IGuRu.gr contacted his Greek creator Windows XP Service Pack (Windows XP SP4) in an attempt to investigate his motivations, for the information of our readership.
His team iGuRu.gr welcomes any attempt to develop or improve software, especially if it is security-related.
In our previous publication, we are somewhat restrained as a SP that does not come from Microsoft dangerous. After our communication with Charalampos, we can say that our worries reassured us if there was any deception behind this endeavor, his creator would not reveal his details.
Why and how he created it Service Pack 4?, Are you a professional developer? What will be next? packet; All these questions and many more in the text that follows.
We quote Charalambos' answer:
My name is Charalambos Kazakos and I'm an amateur programmer. I study Medicine at EKPA. Although school is quite demanding and free time is relatively limited, I like to spend a lot of time on my favorite hobby.
The idea to deal with its creation Service Pack started two years ago. At first I was looking for a simple way to install them Windows along with all the latest updates built-in. It is tedious to download and install more than 200 updates after each installation, even if the process is automated. This was especially important to me because I had to reinstall them Windows often enough. Also Windows Update does not offer all the available hotfixes.
Searching I found RyanVM.net and specifically Onepiece's post-SP3 AIO update pack, a collection of updates for Windows XP, which can be integrated into an installation disk, roughly like a regular service pack. However, I was disappointed with some defects that occasionally appeared.
For example, when I was installing the software for a new device, very often a message appeared about replacing files of Windows from files without a digital signature, and asked me to put it CD-ROM of Windows XP every time. So I stopped using update packs for XP for a while. That's when I started thinking about the possibilities of one Service Pack and that it would be very convenient to have this.
The recent strike of the administrative staff at EKPA was the catalyst for me to start working on the project. Having 12 weeks of free time at my disposal, I started trying to get acquainted with the structure of the last official Service Pack. I have encountered several difficulties, both because of the lack of documentation and because of the requirements of the Windows XP so that all modified inf files are digitally signed. First I tried to patch some DLLs responsible for these checks. (It was the first time I patched a PE binary).
However, I was not able to modify all the inf files I wanted with this method. Then I came up with the idea to digitally sign the files myself. At first it seemed unlikely to succeed but nevertheless I decided to try it. I describe this process at RyanVm.net. Unexpectedly the "experiment" succeeded. This gave me the necessary impetus to continue with it project.
The individual obstacles I encountered along the way were not as significant as that. After several months of systematic work, I was able to publish - with the help of some great RyanVM.net members, whom I especially thank - for the Alpha 1 release of SP4 in March. I have been making improvements ever since then Beta 3 is available for download.
I am currently working on the Release Candidate (RC) of SP4. Thanks to the help of a German subject matter expert security, by Stefan Kanthak, this edition will include a number of registry updates, which will encounter security vulnerabilities that have not been addressed by Microsoft. It will also encounter several bugs found on Beta.
I hope to be able to post the final Service Pack soon, which you can of course host on website if you wish.
iGuRu.gr: Of course we want it and with the release we will host it on our server!
ne, alla giati?
ta xp den exoun mono provlimata asfalias, den milane me kanena synchrono hardware kai to ntfs p xrisimopoioun einai efialtis, den vlepo to logo giati kapoios tha afierone ollo afto ton xrono