Welcome to Windows XP Service Pack 4

Atari800xl · Post by **Atari800xl** » Sat May 17, 2014 1:00 am

Thanks harkaz!! I will switch from Dutch to English XP to make your updates work, until I can figure out how to modify the Dutch updates myself.
So is the modification only needed to make standalone updates (with a modified update.exe), or is it also needed if I want to integrate them with nLite?
That is: can I nLite my Dutch XP with the Dutch Embedded updates, or do they need modification as well?
Thanks again for your patience, really appreciate all your hard work.

[EDIT: I read bphlpt's reply in "Hotfix Hunting" just now, I will try the "condition=" mod from harkaz' MSFN tut, then try nLite'ing them).
Thanks again!]

Atari800xl · Post by **Atari800xl** » Sun May 18, 2014 4:27 am

Sorry, one more question:
I downloaded the Dutch POSready updates and extracted them. Then I compare the inf files with Harkaz' modified updates. After changing the .inf [Prerequisite] section, how should I repack the update files, is it a standard SFX?

harkaz · Post by **harkaz** » Sun May 18, 2014 1:55 pm

Instructions to create the langugae-specific SFX installer of the update.
NOTE: You need to extract the language-specific SFX header only once.

http://www.ryanvm.net/forum/viewtopic.p ... 158#134158

Atari800xl · Post by **Atari800xl** » Sun May 18, 2014 2:01 pm

Thanks harkaz, those instructions are very clear indeed! I did google around a bit, but your instructions are a lot better, for example I didn't know that I had to find the *3rd* occurence of the MSCF string.
Thanks so much, I will test this as soon as I can.

Atari800xl · Post by **Atari800xl** » Sun May 18, 2014 3:15 pm

Sorry, one more: All steps are working fine, but after running the modified update, it briefly displays the install window, then "update integrity fails". Sorry if this was mentioned before...

Outbreaker · Post by **Outbreaker** » Sun May 18, 2014 3:56 pm

I did not try this yet but you can take a look at this method:
http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/44639-s ... try1036972

Atari800xl · Post by **Atari800xl** » Sun May 18, 2014 4:14 pm

YES!!! Outbreaker, that did the trick. The update.exe patch was the last thing I had to do. I love it how it's always a single byte that does the trick ("04" to "10" in this case, in "0B 01 04 89 1D" to "0B 01 10 89 1D".

Thanks to tomasz86 as well, of course, and everybody who was patient with me today. It was a productive weekend for me! I'm doing this for hobby as well, but there are still a lot of production PC's with XP! (in our case, connected to expensive Desco labelprinters, Mettler weighing systems, etc).

harkaz · Post by **harkaz** » Wed May 21, 2014 6:44 pm

Thanks to Sebijk at MSFN, who reported it, Windows XP SP4 will include a tweak which enables Windows Update in all Windows XP editions to automatically show up the latest updates from POSReady 2009 for any language.

davetee · Post by **davetee** » Wed May 21, 2014 8:46 pm

harkaz wrote:Thanks to Sebijk at MSFN, who reported it, Windows XP SP4 will include a tweak which enables Windows Update in all Windows XP editions to automatically show up the latest updates from POSReady 2009 for any language.

Wow that be so handy. When that happens then I know I can install or configure XP for people who still want it

Deejay100six · Post by **Deejay100six** » Mon May 26, 2014 2:36 pm

Hi all.

I'm Dave and I just signed up to post in this thread, although the site does look interesting so I'll have a look around when I have more time.

I posted a link in the staff room at my current 'regular' site so maybe you will get some more interest.

Apologies if I mention something that has already been covered, but this comment piqued my interest.

harkaz wrote:Thanks to Sebijk at MSFN, who reported it, Windows XP SP4 will include a tweak which enables Windows Update in all Windows XP editions to automatically show up the latest updates from POSReady 2009 for any language.

I wonder if this is the aforementioned tweak?

http://betanews.com/2014/05/26/how-to-c ... ntil-2019/

bphlpt · Post by **bphlpt** » Mon May 26, 2014 2:55 pm

Welcome!

