Tutorial to upgrade your ROM to WM6
 

Important: This tutorial is outdated. I have posted a new tutorial here in the Apache thread. Select this link for the current tutorial please. I have also posted a tutorial in the Titan (6800) thread that is specific for that device. The link for it is in my signature. Thanks for all the support.


Many people have requested a tutorial on how to upgrade or flash a new ROM. This is my best effort to create a “how to“. I am not a web developer or a windows mobile guru of any kind so there may be mistakes. Use this at your own risk. If you have questions do a search or post them in this thread and someone will attempt to help you. If I am wrong on any of this documentation, don’t worry someone will point it out and I will be glad to edit my post.

Edit: This is for Apache 6700 phones only.
Edit: Just to let everyone know this tutorial is for 6.0 not 6.1. Some of the principles are the same but downloading the kitchen and some of the drop down menus are different.

The first thing you need to do is to setup. You will need to do or have the following items before you flash your ROM. Some are common sense things but I will list them anyway.

1. A computer running Windows XP or Windows Vista. I run XP so I don’t know how to instruct those of you running Vista, but there is plenty of reference to it in the forums. Make sure that your computer has an open USB port. I wouldn’t try flashing with your USB cable attached to a USB hub. No technical reason that I can give you, I just wouldn’t do it personally.
2. Active sync version 4.5. No other version will work for this process. It can be downloaded here as a free download.
3. A mini USB cable. One end should fit in the USB port on your PC and one end in the mini USB on your PPC.
4. Check for your boot loader version. To do this you simply Press the power button, the record button and the reset button at the same time. (Screenshot )You will notice that the screen gets dark. If you take a small light or flashlight and look at the screen you will be able to see the word USB at the top of the screen. At the bottom of the screen you will see the version number. Example: 2.02, 1.02, 2.04 or 1.04. You will need to make a note of which version you have so that you can select it during the build process. To exit boot loader hit the reset button only.
5. Download the latest version of the kitchen found here.
6. Download the OEM folder call PPcgeeks_OEM.rar from the same post as above and leave it in the rar format. Place this file in the root folder where you stored your kitchen. If you did not change the default location for the kitchen when you downloaded it then it should be C:\Buildos.
You should now have the setup portion complete. The next post will be for the actual selection of items to burn into your ROM.

After you have downloaded the kitchen and placed the rar file in the correct folder you are ready to start “cooking”. Just click on the icon that looks like a chef. This will start the kitchen program. When you start the kitchen for the first time you may get an error because you have not selected the carrier. This in normal. You will select it in one of the steps below. (Screenshot)
Follow these steps:
1. Select you boot loader in the dropdown menu marked RUU on the top bar. If you have 1.02 or 2.02 select Standard. If you have 1.04 or 2.04 select X.04+. If you find that you get an error later then come back here and select NoID.
2. Select you carrier in the carrier dropdown menu.
3. Select the items you would like to place into you ROM, meaning programs, games, etc… that you want on your PPC. You can select a section tab in the left hand pane to go to that particular section or you can start on the right pane making selections and work your way down the screen. Be sure to select your carrier again under the module called Carrier Customize. The sections with a circle selector mean one of the items in that section must be selected. If it has a square box selector, these are optional. Don’t worry this will make sense later. Be careful not to select too many programs or you will get an error when you build. You can start with a few items and then add later to figure out how much you can stuff in. I recommend starting small just to get the feel of the process. If you are not sure what one of the programs are you can select the item and right click with you mouse. Go to visit homepage or OEM info and out will find the program information.
Edit: If you chose to do so you can use the default selections. They are loaded for you when you start the kitchen. They are saved in the C:\buildos folder as Apache_Helmi_WM6 Selections. All you would need to do is select your RUU, Carrier in dropdown and carrier in the Carrier Customize section. If you choose to make your own selections, after making all you selections use the file tab located in the top left corner and navigate to Save as. Save your file using whatever name you like. This will preserve the Apache_Helmi_WM6 Selections default settings and also give you your own base selections to work from.
4. Once you have selected all your items click on the green arrow in the top left of the kitchen. This will start the build process. You will see the build process in a separate screen called build status. Don’t do anything while this process is working. It will take a couple of minutes. If you have made too many selections you will get an error similar to this one:
Compiled Size (0x395ffc0) greater than Max Rom Size (0x38e5800).
Just close it out and remove some selections. Then start the same process again by clicking the green arrow. Once the build process is complete you can simply follow the on-screen prompts.
5. The update utility will start. At this point place your phone into boot loader mode and plug your USB cable to the computer and phone. Edit: Don't worry about the instructions that say to reset your phone, just hit next. Once you hit next your phone will be found. Just click update and wait. Do not unhook you phone during the process. You will see another screen with a progress bar as the ROM is flashed. After the process reaches 100% you will be notified that the process is complete. When it says to do so, unhook your phone and perform a hard reset. This is done by holding down the 2 soft keys(located above the Send/End keys on the front of your PPC) and pressing the reset at the same time. A white screen will come up asking to confirm reset. Open your keyboard and hit the Y key. Than hit the space bar. Your phone will reboot. Do your screen alignment and other items as prompted and you are set. At this point you should have your phone upgraded.
Note: If you get a white screen after the initial splash screen then your ROM is too big. Phones with bootloader 2.05 will have less room for the ROM so you have to make the build smaller. If you have bootloader 2.05 I would recommend downgrading your bootloader to 2.02. See this post to learn how to do that. If you brick your phone during the bootloader downgrade or during the flashing of a ROM, it is your responsibility. Remember these instructions are without warranty and use them at your own risk. It is very hard to break your phone doing this but I just wanted to warn you not to come crying to me.
As you can see the process is pretty easy. You can repeat the same process to “tweak” your phone with whatever you want to have on it. As stated earlier this thread will be updated with any corrections the moderators or senior members point out. Moderators feel free to edit this post as you see fit. This is a very basic tutorial but I hope it helps some of you.

