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A comment on ReactOS releases 0.4.8 with experimental Vista/7/10 software compatibility. Parent comment

Re:ReactOS releases 0.4.8 with experimental Vista/7/10 softw... by astro_robot on Sunday April 15, 2018 @08:39PM (#16845895)
How long did it take for Windows 95 to be developed? It would be an interesting contrasts between Enterprise and Charitable development.
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Re:ReactOS releases 0.4.8 with experimental Vista/7/10 softw... by greenhouse_gas on Sunday April 15, 2018 @11:12PM (#16846440)
It's much easier to Greenfield your way rather than reverse engineer (bug-for-bug) complicated code.
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Re:ReactOS releases 0.4.8 with experimental Vista/7/10 softw... by da_chicken on Sunday April 15, 2018 @09:11PM (#16846029)
Windows 95 still borrowed a lot of code from MS-DOS, though. That's why you could still exit to the command prompt. I think you could do that through WinME.
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Re:ReactOS releases 0.4.8 with experimental Vista/7/10 softw... by DEFCON28 on Sunday April 15, 2018 @11:13PM (#16846441)
Huh? Why would you even say this? There's no MS-DOS code in Windows 95, and you couldn't exit Windows 95 to a command prompt. Are you just trying to throw some FUD into this conversation?
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Re:ReactOS releases 0.4.8 with experimental Vista/7/10 softw... by chungy on Monday April 16, 2018 @12:25AM (#16846672)
No, he's right. Windows 95/98/Me use MS-DOS as a bootloader, and Windows 95+98 still allowed you to exit Windows from the shutdown prompt, leaving you only at the DOS prompt. Windows Me took away the ability to exit, least without a binary hack to IO.SYS that can re-enable it.
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Re:ReactOS releases 0.4.8 with experimental Vista/7/10 softw... by orionblastar on Monday April 16, 2018 @03:55AM (#16847369)
You mean DOS Mode where Win9X GUI shuts down and reboots into DOS mode to run DOS software. I was a Win95 beta tester.
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Re:ReactOS releases 0.4.8 with experimental Vista/7/10 softw... by wvenable on Monday April 16, 2018 @11:48AM (#16849789)
The original "It's now safe to turn off your computer" screen in Windows 95/98 actually sent you to a DOS prompt. Because the computer was in graphics mode you couldn't see the prompt but you could blindly type the commands to switch modes and continue to use the computer from DOS.
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Re:ReactOS releases 0.4.8 with experimental Vista/7/10 softw... by kyberias on Monday April 16, 2018 @02:48AM (#16847113)
I didn't remember it either, but Windows 95 actually allowed to exit to DOS.

https://guidebookgallery.org/pics/gui/startupshutdown/shutdo...

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Re:ReactOS releases 0.4.8 with experimental Vista/7/10 softw... by kalleboo on Monday April 16, 2018 @02:45AM (#16847105)
You could even configure Windows 95/98 to boot directly to DOS by setting BootGUI=0 in MSDOS.SYS, and then you'd have to run "WIN" to boot Windows
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Re:ReactOS releases 0.4.8 with experimental Vista/7/10 softw... by snvzz on Monday April 16, 2018 @09:21AM (#16848745)
Isn't MSDOS.SYS a binary? Are you sure you don't mean CONFIG.SYS?
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Re:ReactOS releases 0.4.8 with experimental Vista/7/10 softw... by nandhp on Monday April 16, 2018 @11:17AM (#16849538)
According to Wikipedia, it became a configuration file in Windows 95 (MS-DOS 7.0): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MSDOS.SYS
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Re:ReactOS releases 0.4.8 with experimental Vista/7/10 softw... by snvzz on Tuesday April 17, 2018 @09:06AM (#16857874)
Interesting, never knew that.
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Re:ReactOS releases 0.4.8 with experimental Vista/7/10 softw... by nickpsecurity on Monday April 16, 2018 @12:56PM (#16850556)
That would've made one of my favorite tricks impossible. Here's what I remember doing about those pesky login screens asking for passwords:

1. Reboot the computer in DOS mode.

2. Change to Windows directory.

3. Delete the .pwl file for a user.

4. Reboot back into Windows 95.

5. Enter a new password in what was once a login screen asking for the old one.

Simpler times for hackers back then. :)

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