Yes that's the same tweak. I't now starting to show up everywhere, so IMHO it's only a matter of time before MS decides to close the loophole and we'll have to come up with another way around it. The fact that this tweak is getting such wide press is just another indication of how popular XP still is.

Cheers and Regards

Deejay100six · Post by **Deejay100six** » Tue May 27, 2014 1:17 pm

Thanks.

bphlpt wrote: it's only a matter of time before MS decides to close the loophole and we'll have to come up with another way around it.

Just off the top of my head, is there really any need for this to be of concern to MS?

Outbreaker · Post by **Outbreaker** » Tue May 27, 2014 1:53 pm

Yes they want to kick everyone to Windwos 8.

Deejay100six · Post by **Deejay100six** » Tue May 27, 2014 2:35 pm

Of course. Thankfully, I don't even have that choice, my hardware doesn't match up.

poolside · Post by **poolside** » Wed May 28, 2014 6:16 am

Deejay100six wrote:Of course. Thankfully, I don't even have that choice, my hardware doesn't match up.

My old laptop runs faster on 8 than on XP.

Outbreaker · Post by **Outbreaker** » Wed May 28, 2014 10:31 am

Look at the system requirements for WinXP and Win8.

Deejay100six · Post by **Deejay100six** » Wed May 28, 2014 3:21 pm

Outbreaker wrote:Look at the system requirements for WinXP and Win8.

Windows 8 Upgrade Assistant says, "No".

harkaz · Post by **harkaz** » Wed May 28, 2014 7:00 pm

Important info to anyone modding/repacking signed PE binaries:

It is not possible to re-sign a file after modifying its resources.

However, it is possible to remove the existing signature FIRST, THEN modify the binary (+ fix checksums, etc.), and then apply a new signature.

Use delcert.exe from the http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthr ... ?p=2508061 XDA Forum post (note, this is not the same as the SMS Server 2003 tool ccmdelcert.exe, which deletes all SMS certificates on a machine).

Please do this when repacking M$ signed files, even if you don't sign it afterwards there may be others wanting to sign the modified files.

dencorso · Post by **dencorso** » Wed May 28, 2014 11:20 pm

Just to provide an alternative, since these are uncommon tools and it's always good to have alternatives, there's also Jupiter's ImageRemCert, at Woodmann's, for the same purpose, and it does not require VS 2008 C++ runtimes for working.

harkaz · Post by **harkaz** » Thu May 29, 2014 4:27 pm

Completing SP4 Beta tests. The installer will be available very soon.

PJAmerica · Post by **PJAmerica** » Thu May 29, 2014 5:06 pm

harkaz wrote:Completing SP4 Beta tests. The installer will be available very soon.

I can't wait to beat this thing with a hammer.

Less or more bugs we all can find the better it will be for everyone in the end. Keep up the good job. I look forward to the next release.

Atari800xl · Post by **Atari800xl** » Fri May 30, 2014 12:44 am

Thanks harkaz, yes, I also would love to test it, also a Dutch version, if you can tell us how to do it. I finally picked up how to use DXUPAC to create a fully localized Updatepack and downloaded all the Dutch and INTL (and Embedded) updates from Onepiece's "Box" folder, so I guess I have all the required updates available to create a localized version of your new SP4?

Looking forward to testing!

harkaz · Post by **harkaz** » Fri May 30, 2014 2:45 am

Windows XP SP4 Beta is now available!

New release (30 May 2014): https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7k-l_ ... sp=sharing

I will publish the release details in a couple of hours.

Atari800xl · Post by **Atari800xl** » Fri May 30, 2014 3:30 am

Let me be the first to congratulate you on this great achievement!!!
I have some spare time this weekend, so even though I'm hoping for a Dutch version in the future, I will test it on ENU as soon as I can, I have a clean XPSP3ENU somewhere, just need to "DPBase" some SATA drivers into it so I can test on my test laptop. I'm excited!!

EDIT1: DPBase'd my original XPSP3-ENU, installed it, TrueImaged it, installed SP4Beta, installed perfectly!, TrueImaged that, now it's on to my own PostInstall thingy, then "real life" testing. Looking good!!

EDIT2:
- Judging from the versions of mshtml.dll, mshtmled.dll, shlwapi.dll, you included the May POSReady updates as well?
- Started Windows Update: only offered latest MSRT. Beautiful!!!!

