WX86 rediscovered

created 20180902, updated 20230414

Such topic is probably worth more technical writing, but right now it's for pure fun. WX86 is a technology preview component for Windows NT4 back from 1996. If you came here not knowing what this thing is: WX86 runs 32-bit x86 Windows applications on RISC editions of Windows NT. Base system without this component runs only 16-bit apps via NTVDM, WOWEXEC.

Some Q&A's:

Will it run on NT 3.51 or earlier?

No. Hooks in PE32 executable loader inside NT executive were introduced with NT4 MIPS/PPC/Alpha, they are sort-of integrated with OS. CPU emulators (wx86.dll, wx86cpu.dll) were meant to be replacable. OTOH, different approaches existed - at least for early releases of FX!32 emulator for Alpha platform, it was noted that it will run on NT 3.51, but wasn't supported. FX!32 probably hooked in a different way... until Windows 2000 RC for Alpha shipped with FX!32 packaged in wx86.dll/wx86cpu.dll due to later agreements with DEC
Will it run on qemu-system-mips64el?

(as of 2018.08.30) qemu... -M magnum specifies R4000 based platform. QEMU source code doesn't define R4000 as 64-bit processor, nor NT was 64-bit OS at that time, but interestingly wx86 binaries use some of 64-bit MIPS instructions (but R4000 is MIPSrIII, but it has 64-bit opcodes, but it's not MIPS64 ISA, oh noes). So you need to hammer-up a QEMU patch to let it run.

My quick and blind attempt at this: qemu.2.11.1.mips.r4000.64bit.patch
patched build of QEMU 2.11.1 for MacOS X Sierra 10.12
Where can I download it?

MS wiped it quite fast from their FTP, when RISC platform didn't catch up the scale of "WIntel". Many hobbyists looked for this package. ~~Even someone on Japanese internet has all of them, he kindly posted a listing with checksums but without files~~:
```
ALPHA\WX86.EXE
4.89 MB (5,129,216 ...)
MD5 2130becbb5a81853313d12414394d79e

MIPS\WX86.EXE
4.77 MB (5,010,432 ...)
MD5 32644e9f149c3a6b55fcae58d029795f

PPC\WX86.EXE
4.80 MB (5,042,176 ...)
MD5 de6e811d2b167dbe359ad1034485588f 
```
How do i know the list is authentic? I've managed to recover MIPS variant of wx86. Yeah, checksum is the same. You can download it by clicking on the listing.

On April 2023 all platforms were seen recovered, many thanks to great man running https://ftp.zx.net.nz/pub/software/microsoft/msdownload/x86/

The thing at work!

Showing side by side different builds of PuTTY: MIPS (by Neozeed) and some regular x86 one. Also nice cmd shell replacement by malxau - Yori x86 - is in the screen

I would like to run this stuff on:

ShaBLAMM! NiTro-VLB Booster
or any other MIPS Magnum, Acer Pica, RISCStation with ARC BIOS i can't have... help in finding something would be appreciated.

ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/msdownload/x86/index.txt 19960808

Wx86  is a new component under development for Windows NT 
which runs most x86 Win32 applications seamlessly and 
unmodified on RISC platforms.  This Technology Preview has not
been fully tested and should not be deployed in production
environments.

Directory		Contents
---------		--------

\alpha                  Wx86 self-extracting exe
                        files for alpha machines

\mips                   Wx86 self-extracting exe
                        files for PPC machines

\alpha                  Wx86 self-extracting exe
                        files for MIPS machines

ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/msdownload/x86/alpha/index.txt 19960808

File			Contents
-------			----------
wx86.exe		Wx86 self-extracting exe 
			file for Alpha machines,
			supports running x86 Win 32
			binaries on alpha machines

ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/msdownload/x86/mips/index.txt 19960808

File			Contents
-------			--------
wx86.exe		Wx86 self-extracting exe 
			file for MIPS machines,
			supports running x86 Win 32
			binaries on alpha¹ machines

ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/msdownload/x86/ppc/index.txt 19960808

File			Contents
-------			--------
wx86.exe		Wx86 self-extracting exe 
			file for PPC machines,
			supports running x86 Win 32
			binaries on alpha¹ machines

<wyleniauy> Good luck, have fun!

¹ - that's an original c&p typo