**EDIT- If you get an ERROR 100 try flashing again after selecting No ID in the RUU dropdown menu

If you want to save your selections for a later build select file in the top left corner ans click save as. I usually use the date I cooked the ROM, example 122907, as my save file so that it references the date I cooked it. I also recommend looking into the OEMizer by tierman so you can save your personal settings and they are cooked into you ROM for you so that you don't have to re-enter it every time you hard reset. This is very handy especially for email settings.

Definitions(thanks gguruusa)
The following basic definitions are needed to load ROMs/use the kitchen:

HTC - the manufacturer of the 6700/6800/Touch/Tilt/et al.

Apache = PPC6700 = 6700

Titan = PPC6800 = 6800 = Mogul

(soft) Reset - there is a small whole on the bottom of your PPC, just to the left of the usb connector - it's the reset button. Use your stylus to push it. Your screen will go dark, then about 3 seconds later will show the boot splash.

Hard Reset - hold the left and right - buttons in (located just above the connect/disconnect phone buttons) at the same time as you push the reset button. It helps to hold the phone upside down in the hand that's pushing the - buttons, and use the stylus with your other hand to push the reset button.

Bottloader Mode (APACHE) - power+cassette/notes+reset - the power button is on/off button on the top of your phone. The cassette/notes button is the top button on the left side of your phone - it has a picture of a cassette tape on it, if it hasn't been worn off. Hold all three buttons in for about a 1/2 second, and the screen will go dark and stay dark. If you look closely, preferably in a well lit environment, you'll see some Serial or USB in the middle of the screen. Below that is a version number. You are in bootloader mode, and the version number is your bootloader version. YOU MUST KNOW YOUR BOOTLOADER VERSION BEFORE ATTEMPTING TO FLASH OR BUILD A ROM.

Bootloader Mode (TITAN et al) - power+camera+reset - the power button is on/off button on the top of your phone. The camera button is the bottom button on the right side of your phone - it has a picture of a camera on it, if it hasn't been worn off. Hold all three buttons in for about a 1/2 second, and the screen will go to a tri-colored screen. You are in bootloader mode. You must unlock your phone to load custom ROMs (it is necessary to unlock your phone only once during the life of your phone).

ROM - there are 4 types of Roms, but the two most commonly referred to are the OS ROM and the Radio ROM. Unless explicitly stated, ROM refers to the OS ROM. The OS ROM has WM5/WM6 on it. It is the OS ROM that gets updated frequently. Radio ROM updates are rarely needed, ExtROM updates are never needed, and bootloader ROM updates (updates that change the bootloader version) are discouraged heavily - bootloaders are a rare case where older is usually better than newer.

Ext ROM - this is a extra partition that contains carrier branded software. If you are using a custom ROM or the kitchen, you do not need anything that the carrier installed here - you may use it as extra storage. This storage area is not erased by a hard reset, but it is normally "locked" (hidden, read only). Some software does not behave as expected when the Ext ROM area is "unlocked".

nbf/nbh - these are different ROM encoding methods. Your phone REQUIRES a specific method. Most people do not need to know anything about nbf/nbh or encoding methods.