=[FEAR]=JIGSAW · Post by **=[FEAR]=JIGSAW** » Fri May 30, 2014 3:33 am

harkaz wrote: Windows XP SP4 Beta is now available!

New release (30 May 2014): https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7k-l_ ... sp=sharing

I will publish the release details in a couple of hours.

Thanks for all the hard work you've been putting into this.!

Appreciated

Atari800xl · Post by **Atari800xl** » Fri May 30, 2014 8:31 am

So running sp4 on a clean, installed, xpsp3 was successful.
Next thing I tested was integrating sp4 into the sp3 source. Everything went OK. After that I added the SATA drivers again with DPbase and ran WinNTSetup to install this new "XPSP4" source.

I know JFX said here: http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/149612- ... try1074981
that he only parses dosnet.inf, not txtsetup.inf, so I expected some files to maybe not copy correctly. So everything mentioned below could very well be due to the special way WinNTSetup is working, but I'll just mention them here, not sure if there's anything that can be done about it.

Textmode filecopy not found: iedks32.mui, ieframe.mui, w32tm.exe. I just "escaped" them and went on. GUI mode not found: msxpsdrv.cat, d3dx9_26_x86.cat, d3dx9_29_x86.cat, msxpsdrv.cat. After reboot: "Can't load Internet Configuration Lib icfgnt.dll", "Can't access grpconv.exe". After final reboot: "Your current security setting do not allow this file to be downloaded". System was booted, but not usable.

So not really a success this way, as I said this probably has a lot to do with WinNTSetup, but I wanted to report it anyway, it would have been nice if it could work.

So installing XPSP3 normally, then doing a standalone SP4 install works very nice, integrating into source not so much.

Thanks anyways for your wonderful project!

I should add that WinNTSetup had a few similar issues with the latest OnePiece Final pack, only 3 missing files in that case, JFX made a special workaround for them, if there were only a few issues with SP4, I'm sure he could try something like that again. As I said, just reporting...
WinNTSetup is just so easy and fast (from USB), pretty much all XP sources work great with it (even when [slightly] nLited, etc), I wouldn't want to go back to CDs etc., haven't used those in years...

harkaz · Post by **harkaz** » Fri May 30, 2014 10:42 am

d3dx9_26_x86.cat, d3dx9_29_x86.cat layout.inf reference is problematic. I will reupload them in the upcoming Beta 1a build.

iedks32.mui, ieframe.mui, w32tm.exe, msxpsdrv.cat may fail due to double-references (w32tm.exe's one is completely unnecessary).

Try adding a second entry in dosnet.inf for each of these files and see what this does. Add these lines:

d1, iedks32.mui
d1, ieframe.mui
d1, w32tm.exe
d1, msxpsdrv.cat

Atari800xl · Post by **Atari800xl** » Fri May 30, 2014 12:00 pm

Adding the extra lines didn't help. As I said, it could also be a WinNTSetup issue, I don't know enough about this to tell where the problem is.
Meybe if others are successful with CD setups, we'll know if it really only happens with WinNTSetup.
Thanks for replying.

harkaz · Post by **harkaz** » Fri May 30, 2014 1:34 pm

Try to add an uncompressed iedkcs32.mui file to the installation media. Tell me if iedkcs32.mui still shows up.

ianymaty · Post by **ianymaty** » Fri May 30, 2014 2:42 pm

@ Atari800xl

Please, can you try with WinSetupFromUSB to compare? http://www.winsetupfromusb.com/

I would try myself but my time is limted now. I will try when I have some spare time.

Thank you and also to harkaz for his dedication into this project.

Atari800xl · Post by **Atari800xl** » Fri May 30, 2014 2:57 pm

I'm using WinNTSetup, so copying expanded versions of iedks32.mui, ieframe.mui, w32tm.exe and msxpsdrv.cat just before the last reset (when XP setup actually starts) is the most convenient way (using an sfx, added with "-Runafter" option). I tested it and that got rid of the text mode setup/ copy stage missing files. THANK YOU!!!

