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Windows Update Restored: Fix Windows update on Windows 95, 98, ME, 2000, and XP
- jxramos 3y agoI have to say this is awesome > This website requires a minimum of Internet Explorer 5.0 or above, but we recommend Internet Explorer 5.5. To download Internet Explorer 5.5, Click Here
- jxramos 3y agoSo I may have missed it, are they hosting old updates to make them available still or are they actually patching old SW with new builds. For example say the last update for XP was SP3.5, they got the tooling to build and release 3.6 which was never released by Microsoft but is from this organization? Is it one or both?
- jeswin 3y agoI looked up the last update for Windows XP - KB4500331[1] from May 2019. Eighteen years after the OS was released. Gotta give credit for that. [1]: https://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com/Search.aspx?q=SP3+XP https://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com/Search.aspx?q=SP3+X...
- hakfoo 3y agoWhat is the meaningful purpose of "Windows Update" for versions no longer recieving active patches. (I imagine there's some bigcorp or biggov that will pay whatever price is necessary to get a patch for XP, but anything earlier?) Couldn't they collect and systematically 'slipstream' every patch and fix that would exist on Windows Update into a "Final Edition" ISO? Or is the scope broader than a naive reading of the headline, and non-OS packages (drivers, third party software) were also relayed through WU?
- cbmuser 3y agoWhat’s the advantage over Legacy Update which seems to work pretty well.
- temp51723 3y agoLegacy Update doesn't support Windows 95, Windows NT 4.0 SP3+ Windows 98 First and Second Edition, Windows Millenium Edition. Windows Update Restored (purportedly) does.
- cbmuser 3y agoThanks, this answers my question.
- JohnTHaller 3y agoLegacy Update is a better option for Windows 2000 and later as it uses a proxied Windows Update 6 implementation. Windows Update Restored uses Windows Update 3.1 and is better for Windows 95/98/Me and Windows NT4.
- winterqt 3y agoFor context: https://legacyupdate.net https://legacyupdate.net
- nashashmi 3y agoSeems like a centralized repository for a collection of updates issued by MS to windows computers. Does this bring additional security updates not issued by MS?
- jdwithit 3y agoNo, it's just old preexisting patches. In their FAQ and even on the front page they say continuing to run these operating systems is a terrible idea as they are highly vulnerable even after patching.
- klaussilveira 3y agoIs ReactOS stable enough to replace an old Windows 95 installation?
- jaclaz 3y agoNo matter if stable enough or not, ReactOS is aimed to replicate a NT based system, as such it can be very different from DOS/Win9x. Quite a lot of (DOS based but not only) tools and programs (particularly any low-level one and - generally speaking - games) that run just fine in Windows 95 won't work on NT 4.00/2000 and later, and they as well won't in ReactOS.
- sneed_chucker 3y agoNo.
- m000 3y agoHow about adding some instructions on how to use it? Just saying...
- capableweb 3y ago> To find out more about the Windows Update Website and what it does, Click Here > http://windowsupdaterestored.com/en/aboutwindowsupdaterestored.htm http://windowsupdaterestored.com/en/aboutwindowsupdaterestor... The submission is the literal website used for the updates. You use it by browsing the website like any other website. You figured out how to use HN without much hand-holding, I'm sure you can figure out how to use this website as well :) Edit: There is even a video explaining how to use the website, not sure what more you could ask for? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbWa_tlC-3I https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbWa_tlC-3I
- m000 3y agoAwesome then! I don't know if I'm the exception, but my Win9x years were mostly offline or with a 56k modem, so online updates were off the map. I was expecting one would need to tweak the registry or plug some custom DNS entries to get the updates running.
- mcpackieh 3y agoHuh, I never realized that 95/98/ME ever had online updates in the first place.
- mattl 3y agoMe neither. Wikipedia: > Windows Update was introduced as a web app with the launch of Windows 98 and offered additional desktop themes, games, device driver updates, and optional components such as NetMeeting. Windows 95 and Windows NT 4.0 were retroactively given the ability to access the Windows Update website and download updates designed for those operating systems, starting with the release of Internet Explorer 4.
