Skip to content
  • Categories
  • Recent
  • Tags
  • Popular
  • World
  • Users
  • Groups
Skins
  • Light
  • Brite
  • Cerulean
  • Cosmo
  • Flatly
  • Journal
  • Litera
  • Lumen
  • Lux
  • Materia
  • Minty
  • Morph
  • Pulse
  • Sandstone
  • Simplex
  • Sketchy
  • Spacelab
  • United
  • Yeti
  • Zephyr
  • Dark
  • Cyborg
  • Darkly
  • Quartz
  • Slate
  • Solar
  • Superhero
  • Vapor

  • Default (Cyborg)
  • No Skin
Collapse
Brand Logo

CIRCLE WITH A DOT

  1. Home
  2. Uncategorized
  3. I like how Windows managed the 32bit/64bit migration in the most sensible way, by making us pick from two copies of every installer/binary forever

I like how Windows managed the 32bit/64bit migration in the most sensible way, by making us pick from two copies of every installer/binary forever

Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Uncategorized
37 Posts 20 Posters 1 Views
  • Oldest to Newest
  • Newest to Oldest
  • Most Votes
Reply
  • Reply as topic
Log in to reply
This topic has been deleted. Only users with topic management privileges can see it.
  • foone@digipres.clubF foone@digipres.club

    technically windows does use fat binaries, they're just DOS/windows.

    which is really only ever used to display a "you need windows to run this program" if you accidentally run it in DOS.

    foone@digipres.clubF This user is from outside of this forum
    foone@digipres.clubF This user is from outside of this forum
    foone@digipres.club
    wrote last edited by
    #9

    I wonder if it still does that for 64bit EXEs?

    luna@catgirl.centerL jernej__s@infosec.exchangeJ 2 Replies Last reply
    0
    • foone@digipres.clubF foone@digipres.club

      technically windows does use fat binaries, they're just DOS/windows.

      which is really only ever used to display a "you need windows to run this program" if you accidentally run it in DOS.

      dalias@hachyderm.ioD This user is from outside of this forum
      dalias@hachyderm.ioD This user is from outside of this forum
      dalias@hachyderm.io
      wrote last edited by
      #10

      @foone But you *can* use that for so much more.... 😈

      gsuberland@chaos.socialG 1 Reply Last reply
      0
      • foone@digipres.clubF foone@digipres.club

        I like how Windows managed the 32bit/64bit migration in the most sensible way, by making us pick from two copies of every installer/binary forever

        cinebox@masto.hackers.townC This user is from outside of this forum
        cinebox@masto.hackers.townC This user is from outside of this forum
        cinebox@masto.hackers.town
        wrote last edited by
        #11

        @foone don’t forget the software that also has arm64 binaries!

        1 Reply Last reply
        0
        • foone@digipres.clubF This user is from outside of this forum
          foone@digipres.clubF This user is from outside of this forum
          foone@digipres.club
          wrote last edited by
          #12

          64bit windows EXE, being run in DOSBox-X:

          Link Preview Image
          foone@digipres.clubF 1 Reply Last reply
          0
          • foone@digipres.clubF foone@digipres.club

            technically windows does use fat binaries, they're just DOS/windows.

            which is really only ever used to display a "you need windows to run this program" if you accidentally run it in DOS.

            cinebox@masto.hackers.townC This user is from outside of this forum
            cinebox@masto.hackers.townC This user is from outside of this forum
            cinebox@masto.hackers.town
            wrote last edited by
            #13

            @foone surely NTFS binaries are more common these days

            1 Reply Last reply
            0
            • foone@digipres.clubF foone@digipres.club

              64bit windows EXE, being run in DOSBox-X:

              Link Preview Image
              foone@digipres.clubF This user is from outside of this forum
              foone@digipres.clubF This user is from outside of this forum
              foone@digipres.club
              wrote last edited by
              #14

              fun fact: although that DOS stub usually just says that and quits, there's nothing that stops it from doing other things.

              You could write a program that runs on DOS and win64, it'd just need to be implemented twice and embedded in the same binary

              foone@digipres.clubF dosnostalgic@mastodon.socialD dryak@mstdn.scienceD kawa@mas.toK 4 Replies Last reply
              0
              • foone@digipres.clubF foone@digipres.club

                technically windows does use fat binaries, they're just DOS/windows.

                which is really only ever used to display a "you need windows to run this program" if you accidentally run it in DOS.

                cr1901@mastodon.socialC This user is from outside of this forum
                cr1901@mastodon.socialC This user is from outside of this forum
                cr1901@mastodon.social
                wrote last edited by
                #15

                @foone I feel like I remember certain Win 3.x binaries also prepending a DOS executable of the same program, so that the same binary runs on both systems.

                But Win 3.x isn't PE. So maybe I'm misremembering.