The other issues still exist: GUI mode not found: msxpsdrv.cat, d3dx9_26_x86.cat, d3dx9_29_x86.cat, msxpsdrv.cat. After reboot (T-16): "Windows cannot load the Internet Configuration Library (ICFGNT.DLL). The following error occurred: The specific module could not be found". After final reboot: "Your current security setting do not allow this file to be downloaded". System hangs at "Please wait...", after a reboot the system boots, but every program start gets a "You may not have the appropriate permissions" etc.

Of course, when the "msxpsdrv.cat" issue could be solved, maybe the other issues will also disappear.

Again, if CD-based setup is working fine, don't pay too much attention to these problems for now, maybe they're WinNTSetup related, maybe it just won't work this way?

@ianymaty: Sorry, but I prefer WinNTSetup, I use a single thumb drive for booting (Win8PESE) and installing XP/W7/W8, etc. (all isos and wims on one USB) using WinNTSetup. As I said, thankfully there are a lot of ways to get an updated XP, so I'm sticking with it for now. Of course I would like to hear results from others!

harkaz · Post by **harkaz** » Sun Jun 01, 2014 8:25 am

I'm fixing a couple issues with MCE CD-ROM install and WDSearch OC, then I will reupload the Beta 1a build + Release notes.

When testing please:

- report errors with USB installs, if any.
- check setupapi.log for "unsigned file" errors.
- test qfecheck after an upgrade/repair installation
- slipstream SP4 in a Windows XP 32-bit environment. Then use nLite/RyanVmi/anything else to integrate drivers, addons, etc.
- OOBE startup will delay for about 2 minutes. This is normal and happens due to .NET FW 4.0 NGEN service.

Anthony21 · Post by **Anthony21** » Sun Jun 01, 2014 11:44 am

did find this recently with the latest updates for 32 bit only with a simple trick to keep getting updates to 2019.

decide to do whatever if ya haven't heard yet and besides microsoft pretty much saying ur own risk, which in a way to me i think they are just trying to scare people to not do so they can get people money. either way is true or not true

The hack, as reported by ZDNet, fools Microsoft into thinking the system is running Windows Embedded POSReady 2009, a variant of XP that's used by ATMs and cash registers. Those systems will keep getting security updates until 2019.

All XP users need to do is create a text file with the following contents:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\WPA\PosReady]

"Installed"=dword:00000001

Then, change the file extension from “.txt” to “.reg,” and run the file in Windows Explorer. Opening Windows Update at this point should reveal several new security updates.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2310301/ ... lling.html

~Keep up the good work, Cheers~

bphlpt · Post by **bphlpt** » Sun Jun 01, 2014 3:01 pm

Anthony21 wrote:did find this recently with the latest updates for 32 bit only with a simple trick to keep getting updates to 2019.

decide to do whatever if ya haven't heard yet and besides microsoft pretty much saying ur own risk, which in a way to me i think they are just trying to scare people to not do so they can get people money. either way is true or not true

Thanks Anthony21, but that's already been mentioned here, and here, and here, and here, and probably elsewhere as well.

[ And that's just on this forum! ] And I believe it has already been implemented in SP4.

Cheers and Regards

ianymaty · Post by **ianymaty** » Sun Jun 01, 2014 4:19 pm

Hi harkaz

Finally I got some time to test this.

All I did was integrate it in a clean SP3 and build a new iso with with nLite. Nothing more.

Installed from iso in VMWare no problems. Sorry, I haven't look in setupapi.log after this. Event Viewer was clean. Than I saw your post.

Made a USB install with WinsetupFromUSB and install in VMWare. This time Event Viewer show Event ID: 60055 Windows Setup encountered non-fatal errors during installation. Please check the setuperr.log found in your Windows directory for more information.

This is in setuperr.log
Error:
Setup had problems registering the following OLE control DLL:
C:\WINDOWS\system32\RUNDLL32.exe
Contact your system administrator, who may provide assistance in diagnosing this problem.

There is also another Event ID: 7000 The WebClient service failed to start due to the following error %%1290

As you requested in setupapi.log this are present:
#E361 An unsigned or incorrectly signed file "D:\WINSETUP\XPPSP4\i386\wmicvalu.xs_" will be installed (Policy=Ignore). Error 0x800b0100: No signature was present in the subject.