RUU - this is a piece of software from HTC. The kitchen includes it, as do many ROM distributions.

Kitchen - the place to make your custom ROM. The kitchen is a collection of various software tools that assemble your ROM and start the flash process. There are currently two flavors of kitchen, the original Bepe .9 version, and the newer .9.5 Bepe/PPCGeeks version. The .9.5 version currently only supports the Apache/6700 - it will not work properly for other phones.

Custom ROM - a particular OS ROM, almost always built from the latest kitchen. Distributing custom ROMs is discouraged - it is easier and less costly to distribute the kitchen modifications necessary to build a given ROM.

PagePool - cache for executing programs. This is an advanced subject. There's little reason to mess with it for most people.

OEM (module) - add-in programs to the kitchen and/or add-in customizations. There are lots and lots of OEMs - the most common freeware ones are in the PPCGeeksOEM.rar distributed as a kitchen add-on.

.NET 1.0/2.0/2.0SP1/3.5 - various flavors of the PC .NET package from Microsoft. Available from Microsoft as a free download. .NET 2.0SP1 or later is required to run the newer BuildOS (v .9.5)

.NET CF 1.0/2.0/3.5 - the PPC equivalent of the PC versions of .NET. Require by some PPC applications.

DO NOT LOAD A ROM FROM ANOTHER DEVICE ON YOUR PHONE.

DO NOT UNPLUG THE USB CABLE WHILE FLASHING. It's best to not touch anything at all while it's flashing. Don't run other processor intensive software (like games) while it is flashing, either.

Good job GaMedic - now there's an easy thread to point to....
I would have inserted a new step 3a - save your selections to a unique-named text file - before building, not after as you stated. Besides saving data for reference and sharing, this also preserves the default name for the default settings - don't want to lose those.
Happy New Year, tmb

I did address the need to save (save as) in another post after the initial one about saving using a different name. I pointed out that I use the date but I guess I need to add that to the original post and point out that you have to use save as to preserve the default. I didn't know that it mattered to save before or after building. I always save after building so that I am sure the ROM would build prior to saving. Has always worked for me. Thanks and I will edit the original post to include the info.

Medic, this is really great and appreciated. As someone that is new to the smartphone world its nice to have this type of info without begging other members with "How do I's" all the time. Thanks Much.

I know you probably understand that this is for the Apache 6700 only but I wanted to point that fact out so that others understand it as well. Thanks for your kind words. Just trying to contribute back to the community here because I have thoroughly enjoyed my PPC since the upgrade.

Ok, so 2 things I noticed.

1.) Step 5, the Software Update Utility tells you, in it's "Step 1" to reset the device. Don't. Just hit "next."
2.) At the end, when it's done, it shows you a little picture and tells you to soft reset the device. Once that applet closes, there's a popup window that tells you to hard reset.

Seems to have worked without a flaw. Now to go find another post to tell me how to make this thing do what I want it to do!

Thx, Ga. Medic. You're the man for taking the time to do this. Once this thread is "fine tuned" it should be locked and stuck on top somewhere. IMHO.........

Just go ahead and hit next

Hi Ga. Medic. Thanks for this quick tutorial. This is great! I have been looking for something like this for the past couple of days.

I am completely new to the 6700 arena and wanted to double check some things before I decide to go ahead with the update.

1. I have a Sprint PPC 6700. That is known as the Apache right? I just want to make sure that I download the correct files.

2. I have not registered it with Sprint yet. I bought it used and was thinking of updating it first then transferring the phone number to it. Is this recommended or should I transfer the number first?

3. I followed your instructions to find the bootloader version and mine did not say USB at the top. It says Serial and at the bottom it says v1.00 not .02 or .04 as you mentioned in your post. I am assuming because it was not connected to the computer at the time. Which brings me to my next question.

4. Installing Active Sync....I am assuming that needs to be done at the very beginning...right?

5. You mentioned dropping the kitchen and OEM files to the C directory. Is that the recommended directory on the computer or on the device? By logic, I understand that the kitchen needs to be on the computer...obviously to run it, and am assuming same applies to the OEM file.

6. One thing I am having a hard time understanding is that when I think of a computer for instance, I don't think of the OS stored in the ROM. How is it that the PPC stores the OS in the ROM instead?