                1 Reply Last reply
                0
                • foone@digipres.clubF foone@digipres.club

                  fun fact: although that DOS stub usually just says that and quits, there's nothing that stops it from doing other things.

                  You could write a program that runs on DOS and win64, it'd just need to be implemented twice and embedded in the same binary

                  foone@digipres.clubF This user is from outside of this forum
                  foone@digipres.clubF This user is from outside of this forum
                  foone@digipres.club
                  wrote last edited by
                  #16

                  so you could fat-binary a program to run on DOS/win32/win64 this way, by making it a 32bit program which win64 can run though backwards compatibility.

                  I'm not sure if you can include win16 though: it won't run the DOS stub, and it'll not be able to run the win32 version.

                  Unless you can set up win32s on win16 in such a way that it works in both 16bit windowses (through win32s) and 32bit-native windowses

                  max@peering.socialM kathee_hds@tech.lgbtK foone@digipres.clubF jernej__s@infosec.exchangeJ 4 Replies Last reply
                  0
                  • foone@digipres.clubF foone@digipres.club

                    I wonder if it still does that for 64bit EXEs?

                    luna@catgirl.centerL This user is from outside of this forum
                    luna@catgirl.centerL This user is from outside of this forum
                    luna@catgirl.center
                    wrote last edited by
                    #17

                    @foone@digipres.club it's even still a thing in arm64 exes (iirc with an x86 dos stub) and bootmgfw.efi, even though no reasonable person will ever try to run those on dos

                    luna@catgirl.centerL 1 Reply Last reply
                    0
                    • dalias@hachyderm.ioD dalias@hachyderm.io

                      @foone But you *can* use that for so much more.... 😈

                      gsuberland@chaos.socialG This user is from outside of this forum
                      gsuberland@chaos.socialG This user is from outside of this forum
                      gsuberland@chaos.social
                      wrote last edited by
                      #18

                      @dalias @foone I wrote a really evil CTF challenge where the Windows part was pure misdirection, it had tons of nasty anti-analysis stuff, sent people on a runaround chasing down endless threads, and the flag wasn't in there at all. if you ran it under DOS it printed the flag.

                      foone@digipres.clubF 1 Reply Last reply
                      0
                      • gsuberland@chaos.socialG gsuberland@chaos.social

                        @dalias @foone I wrote a really evil CTF challenge where the Windows part was pure misdirection, it had tons of nasty anti-analysis stuff, sent people on a runaround chasing down endless threads, and the flag wasn't in there at all. if you ran it under DOS it printed the flag.

                        foone@digipres.clubF This user is from outside of this forum
                        foone@digipres.clubF This user is from outside of this forum
                        foone@digipres.club
                        wrote last edited by
                        #19

                        @gsuberland @dalias nasty

                        1 Reply Last reply
                        0
                        • foone@digipres.clubF foone@digipres.club

                          so you could fat-binary a program to run on DOS/win32/win64 this way, by making it a 32bit program which win64 can run though backwards compatibility.

                          I'm not sure if you can include win16 though: it won't run the DOS stub, and it'll not be able to run the win32 version.

                          Unless you can set up win32s on win16 in such a way that it works in both 16bit windowses (through win32s) and 32bit-native windowses

                          max@peering.socialM This user is from outside of this forum
                          max@peering.socialM This user is from outside of this forum
                          max@peering.social
                          wrote last edited by
                          #20

                          RE: https://digipres.club/@foone/116195447625031209

                          @foone Does ARM somehow also fit in?

                          foone@digipres.clubF jernej__s@infosec.exchangeJ snowfox@tech.lgbtS 3 Replies Last reply
                          0
                          • foone@digipres.clubF foone@digipres.club

                            so you could fat-binary a program to run on DOS/win32/win64 this way, by making it a 32bit program which win64 can run though backwards compatibility.

                            I'm not sure if you can include win16 though: it won't run the DOS stub, and it'll not be able to run the win32 version.

                            Unless you can set up win32s on win16 in such a way that it works in both 16bit windowses (through win32s) and 32bit-native windowses

                            kathee_hds@tech.lgbtK This user is from outside of this forum
                            kathee_hds@tech.lgbtK This user is from outside of this forum
                            kathee_hds@tech.lgbt
                            wrote last edited by
                            #21

                            @foone but fat as it is tall and with tits to match or are we being cowards?

                            foone@digipres.clubF 1 Reply Last reply
                            0
                            • kathee_hds@tech.lgbtK kathee_hds@tech.lgbt

                              @foone but fat as it is tall and with tits to match or are we being cowards?

                              foone@digipres.clubF This user is from outside of this forum
                              foone@digipres.clubF This user is from outside of this forum
                              foone@digipres.club
                              wrote last edited by
                              #22

                              @Kathee_HDS ROUGE.EXE!

