As most of you know, there is a freeware version of Windows available from Microsoft, called Microsoft Hyper-V server. It is a stripped down, server-core like Windows Server, on which only the Hyper-V role is present. Alktought the GUI is almost absent, with no Windows Explorer, there are other typical Windows features that are there. Browsers like Firefox or Chrome are installable, software like 7zip or Winrar, VLC or SMPlayer etc. Somebody even put up a minimal GUI for it, that is loosely similar to Ubuntu Unity. So, I see an opportunity here. On this, we can have a freeware Windows for everyone, letting go all the drawbacks of piracy. The only major turn off, so far, is the absence of Windows Audio service. So, does anybody know a way to fully replace the Windows Audio service?
I really don't think anybody would care tbh. Too much effort for too little benefit. Only really use for for a proof of concept.
The only real issue is Windows Audio. All the rest can be achieved by building up a package to control the install all the software and make all the settings change.
Win PE does not seem suited for a project like this, due to its 72 hour limitation. Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2016 is locked to x86_64 with HAV enabled, due to the purpose Microsoft published it, to be a minimal host for virtual machine. Most modern CPUs have it. ASIO sound interesting. If you are familiar with Hackintosh, most audio cards do not work with Mac OS X. There is a kext (equivalent) of driver called V HDA that can be installed, that disables the Apple native kext and enables sound. This can be used even on real Macs, and it boosts the sound power of audio card in regard to the native kext. What would be needed it should work in a similar way. Does ASIO disable a native driver of Windows and Windows Audio service, to replace it with custom ones? If so, it is almost exactly what is needed. Perhaps the driver exists, but not the audio service. A replacement for Windows Audio service seems even harder then getting a driver. A driver can be downloaded, often, from the producers website, but a replacement for Windows Audio service can not. My whole idea is to be able to get a freeware Windows, being able to install on it the standard win32 software, and avoid piracy. I have tried a year ago to install KDE for Windows on Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2012 r2, and I could not create a full desktop enviorement, the taskbar and the rest failed to work. iTunes failed to install as well. I find kind of hard to install or fully configure MS Hyper-V Server as a virtual machine. I was able to get a full Windows Server 2016 license from Imagine (former Dreamspark), and this gave me an idea about a way to get Windows free for everybody. There is a community dedicated to using Windows Server OSs as workstation OSes, and an automatic converted was build, for those who are not too technical. A similar thing can be achieved in here.
I think some sort of sound card emulation would be required for this. Creative Sound Blaster audio cards were different from standard audio cards, due to the fact that they installed not just a driver, but a different audio service from Windows Audio. Sound Blaster emulators were used a few years back to emulated a sound card for DOS or DOS based environments. They are still used in VMware Workstation. I could not find a standalone installer. But this gave me and idea about how could this be.