- kotaKat 3y agoIt all started in Windows 98 with the launch of Windows Update; they then released the Critical Update Notification Tool (later renamed to Utility, for obvious reasons) which would query the website and just tell you when a critical update was available to go check the site. Otherwise, in the 95 era, I believe you'd likely be finding out through a software vendor or otherwise that a certain fixpack from Microsoft might fix an issue and you should go grab an update then.
- coldpie 3y ago> they then released the Critical Update Notification Tool (later renamed to Utility, for obvious reasons) Oofda. That can't have been an accident.
- xattt 3y agoUm… what? You would trigger online updates in Windows 95 OSR 2 by using IE and navigating to the Windows Update website. This would then would trigger the updater.
- xenadu02 3y agoThat was all after the fact. For its initial release and even much of OSR 2 the only updates you got came with a new computer via the OEM updates of which OSR 2 was the big one. If you were lucky you might see a Service Pack on CD though that was more of an NT/2000 thing.
- add-sub-mul-div 3y agoWhat I'd love is a project for Windows 11 that gives me back full control of which updates I download and when I reboot. I've been living with vague registry hacks and the "pause for 5 weeks" button but they're getting less effective.
- dmitrygr 3y agoUse registry editor to export And then delete wupdsvc and waasMedicSvc services. (HKLM/system/currentControlSet/Services) Reboot. Enjoy. Whenever you want updates, double click exported “reg” file and reboot. Allow updates to install. Delete services again.
- p0w3n3d 3y agoYou are the beta tester. While you're using "your" windows, you're performing a task as an unofficial employee. If something is free for you, you are the product that is sold.
- doodlesdev 3y agoWindows is not free.
- nikanj 3y agoJust buy a pro/enterprise version, they support the GPOs to block updates
- Joeri 3y agoWindows pro managed through intune should give you that control, though it is a bit of an awkward path for a single user.
- rwaksmunski 3y agoLookup Windows 10 LTSC
- jonathantf2 3y agoNot sure if this is because I run the Pro version but I've never ever ever once had Windows 10 or 11 reboot to install updates on it's own.
- Paianni 3y agoPSA: Security updates for 2000 and XP are still available from Microsoft at https://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com/ https://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com/
- ck2 3y agoI saw an ATM reboot into XP kiosk mode the other week. Struck me as a bit unsafe? BTW this also exists or did exist for "Fix Windows Update on Windows XP, Vista, Server 2008, 2003, and 2000" https://github.com/kirb/LegacyUpdate https://github.com/kirb/LegacyUpdate
- giobox 3y agoIt was pretty crazy how long IBM's OS/2 survived as an OS on tons of ATMs throughout the world, there will probably still be an ATM somewhere running XP in the 2050s.
- mschuster91 3y ago> Struck me as a bit unsafe? Usually ATMs run in their completely own network with heavy access controls limiting access even if the physical location is compromised.
- fredoralive 3y agoIt’s not the greatest to be still using XP. Although hopefully an ATM would be on a real private network, or at least a VPN provided by some more up to date external box (though the latter could have its own bugs I guess). If you pair that with the fact you don’t have externally accessible general IO[1] there probably isn’t much opportunity to gain access. [1] If you can get into the innards you can probably just, you know, grab the cash (beware of dye bombs though).
- jaclaz 3y ago>I saw an ATM reboot into XP kiosk mode the other week. JFYI, there is a dedicated thread on MSFN.ORG for these sightings: https://msfn.org/board/topic/176692-windows-xp-spotter-the-club/ https://msfn.org/board/topic/176692-windows-xp-spotter-the-c... Atm's and public signage (airports, metro and similar) are still common enough.
- TheRealPomax 3y agoSafer than card skimmers though.
- incomplete 3y agowhy no https on this site?
- wvenable 3y agoDoes modern HTTPS even work on Windows 95?
- anthk 3y agoUnder Retrozilla, TLS 1.3
- samtheprogram 3y agoOlder web browsers like those on Windows XP don't support newer versions of SSL.