Sorry for asking so many questions. As I mentioned I am really new to this and do not want to screw up my device on the first try. I am very interested however in doing this and getting rid of the crap that sprint puts on the device.


Thanks again and hope to hear from you soon. I am really psyched about updating my device.

Happy holidays.

1. Yes that is an Apache
2.I don't know if it matters. If you taking the phone into a store to activate, you may want to activate then upgrade.
3. That is your bootloader. Being hooked to PC doesn't matter. I am not sure is you use standard or NoID. Someone else please answer here.
4. Active sync should be installed on your home PC. Yes it has to be installed before the upgrade is started.
5. You download the kitchen and unzip the file. It will have an installer. Run the installer and let it install with its default settings, another words don't change the directory it installs to. Once it is installed put the PPCGeeks_OEM.rar into the root folder. Should be C:\BuildOS
6. It does install through your ROM. I don't know a good explantion for you here.

2) it doesn't matter.
3) The rule is Standard unless you get an error or know you need something else. NoID version bypasses Country code checking (some people always use NoID instead of Standard - no harm). Being hooked to your PC will change the text from Serial to USB
4) You also need to have .Net 2.0 + all .Net service packs installed on your PC
5) Good advice for a novice, but you can install it anywhere.
6) Why does this confuse you? The only difference between a ROM based OS and a disk based OS is that since a ROM technically already has it's contents in memory, you can execute it's files in place (no need to load them into memory - they're already loaded in memory by definition). In the apache's particular case, the ROM is just a section of non-volatile memory that looks (for the most part) just like a 64MB disk.

Yeah, I'd like to emulate the RUU utility to eliminate some of this confusion. You are correct, ignore the Reset in "Step 1" of the RUU, and ignore the "soft reset" at end of RUU. The correct build sequence is
1) .....push play button,
2) lot's of stuff scrolls up buildstatus window,
3) bootloader mode instruction pop-up appears - set phone to bootloader mode,
4) connect phone by USB cable (if it's not already connected),
5) RUU starts, ignore Step 1 reset instruction,
6) push Next buttons until flashing is done,
7) ignore soft reset instruction at end of RUU,
8) unplug PPC, hard reset instruction pop-up appears - hard reset,
9) [unplug ppc here if you didn't already],
10) visualize the glory of your new ROM.

You can reconnect your USB cable after your PPC fully boots, if you want.

LOL i like your simplified instructions. That is easy for those of us that have done this a few times, but I have no knowledge of programming and I am not very knowledgable about PPC's. I have learned a lot from this site. I was scared to death to flash my phone the first time, as I am sure a lot of people who visit here are. I wanted to post this just because I have seen numerous people ask about a tutorial because they fear screwing up thier phone. I just wanted people to know this is not that hard. I thought it was when I started, but soon found out even a dude from Georgia could do it. It sounds a lot more technical than it is. I really appreciate the efforts of people like you gguruusa. You took a lot of the fear away when I first did this. I have not been able to donate to the developers due to issues with identity theft involving my paypal account so I thought this would be a small way of trying to give back until I get this paypal crap straightened out.

Other OEMs
 

Great, GREAT tutorial, GA medic.

Since you've gone this far with this, I was wondering if you'd add a few words about adding other OEMs so that they can be cooked in the next kitchen. I find it confusing sometimes about whether you zip or unzip, put in User_OEM or buildOS...etc

ya I was wondering that myself. I'd like to add some things I found to my kitchen if that's possible.

If you download an OEM in a zipped format you need to unzip the file. You just take that folder(with the title of your OEM on it) and drop it into the User_OEM folder. That should be all there is to it. The option will show up in the kitchen for you to check and add to your ROM.
If you want to build your own OEM look into tiermans OEMizer.

Good info Ga. Medic! This is what's been needed for the new kitchen since it came out!
Someone ought to excerpt this into a txt file and include it with the kitchen. My only addition would be to recommend deleting the device profile in activesync (I do that when I unplug to put mine in bootloader) to eliminate sync errors. Excellent job!

I don't have any problems with any sync errors. I simply hook up my USB and Check everything except contacts. I let it sync, then go back and check contacts. For some reason if i check contacts on the first sync it does not load them. So I just leave it off until after the first sync then add it on the second one. Other than that I have no issues at all. One thing I would recommend is using a PIM backup in case you are ever away from your home PC and need o do a hard reset, you can load your contacts and calender from the PIM backup. I noticed tough that if I load via PIM backup and then sync with Active sync it will duplicate all my calender info, so I try not to use the backup unless I have to. It is a tedious process to have to go in and delete the duplicates.

