KernelEx tricks

KernelEx is already well known for being able to get newer programs running on Windows 9x. On this page, I want to show off more unorthodox things it can do.

All tricks here work on non-SSE2 processors unless specified otherwise.

Rip in WMA Lossless

This tricks relates to Windows Media Player 9, so you'll need it installed to do this.

  1. Set Windows Media Player 9 to run under Windows XP compatibility mode.
  2. Click Tools > Options...
  3. Click the Copy Music tab and select Windows Media Audio (lossless).
  4. Close Windows Media Player, and set the compatibility mode to the default.

If you then re-open settings, you'll notice there is seemingly no format selected (see picture). If you rip a CD however, it will be in WMA Lossless.

Encode in AAC

Don't want to use Windows Media Audio? Encode your library in the superior AAC instead with qaac and the help of KernelEx.

NOTE: To play back AAC, install CCCP for Windows Media Player or use QuickTime 6.5.2.

  1. Download qaac and iTunes for Windows XP.
  2. Extract the following files from iTunes:
    1. ASL.dll
    2. CoreAudioToolbox.dll
    3. CoreFoundation.dll
    4. icudt49.dll
    5. libdispatch.dll
    6. libicuin.dll
    7. libicuuc.dll
    8. msvcp100.dll*
    9. msvcr100.dll*
    10. objc.dll
  3. Create a folder where qaac is called QTfiles and place the dll files in there.
  4. Enable KernelEx for qaac.exe.

You should be able to encode wave files with qaac now. For example, to encode in 'iTunes Plus' format:

qaac --no-smart-padding -v256 -q2 file.wav -o file.m4a

* these files might not be from iTunes

Newer (11+) Touhou games

In addition to KernelEx you will need to install DirectX 9.0c November 2008.

This involves copying several DirectX files (depending on the game).

You should be able to get up until Touhou 16 working.

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