Windows 7 ARC Gamer Edition

Windows 7 ARC Gamer Edition
	Crusty Windows bootleg
	The desktop of Windows 7 ARC Gamer Edition
Original OS	Windows 7 RTM
Release date	May 11, 2010
Author	krishi_4k and nice_guy75
Language(s)	English
Architecture(s)	x86 (32-bit)
File size	1.9 GiB
Download link	Windows 7 ARC Gamer Edition 32 Bits.iso
Date added	December 5, 2022

Windows 7 ARC Gamer Edition is a bootleg Windows 7 RTM edition, which was created by krishi_4k and nice_guy75. It released at first to CyberWareZ on May 6, 2010, then to the Project Alchemist forums on May 11, 2010. The latter was added to the archive on December 5, 2022.

Description

The bootleg is a modified Windows 7 RTM ISO. It is themed after Arch Linux (spelled "ARC" in the OS). It comes with many wallpapers and programs.

The setup will skip straight to the OS selector. During the OOBE finalization, it will run an AutoIt3 script which will apply OEM information and force show the Computer, Recycle Bin, User's Files, Network and Control Panel icons. It will also run a bootloader crack and register a key, and then apply an OEM certificate using SLMgr. The latter two also happen during Setup.

On the first boot of the OS, another AutoIt3 script will run which will apply similar changes to the script mentioned earlier. It will press the F5 key, which will cause a refresh. But then, it will try to run another script, named ARC2. There are checks to see if it exists or not, and will output errors depending on what issues the script encounters. ARC2 will wait 10 seconds, then it will attempt to delete the Startup directory (both in Users and ProgramData), and the C:\Windows\Install directory (where ARC1 was), and delete the registry key for the Windows Search Service Media Center Namespace Extension Handler.

It is unattended. The bootleg was made using vLite 1.2 on Windows 7 RTM.

Changes from Windows 7 RTM

Minor changes

The setup OS text is changed to "Windows 7 ARC Gamer Edition". It starts varying in names around the Installing section. It deviates to "7 ARC", and finally "ARC".
The setup window's icon is now a red Arch Linux icon
The Command Prompt copyright has been updated to say "Developed by krishi_4k & nice_guy75".
You can now access Flip3D through the desktop context menu, thanks to a registry patch that the authors installed.
New desktop context menu entries
New OEM information and Winver banner
New Windows Media Player skin

Changes in pre-desktop procedures

New setup background and window background (it is now lightning)
New pre-OOBE graphics
New login graphics

Look and feel

New default theme and slideshow of 6 wallpapers. The same theme is also present in Windows Basic, but it has just one unique wallpaper.
1 new theme brought to you by nice_guy75 included
19 new wallpapers included. img0.jpg is replaced
New icon set
New cursor set. Only the Normal Select, Working In Background and Busy cursors are changed, and even then they only affect the Extra Large cursors. The default scheme does not even have the new cursors, it's just been edited (not saved, mind you) to have them. All schemes but the Large and Extra Large and Magnified schemes have been removed.
New sound set. The startup sound is now just a short noise. The Critical Stop sound is a slightly modified version of Pop-up Blocked. Ringout has an extra noise added at the end.
New avatar set

Software

7-Zip 9.13 beta
Adobe Flash Player 10.0.32.18
Adobe Reader 9.3.2 Lite
SpiritPyres Extensions (HiddenFilesToggle 3.0 and FileExtToggle 3.0)
Java 6 Update 20
Shutter 2.90
WinRAR 3.90

Customization Utilities

Microangelo On Display 6.10.8

Notes

Bootleg quirks

The bootloader crack is already integrated in the OS image, despite the 2 different scripts that try to install it.
There is a duplicate of the Recycle sound, named recycle.wav.
At first, the OEM information that gets applied references CyberWareZ in the support URL, but when the second set of scripts gets ran on the first boot, it gets changed to Project Alchemist. This is because at first this bootleg was originally released to CyberWareZ, but since they wanted to release it to Project Alchemist the authors made another version with updated branding.
Interestingly enough, the vLite session file is dated July 26, 2009 in the file itself.

CD contents and other info

The CD label is set to "CD_ROM".
The unattended file's CPI offline image path indicates that the file is taken from Vision 7 Gamer x86 R1.01. The file is dated July 26, 2009.
There are 2 empty Web and System32 folders in $OEM$\$$.