#E361 An unsigned or incorrectly signed file "D:\WINSETUP\XPPSP4\i386\Revert.wm_" will be installed (Policy=Ignore). Error 0x800b0100: No signature was present in the subject.

#E361 An unsigned or incorrectly signed file "c:\388fe08c9b54e1e62c\update\update_SP3QFE.inf" will be installed (Policy=Ignore). Error 0x800b0100: No signature was present in the subject.

#E361 An unsigned or incorrectly signed file "c:\db7189dc9dca95e0618e5630\update\update.inf" will be installed (Policy=Ignore). Error 0xe000022f: The third-party INF does not contain digital signature information.

#E361 An unsigned or incorrectly signed file "c:\b53b75ca667a6c4028baa4e7277e\update\update_SP3QFE.inf" will be installed (Policy=Ignore). Error 0x800b0100: No signature was present in the subject.

I will do another test when you release the next build in the same scenario.

Thank you.

PS.

Installed the ported updates without problem.

Anthony21 · Post by **Anthony21** » Sun Jun 01, 2014 11:03 pm

oops, my bad, I totally forgot about it ianymaty.

=[FEAR]=JIGSAW · Post by **=[FEAR]=JIGSAW** » Mon Jun 02, 2014 8:30 am

Getting this???

Tried to integrate twice. Did I maybe misread something?

harkaz · Post by **harkaz** » Mon Jun 02, 2014 9:34 am

I will test the new build in VirtualBox very soon. The error seems like an ISO emulation issue, but I'm not definite about it.

bphlpt · Post by **bphlpt** » Mon Jun 02, 2014 10:32 am

harkaz, this might be of interest to add, if possible, to avoid future problems?

http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/172000- ... eady-2009/

Code: Select all

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

; This empty registry key lets Microsoft Security Essentials install on POSReady 2009.
; Tested with ENUS\x86\MSEInstall.exe version 4.5.216.0 published 2014-04-08 downloaded
; from http://www.microsoft.com/en-au/download/details.aspx?id=5201

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\Microsoft Security Client]

Cheers and Regards

harkaz · Post by **harkaz** » Mon Jun 02, 2014 10:56 am

@=[FEAR]=JIGSAW Unable to reproduce the issue. Probably it's emulation-related.

@bphlpt I had tested Security Essentials with the POSRaedy 2009 tweak but I didn't observe any problems, except for the message: "Support for operating system has ended". So no further registry chanegs are required.

harkaz · Post by **harkaz** » Mon Jun 02, 2014 1:28 pm

The "An unsigned or incorrectly signed file wmicvalu.xs_" error will have to be ignored. It is also present in the original installation media (any SPn) and an attempt to fix it causes more problems.

Note that wmicvalu.xsl file comes from the original XP release: it's last modified back in 2001.

harkaz · Post by **harkaz** » Tue Jun 03, 2014 9:40 am

All reported issues have been fixed (including the wmicvalu.xs_ error). I haven't tested on USB yet, I'm performing some additional tests + improvements.

maxtorix · Post by **maxtorix** » Tue Jun 03, 2014 10:30 am

Nice. Very nice!

I'm thinking something.
SP4 can be installed with old serial numbers from SP3.
that is good and totally legal also, but just a thought is it possible to be made new serials which will work only on SP4?

Co-working with nuhi (nLite) for adding support for nLiteing XP with SP4 integrated - adding some new options...

I'm also interesting why build version: 6419 - this mean something or just a random number?

EULA says SP3 terms... - can be changed in SP4

WinVer and System Properties Dialog strings:
"Version 2002" - this can be changed (System32/Sysdm.cpl, String 13, line 195)
"Version 5.1 build 2600..." - Shell32.dll - String 4 (all lines: 60,61,62)
"Service Pack 3" - just is not enough as SP4 to be present in nLite after integrating it's need to be here in system properties also.
"Copyright 2007" - needs to be changed in 2014.
"HKLM->Software->Microsoft->Windows NT->Current Version" changes are also need to be made.

Good job man!

harkaz · Post by **harkaz** » Tue Jun 03, 2014 12:13 pm

I cannot change the SP version number. If I change it, WU will not work and installation of POSReady patches to XP won't be possible. Patching shell32.dll or similar files has no point because these changes will be lost in the next security patch for these files.

