are a bit screwed up. You will notice that the fonts on the desktop and “Start” button are not the correct ones. I’m guessing that I missed a critical reboot somewhere during the process and ReactOS is punishing me for having rushed.

But the testing must go on.

I don’t actually know how to install Microsoft Photo Editor (a component of Office 97/2000). But at some point in 2006, I must have copied the “Mic Phot Ed” folder from my first XP pc into a flash drive. There doesn’t seem to be any software needed to make it go; but I’ve never put the folder into a pc on which I hadn’t already installed Office 2000.

[Kevin Castro]

My “Mic Phot Ed” folder can be copied into the boot drive of XP, Vista, 7, and ReactOS 0.4.13. The “EXE” can then be copied into the Start Menu.

[Kevin Castro]

So, what is it good for? In Windows—not much. In ReactOS—Screencaps. Paint can save screencaps nicely as png, but its jpg’s look awful. Irfanview doesn’t like to take ReactOS screencaps at all. Microsoft Photo Editor saves beautiful jpg’s. You can’t simply do a Ctrl+V—you need to use Edit/Paste as New Image. In the program itself, the image (at 75%) looks quite awful but it will be saved beautifully.

[dizt3mp3r]

It looks like a 'real' operating system...

[shunesburg]

It looks like a 'real' operating system...

Maybe because it's a "real" Operating System?

[dizt3mp3r]

Maybe because it's a "real" Operating System?

Hmmmm, not yet. It is currently a non-operating system that intends to operate but using it for operation is currently a little premature. We could call it an operating system-to-be or a pre-operating system or perhaps an alpha o/s which of course means - not yet suitable for operations.

The above does show it working to an extent but only to that alpha extent.

[Kevin Castro]

Yes, dizt3mp3r, definitely an “operating system-to-be”. Here’s another crash back to earth:

This is Nero StartSmart from the Nero 6 CD (it only supports XP), which came free with a Lite-on DVD burner in 2006. There is a whole bunch of stuff on the disk, but I only ever install StartSmart.
So, what is it for? Well, back in the day, I was using it to make DVD data back-ups in XP (before flash drives were affordable).

[Kevin Castro]

But let’s imagine I find a Stephen Fry lecture (or anything shorter than eighty minutes) in YouTube that I don’t need to watch but would like to listen to in the car on the freeway.
First, I download it from YouTube as an MP4 (at 720). If YTD is being agreeable, I can do this in WALLABY (XP). If not, I’ll do it in KARETTA (7-64) using WinX YouTube Downloader; and then send it across the network into WALLABY.

This is a reposted screencap of YTD running in 0.4.12 in 2019. This program did its job perfectly but it screwed up the Folder tree, and messed a bit with the ease of VLC video playback.

[Kevin Castro]

Next, I drop the MP4 into Nero, insert a disk, set the burn speed (32×), and click “Burn”.
The file burns as a .cda and the disk will play in any CD player (remember them?).
So, I wanted to give it a go in ReactOS (with an MP4 I downloaded years ago).

Here, I have dropped in a 33-minute live performance by Sloan. Unfortunately, it wouldn’t burn.

[Kevin Castro]

This is Nero StartSmart in WALLABY. You can see that the default “Current recorder” is the V-drive. There is also the choice of “Image Recorder” (for burning Nero .nrg files).

In KATRELL, I only have the “Image Recorder”.
There is a function in StartSmart to test the burner. Nero tells me KATRELL has no CD-ROM burner.
0.4.12 wouldn’t even install this software; so the current experience is another example of how ReactOS is moving forward with each version.
I believe we are getting closer to the day ReactOS reliably does this whole job from download to burn.

[Kevin Castro]

This is avc Any Video Converter free 3.0.3.0 from 2010. It installed without issue but initially wouldn’t run. I had to copy over the mfc42u.dll from XP.
I dropped in the MP4, selected MP3 output, and converted the file. Once again, ReactOS wouldn’t burn it to CD. As a test, I transferred the file into KARETTA, burned it to disk, and it played in a CD player.

[dizt3mp3r]

All the above looking promising.

But let’s imagine I find a Stephen Fry lecture

Stephen Fry is my next door neighbour, so I just open my Window on my house to hear his voice rather than a window on my computer.

[Kevin Castro]

What a privilege!