That's why I delete the devic in activesync. It resyncs everything the first time and causes zero problems. Back in the Verizonguy WM6 days I had a sync error that blanked ALL my contacts in outlook. Wasn't pretty. Restoring from backups I ended up with every contact at least duplicated some tripled and quadrupled. That is when I found out that 200 contacts is about the limit for the 6700. Opened contacts and about 10 minutes later.... ;-) I have had zero problems with sync with the new WM6 other than the slowdown during the sync cycle of the PPC.

Help I lost my contacts
 

I just cooked my first Kitchen as per your directions and everything went well so far except my contacts. Is there a way to get them from my computer to my phone? Thanks.

Nevermind, I think I just got it. The option wasn't available for me before to sync the contacts and somehow it just became available after checking again. Who knows. I have one more question though, What if you don't want to pay for some of the things that were downloaded like games for instance. Do I just delete them with file explorer somehow?

Things in the ROM can't be deleted. You'll have to rebuild your ROM to remove them. On the plus side, unless you want to build something else into your ROM, you won't gain anything by removing them. If you just want to get rid of the icons, you can navigate to windows\start menu and delete the icons you don't want to see anymore.

The following basic definitions are needed to load ROMs/use the kitchen:

HTC - the manufacturer of the 6700/6800/Touch/Tilt/et al.

Apache = PPC6700 = 6700

Titan = PPC6800 = 6800 = Mogul

(soft) Reset - there is a small whole on the bottom of your PPC, just to the left of the usb connector - it's the reset button. Use your stylus to push it. Your screen will go dark, then about 3 seconds later will show the boot splash.

Hard Reset - hold the left and right - buttons in (located just above the connect/disconnect phone buttons) at the same time as you push the reset button. It helps to hold the phone upside down in the hand that's pushing the - buttons, and use the stylus with your other hand to push the reset button.

Bottloader Mode (APACHE) - power+cassette/notes+reset - the power button is on/off button on the top of your phone. The cassette/notes button is the top button on the left side of your phone - it has a picture of a cassette tape on it, if it hasn't been worn off. Hold all three buttons in for about a 1/2 second, and the screen will go dark and stay dark. If you look closely, preferably in a well lit environment, you'll see some Serial or USB in the middle of the screen. Below that is a version number. You are in bootloader mode, and the version number is your bootloader version. YOU MUST KNOW YOUR BOOTLOADER VERSION BEFORE ATTEMPTING TO FLASH OR BUILD A ROM.

Bootloader Mode (TITAN et al) - power+camera+reset - the power button is on/off button on the top of your phone. The camera button is the bottom button on the right side of your phone - it has a picture of a camera on it, if it hasn't been worn off. Hold all three buttons in for about a 1/2 second, and the screen will go to a tri-colored screen. You are in bootloader mode. You must unlock your phone to load custom ROMs (it is necessary to unlock your phone only once during the life of your phone).

ROM - there are 4 types of Roms, but the two most commonly referred to are the OS ROM and the Radio ROM. Unless explicitly stated, ROM refers to the OS ROM. The OS ROM has WM5/WM6 on it. It is the OS ROM that gets updated frequently. Radio ROM updates are rarely needed, ExtROM updates are never needed, and bootloader ROM updates (updates that change the bootloader version) are discouraged heavily - bootloaders are a rare case where older is usually better than newer.

Ext ROM - this is a extra partition that contains carrier branded software. If you are using a custom ROM or the kitchen, you do not need anything that the carrier installed here - you may use it as extra storage. This storage area is not erased by a hard reset, but it is normally "locked" (hidden, read only). Some software does not behave as expected when the Ext ROM area is "unlocked".

nbf/nbh - these are different ROM encoding methods. Your phone REQUIRES a specific method. Most people do not need to know anything about nbf/nbh or encoding methods.

RUU - this is a piece of software from HTC. The kitchen includes it, as do many ROM distributions.

Kitchen - the place to make your custom ROM. The kitchen is a collection of various software tools that assemble your ROM and start the flash process. There are currently two flavors of kitchen, the original Bepe .9 version, and the newer .9.5 Bepe/PPCGeeks version. The .9.5 version currently only supports the Apache/6700 - it will not work properly for other phones.

