BedOS

BedOS

Crusty Windows bootleg
The desktop of BedOS 72214-1
Original OS	Windows 9x
Author	Sergei Bedrin
Country	Taraz, Kazakhstan
Language(s)	Russian, English (72214-1)
Architecture(s)	x86 (32-bit)
Other version(s)	2.0, 2.0 Lite, 3.0 (OSX)
Date added	April 6, 2024

BedOS (named after the author) is a bootleg Windows 9x edition, which was created by Sergei Bedrin (Сергей Бедрин). The very first version of BedOS (72214-1 English, based on Windows 98) released on April of 2001, while 2.0 (Russian) released on May of 2002, 2.0 Lite May 2003, 3.0 OSX (based on Windows Me) April 2004. It is one of the earliest Windows modifications to have all the now-omnipresent traits of a Windows bootleg, new look, modified cursors and sounds, adding in new software, etc. It is notable for being one of the few shareware bootlegs.

BedOS was particularly popular in computer clubs and similar places in Europe, where it was often installed to evade antipiracy checks from law enforcement by differentiating itself from stock Windows.

Description

BedOS is not really a bootleg - more of a transformation pack. This will go over mostly BedOS 72214-1, since it is the first release and it is in English therefore being easy to understand for most people, but we will go into the other ones as well. The premise of BedOS is to take the best features of 4 Windows versions, particularly Windows 95, Windows Memphis, Windows 98, and Windows Me, combining all these features as well as bringing in a whole new, frightening look to the OS. BedOS advertises itself as working as fast as Windows 95, being reliable and stable like Windows Me (yes, really), and supporting contemporary devices like Windows 95.

BedOS 72214-1 comes in an Installer VISE package, while BedOS 2.0/Lite and possibly 3.0 come in an ACE self-extractor. 72214-1's installer starts off with an unintentionally funny to read introduction text, which you can proceed into installing the full bootleg. It will install itself to its own folder named "BEDOS" in the root of your C: drive, and add a shortcut on the Desktop and Start menu to launch BedOS afterwards. What the Launch BedOS shortcut does is, it basically replaces critical files in the C: root such as AUTOEXEC, COMMAND, IO.SYS, MSDOS.SYS, CONFIG.SYS, as well as BOOTSECT.DOS, BOOT.INI, NTLDR, NTDETECT, the pagefile even for assurance, with its own, redirecting it all to its kernel.

When you first boot into 72214-1, you will be informed that it is shareware, where if you want the full version you have to sign up to an online registration form on the author's website. After you sit through the new hardware messages, you will be greeted with the aforementioned new look, along with a whole bunch of new places to visit, including "My Distributive" and "My Documents" (both have nothing in them), "My Programs" (which doesn't have much), 3 shortcuts to more programs and finally, "BedOS Registration".

Changes in BedOS 72214-1

Minor changes

• The taskbar has been moved to the top
• The start button now doesn't have any text anymore, and the start button icon is changed
• The titlebar font is not bold anymore
• The desktop context menu only has the Copy/Paste items, New and Properties.
• A good portion of the Control Panel applets have received new looks
• Add/Remove Programs is now "My Uninstall Programs". It's now the only tab and the only other button inside the tab page is "Uninstall ...".
• The Run dialog has been rearranged slightly
• System Properties has been redesigned, BedOS logo is now included. System section reports "BedOS 72214-1 [Subversion T5]".

Look and feel

• New default theme. New color scheme, and window buttons have been changed
• 5 new themes included
• 3 new screensavers included. 3D Flying Objects uses a eWafr-Bedrin texture, and 3D Text just says "BedOS"
• New icon set
• New cursor set
• New sound scheme

Software

BedOS 72214-1

• BedOS Clock
• EditPad Lite 4.0.1
• JetAudio 4.81 EX
• JetRadio 1.01
• Microsoft Windows 95 PowerToys
• RegCleaner 1.5
• The Bat! 1.47 (cracked, registered to FREiFALL 7 CS)
• XMouse 1.2

Updates

• Internet Explorer 5

Notes

Remarks

• The BedOS 72214-1 screenshots use Windows 95 as a base for BedOS.

Sources

• Old-DOS page on BedOS

Bootleg quirks

• BedOS comes bundled with its own DirectX drivers
• There is a folder on the desktop named "My Programs", in it:
  • "directx/setup/DxDiag.exe" = DxDiag 4.07.00.0700
  • My Uninstall Programs = Shortcut to Add/Remove Programs
  • My Registry Clean = RegCleaner 1.5
  • My Recovery ZIP Folders is actually a misnomer, all it is just a registry script to reenable the ZIP Folder extension.
  • My Run Service (which has its own folder for some reason) = RunServices 2.0

Gallery

BedOS 72214-1

• 

  Pre-setup

• 

  Setup

• 

  Setup while it's copying files

• 

  Boot screen

• 

  Pre-desktop

• 

  Empty desktop

• 

  Start menu ("BedOS" theme)

• 

  System Properties

• 

  "About BedOS"

• 

  BedOS Registration.htm

• 

  Shutdown dialog

Themes

• 

  "BedOS2" theme

• 

  "BedOS3" theme

• 

  "BedOS4" theme

• 

  "BedOS5" theme