The BuildLab key will change in the next ntoskrnl security update. This determines the BuildLab registry key value.
The 6419 build number is related to ntoskrnl.exe version: 5.1.2600.6419. It is the kernel SPBuild number.

However, the change to "Version 2014" is something interesting. I will most likely implement this as a way to distinguish between the original SP3 and the SP4 build (which includes, in addition, the POSReady update tweak, so it's an "extension" of the original XP SP3).

Anthony21 · Post by **Anthony21** » Wed Jun 04, 2014 10:07 am

was thinking the samething about changn the year.

I'm not sure what im doing wrong, but each time with slip streaming my version of home with sp4, says wrong key, found the culprit thou, the key inside the cd is wrong bc even booting off that disk says its the wrong key, not sure where the old broken laptop thou.

but since the last few months ive been with msn suscriber and got my self the Windows xp pro sp3 80428. key works but slipstreaming with sp4 acts like its a different key bc it says wrong key.

so im stuck on that. am i doing somthing wrong slipstreaming it? all im adding is sp obtion & make it a boot disk obtion, thats it, if i can past that mark, i was gonna edit it like changn the user name and others.

maxtorix · Post by **maxtorix** » Wed Jun 04, 2014 11:46 am

Another thing:

Years ago I was doing this to bypass some restrictions to install Windows Installer 4.5 on Longhorn 4074.
And yesterday when I wrote the post above I've totally forgot the effects of CSDVersion registry keys:
So these registry keys are not autorevertable as 'BuildLab(Ex)', and also they are not affected by Windows Update, so they can be used also, and I think all cosmetics problems will be solved.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Control\Windows]
"CSDVersion"=dword:00000400

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet003\Control\Windows]
"CSDVersion"=dword:00000400

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Windows]
"CSDVersion"=dword:00000400

With these registry keys you will get Service Pack 4 string instead of Service Pack 3 in System Properties and WinVer dialogs.

harkaz · Post by **harkaz** » Wed Jun 04, 2014 2:48 pm

@Anthony21 Do you slipstream SP4 in a Windows XP x86 environment? In addition, try using the official slipstream method (the /integrate switch) and manually create the ISO afterwards.

@maxtorix I had tested this change very early in USP4 development. WU will fail to show updates and any SP3-branch hotfixes, like POSReady 2009 ones will fail to install. So, unfortunately, it's not an option.

(Note: Only the CurrentControlSet key requires updating).

maxtorix · Post by **maxtorix** » Wed Jun 04, 2014 3:25 pm

@harkaz: I'm interesting is it possible to be added an option to delete mediactr and tabletpc componenets (of course and some languages too) how iso is able to fit on cd 700mb?
... or maybe for this I need to ask nuhi?

harkaz · Post by **harkaz** » Wed Jun 04, 2014 3:35 pm

@maxtorix The recommended option is breaking the SP4 package into 2 650 MB CD-ROMs. The second CD-ROM includes MEDIACTR, TABLETPC, NETFX, NETFX11, NETFX35, NETFX40 and other components. Even if you delete MEDIACTR and TABLETPC folders the package won't fit in a single 700 or even 800 MB CD-ROM. If you want everything on a single 700MB CD-ROM you need to remove additional components from the sysoc.inf files and their respective folders. Some files from CMPNENTS folder are copied during Text-mode setup, so they should not be removed. The win51cd2 tag file cannot be removed as well.

UPDATE: Let me explain the steps required to break into 2 CD-ROMS:

1. win51cd2 tag file must be in the second CD-ROM but not in the first one.
2. CMPNENTS folder should be MOVED "as is" to CD#2 unless it contains a STARTER subfolder (in the case of XP Starter media).
3. If the slipstreamed CMPNENTS folder contains a STARTER subfolder then a CMPNENTS folder should be created at the root of disk #1. Then STARTER subfolder should be copied to that CMPNENTS folder.

harkaz · Post by **harkaz** » Wed Jun 04, 2014 4:18 pm

The text-mode setup phase from USB drive did not show any issues.

Some final tests before releasing the Beta 2 build...