                              kathee_hds@tech.lgbtK 1 Reply Last reply
                              0
                              • foone@digipres.clubF foone@digipres.club

                                fun fact: although that DOS stub usually just says that and quits, there's nothing that stops it from doing other things.

                                You could write a program that runs on DOS and win64, it'd just need to be implemented twice and embedded in the same binary

                                dosnostalgic@mastodon.socialD This user is from outside of this forum
                                dosnostalgic@mastodon.socialD This user is from outside of this forum
                                dosnostalgic@mastodon.social
                                wrote last edited by
                                #23

                                @foone An example of this is Bleep!, an NSF player for DOS/Win32
                                https://www.zophar.net/utilities/audio-multi/bleep-.html

                                whophd@ioc.exchangeW 1 Reply Last reply
                                0
                                • luna@catgirl.centerL luna@catgirl.center

                                  @foone@digipres.club it's even still a thing in arm64 exes (iirc with an x86 dos stub) and bootmgfw.efi, even though no reasonable person will ever try to run those on dos

                                  luna@catgirl.centerL This user is from outside of this forum
                                  luna@catgirl.centerL This user is from outside of this forum
                                  luna@catgirl.center
                                  wrote last edited by
                                  #24

                                  @foone@digipres.club the .efi file for systemd-boot on my system doesn't include a dos stub though, so that's why i specifically said bootmgfw.efi

                                  1 Reply Last reply
                                  0
                                  • foone@digipres.clubF foone@digipres.club

                                    so you could fat-binary a program to run on DOS/win32/win64 this way, by making it a 32bit program which win64 can run though backwards compatibility.

                                    I'm not sure if you can include win16 though: it won't run the DOS stub, and it'll not be able to run the win32 version.

                                    Unless you can set up win32s on win16 in such a way that it works in both 16bit windowses (through win32s) and 32bit-native windowses

                                    foone@digipres.clubF This user is from outside of this forum
                                    foone@digipres.clubF This user is from outside of this forum
                                    foone@digipres.club
                                    wrote last edited by
                                    #25

                                    Anatoly Shashkin💾 (@dosnostalgic@mastodon.social)

                                    @foone@digipres.club An example of this is Bleep!, an NSF player for DOS/Win32 https://www.zophar.net/utilities/audio-multi/bleep-.html

                                    favicon

                                    Mastodon (mastodon.social)

                                    jernej__s@infosec.exchangeJ 1 Reply Last reply
                                    0
                                    • max@peering.socialM max@peering.social

                                      RE: https://digipres.club/@foone/116195447625031209

                                      @foone Does ARM somehow also fit in?

                                      foone@digipres.clubF This user is from outside of this forum
                                      foone@digipres.clubF This user is from outside of this forum
                                      foone@digipres.club
                                      wrote last edited by
                                      #26

                                      @max presumably but I know nothing about windows-on-ARM, I don't believe in it.

                                      1 Reply Last reply
                                      0
                                      • foone@digipres.clubF foone@digipres.club

                                        fun fact: although that DOS stub usually just says that and quits, there's nothing that stops it from doing other things.

                                        You could write a program that runs on DOS and win64, it'd just need to be implemented twice and embedded in the same binary

                                        dryak@mstdn.scienceD This user is from outside of this forum
                                        dryak@mstdn.scienceD This user is from outside of this forum
                                        dryak@mstdn.science
                                        wrote last edited by
                                        #27

                                        @foone that was the whole shtick of the HX DOS Extender.

                                        The DOS stub could start it, and in turn that extender supports enough Win32 API to allow some limited software to run.

                                        And I think I vaguely remember some other software doing crazy stuff with their DOS stubs.

                                        1 Reply Last reply
                                        0
                                        • foone@digipres.clubF foone@digipres.club

                                          fun fact: although that DOS stub usually just says that and quits, there's nothing that stops it from doing other things.

                                          You could write a program that runs on DOS and win64, it'd just need to be implemented twice and embedded in the same binary

                                          kawa@mas.toK This user is from outside of this forum
                                          kawa@mas.toK This user is from outside of this forum
                                          kawa@mas.to
                                          wrote last edited by
                                          #28

                                          @foone I remember Visual Basic 3.0 "correcting" by trying to run Windows, and telling Windows to run VB in turn on startup.

                                          1 Reply Last reply
                                          0
                                          Reply
                                          • Reply as topic
                                          Log in to reply
                                          • Oldest to Newest
                                          • Newest to Oldest
                                          • Most Votes


                                          • Login

                                          • Login or register to search.
                                          • First post
                                            Last post
                                          0
                                          • Categories
                                          • Recent
                                          • Tags
                                          • Popular
                                          • World
                                          • Users
                                          • Groups