wix3 VS reactos

We also need to install WiX Toolset v3.11.2, you can download the latest version from here

For those like me (I never used Windows) who do not know WiX; https://wixtoolset.org/.

I don't do Windows installers myself, but I hear WiX is popular: https://wixtoolset.org/

I actually like WiX[1] — it has a bit of a learning curve, but, so long as I'm building on Windows and don't stray far from the default UI flows, I haven't found an easier tool for creating Windows installers as part of a product build process, especially those that require Windows-specific bits like COM component registration, Windows service management, setting restrictive ACLs on installed components, etc.

And while I'm not aware of any way to sandbox Windows Installer itself, I'm curious if AppContainer isolation can be applied to applications and services installed via MSI, which would still be quite useful even if the installation process itself is unrestricted.

Alternatively, now that MSIX supports service installation[2], I wonder whether an MSIX including a Windows service and a collection of client applications can be configured so everything runs within one AppContainer, isolated from the rest of the system, and whether permission to access specific external directories chosen by users in a configuration GUI can be transparently (to the user) delegated to the related service.

Alas, none of this is useful to me until it's compatible with at least the most recent version of Windows 10, as very few of my customers are running Windows 11, and I suspect many won't upgrade until Windows 10 is no longer supported (optimistically; as of last year, I was still getting occasional support requests from customers running older versions of our software on Windows Server 2003 R2).

[1] https://wixtoolset.org

[2] https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/msix/supported-pla...

For Windows, in the past, I’ve used the WiX toolset to create installers (https://wixtoolset.org/).

https://wixtoolset.org/ should be able to help you out there.

Wix toolset to extract .exe to get the driver or .msi https://github.com/wixtoolset/wix3/releases

For windows - store: https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-store/register/ - requirements: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/apps/publish/publish-your-app/app-package-requirements?pivots=store-installer-msix - alternatively you can make MSIs and distribute them through your own website or another service. https://wixtoolset.org/ - publishing with chocolatey isn't a terrible option to help users with upgrade/installation automation. https://community.chocolatey.org/packages

https://reactos.org/ implement some of the windows API

You can use Rufus: https://rufus.ie/en/

To modify the ISO to turn off hardware check and TPM support for Windows 11 to install it on an unsupported PC.

https://github.com/pbatard/rufus/wiki/FAQ#user-content-Help_...

Besides Linux and BSD Unix there is: https://reactos.org/ https://aros.sourceforge.io/ https://www.haiku-os.org/ and https://www.arcanoae.com/arcaos/

I know some third-world nations still use DOS and the BORLAND DOS compilers because people donate old computers to their nations.

With the right OS, old computers are still usable. Please don't throw them away, e-cycle them so they get used by poor nations that cannot afford new PCs.

ReactOS is sometimes very disappointing. Take the issue with toolbar icons, for example. Toolbar icons in at least Office 97, Office 2000 and Visual Basic 6 were affected, as was some game [0]. Microsoft Office is a complex Win32 application, making it a good guinea pig for testing compatibility. And yet, this was fixed a few months ago, and the Office bug was reported in 2016 [1]. The bug with no text wrapping for tray balloons is also an embarrassing thing to have lingering for years (I assume it was like this since the balloons were first implemented in ReactOS).

Does the world really need a buggy Windows Server 2003 reimplementation? I think the efforts of the development team could be better spent elsewhere.

[0]: https://github.com/reactos/reactos/pull/5227

[1]: https://jira.reactos.org/browse/CORE-12377

Anyone tried ReactOS recently? Supposed to be a clean-room FOSS Windows NT compatible OS.

https://reactos.org/

It's still on my TODO. Mostly cause my parents want XP back.

> It's whitespace. There's wayyyy too much god damn whitespace in modern UIs, and it's awful.

I wanted to see how LibreOffice would compare on my netbook, and frankly it's better than the new Word, but still "worse" than the old version: https://i.imgur.com/cWGYh3M.png

That said, at least LibreOffice lets you have your custom themes and actually offers a variety of different interface layouts, which I think is a nice touch: https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Videos/User_interface

> Windows 7 with the Classic theme (which really was just a slight evolution over Win2K) was peak UI/UX, and you'll never change my mind. It's been downhill ever since, getting worse and worse with each generation.

To be honest, I'm inclined to agree with this. That's also why I rather enjoyed the Redmond theme even in *nix distros. There's just something so very usable about the old Windows look and more modern attempts, such as SerenityOS https://serenityos.org/ and even ReactOS https://reactos.org/