Custom ROM - a particular OS ROM, almost always built from the latest kitchen. Distributing custom ROMs is discouraged - it is easier and less costly to distribute the kitchen modifications necessary to build a given ROM.

PagePool - cache for executing programs. This is an advanced subject. There's little reason to mess with it for most people.

OEM (module) - add-in programs to the kitchen and/or add-in customizations. There are lots and lots of OEMs - the most common freeware ones are in the PPCGeeksOEM.rar distributed as a kitchen add-on.

.NET 1.0/2.0/2.0SP1/3.5 - various flavors of the PC .NET package from Microsoft. Available from Microsoft as a free download. .NET 2.0SP1 or later is required to run the newer BuildOS (v .9.5)

.NET CF 1.0/2.0/3.5 - the PPC equivalent of the PC versions of .NET. Require by some PPC applications.

DO NOT LOAD A ROM FROM ANOTHER DEVICE ON YOUR PHONE.

DO NOT UNPLUG THE USB CABLE WHILE FLASHING. It's best to not touch anything at all while it's flashing. Don't run other processor intensive software (like games) while it is flashing, either.

i have a question for u GA. Medic, what do u kno about page pools if anything. and what is the best setting to build for ur custom rom?

Please don't cross post.

I know absolutly nothing about pagepools. Look in the post above your. gguruusa has a short definition there. He is the expert.

Gguruusa thanks so much for you additions.

I updates post number 3 on this thread with the definitions.

Hi GA.Medic I have a minor detail of a problem...
When I hit the greeen arrow to cook the Rom I get this message asking me to overwrite the PPCgeeks.rar file, the one that is the 2 of 2 download on the kitchen WM^ page?
I clicked overwrite..is this correct?

That's not what the message said. There should have been an OEM and file listed, in addition to PPCgeeks.rar. The message was informing you that you selected two OEMs that are both trying to put a similarly named file in the ROM. Only one can have the name, so you have to choose which one...the first (cancel) or the second (overwrite/ok).

If you have further questions about using the kitchen, please post them in the buildos or kitchen threads stickied at the top (choose one, not both).

SIR, YES SIR!
http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/j...er/salutes.gif




And BTW, I never said this since I joined but the Kitchen that you had a hand in making truly is a marvel to behold and I am gratefully thankful for the opportunity to use it.....so THANK YOU!!!!

I've tried to run the kitchen buidler many times & when it starts scrolling through the build near the end my whole screen goes blue with errors listed about conflicts.

Edit: wrong Thread

Why would you press N to exit when the instructions religiously say to press Y, by sliding the keyboard out, then press spacebar....I suggest follow the directions like it says, or get someone who can because you can't blame the awesome developers of this Rom....

If you can get it out of bootloader I suggest Hard resetting and then try again because you really need to do what is said to do verbatum, bro. When I say try again that means reloading the program for the Rom, and re-cook, and resync.....

Oh, and BTW don't post questions here... Ahem.."please post them in the buildos or kitchen threads stickied at the top (choose one, not both). __________________"
Kind words from ggrusa from him to me, so I guggest you do the same...

For the record it DID say what I said, the program said.

Sorry GoatDweller, didn't mean for you to take it so personal. What I meant was you made it past the installation, so your next questions should be about usage - and those belong in the usage threads. People have a habit of posting questions in the same thread as they start in, and in this case, if this thread gets very long people won't read much of it.

I see your point, and I didn't take it personal which is why I posted that kinda funny Gif, to show.

Help, everytime I download the the Kitchen file, and try to click on the chef, I get an error saying that "The application failed to initialize properly (0xc000135). Click on OK to terminate the application."

Sorry guys had THREAT of bad weather here in Georgia so I have been away for a couple of days. To answer your question esdriver I would suggest downloading the kitchen again. If you have tried multiple times to download then I don't know what you issue may be. Please post what OS you are using. Are you able to install the kitchen? Is this error coming after install and clicking on the chef icon? I don't know if the download somehow was corrupt. GGuruusa probably can provide the best answer, but in the meantime give us some more info on your OS and exactly when in the proccess the error occurs. One other question though. Are you unziping the kitchen prior to trying to install it? Dumb question but I feel the need to ask.

I have windows xp. I download the kitchen just fine, its when i open the file and try to click on the chef icon it gives that error. I have tried to download it several times already and no luck.

Did it put a chef icon on your desktop by default? Do you get the same error when clicking it? When you say open the file and click, are you clicking on the chef icon in C:/BuildOS or the one in C:/BuildOS/BuildOS?