- Dwedit 3y agoThere are newer web browsers that will run on Windows XP, see New Moon http://matejhorvat.si/en/unfiled/pmxp/index.htm http://matejhorvat.si/en/unfiled/pmxp/index.htm Even the final official build of Firefox that supported Windows XP will break on websites like Github, where a Releases page will never finish loading, and never let you download any files. But the New Moon build on that website (28.10) will work. (Don't forget to install uBlock Origin and a current fork of uMatrix)
- ogurechny 3y agoSee http://rtfreesoft.blogspot.com/ http://rtfreesoft.blogspot.com/ and https://github.com/Feodor2/Mypal68 https://github.com/Feodor2/Mypal68 Discussions of those builds can be found in relevant threads on relevant forums.
- Eric_WVGG 3y ago> This website requires a minimum of Internet Explorer 5.0 or above, but we recommend Internet Explorer 5.5. that's the bit that left me gobsmacked
- vbezhenar 3y agoLast time I tried to tinker with Windows XP few years ago: you couldn't just update it after installation, but if you let it work for a few days, eventually it'd download and install updates automatically. And after those updates are installed, you can actually use Windows Update UI to install optional updates and other things. It definitely was after 2011.
- FredPret 3y agoWindows Update did a better job over the years selling me on the Mac platform than Apple ever could
- metaltyphoon 3y agoFunny enough, windows updates are infinitely better than macOS updates, which takes 30-60 mins each time.
- laserdancepony 3y agoI still don't know why both are so slow. Upgrading my mostly vanilla Devuan boxes costs me a few seconds to minutes and restarts are only to switch kernels.
- hospitalJail 3y agoThis was one of many gripes when I went from Android to iPhone. Holy crap, every day there was some necessary update and I had to sign into my apple ID + be plugged in at 2am or something. Every time I unlocked that phone it would bother me. That, a slower response time(might have been due to animations), not having widgets, and some buggy official apps like the podcast app, and I bailed from iPhone pretty quick. I admittedly was so excited to unbox and give Apple all my personal information. Weird.
- culopatin 3y agoOn androids you just don’t have this issue because manufacturers will stop giving you updates so quick that most of your experience with the device will be without them.
- delfinom 3y agoYea I own a iPhone for giggles and use a Pixel daily. HOLY CRAP, the update experience is so ridiculously slow on iPhones, I really don't Apple could not even try it fix it. How are iPhones not capable of having A/B partitions for the system to handle updates behind the scenes faster?
- neilv 3y agoThis seems like a nice altruistic useful thing, but (given some overly-trusting security practices we still often see) it'd still be good practice to keep some ideas in mind... DECREASING LEVELS OF SECURITY: 1. Running Microsoft Windows. 2. Running out-of-support Microsoft Windows. 3. Running out-of-support Microsoft Windows and having it report itself to a server of unclear provenance and security (which could be efficiently indexing such insecure machines, and possibly even exploiting vulnerabilities during this simple interaction). 4. Running out-of-support Microsoft Windows and updating its system software from a server of unclear provenance and security (which could install malware, possibly even defeating any outdated vendor signing). SUGGESTIONS: * If your important science/medical/industrial/etc. equipment is stuck on ancient Microsoft Windows, probably you want to keep it airgapped and treat it gingerly, while planning to upgrade to more sustainable equipment (and hopefully it doesn't fail abruptly before convenient). * If you're playing with Microsoft Windows for personal use, that's fine, but maybe consider whether you'd prefer to spend your time and energy instead learning and creating atop an open source software platform. * For many business and personal purposes, Debian Stable is a good OS platform, and this is one installer for it: https://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/current/amd64/iso-dvd/ https://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/current/amd64/iso-dvd/
- kdklol 3y agoThis is exactly what I was looking for. Thanks. (Sent from a ThinkPad x41 running Windows XP)
- londons_explore 3y agoDOS is easy to emulate - and dosbox does a great job of it, even in a web browser. Windows 3.1, 95, 98, Me are less easy to emulate. Note that that seems to have impacted the preservation of old games and programs. Plenty of dos games are all over the web and still quite popular, yet most stuff from the Win 9x era has almost entirely vanished due to the difficulty of running it on modern hardware. Archivists take note - if you want something to live for a long time, it needs to be easy to emulate. And in turn, that means it needs to be both very common, and have simple API's so someone in the future can be bothered to make and maintain an emulator.
- neckro23 3y ago> most stuff from the Win 9x era has almost entirely vanished due to the difficulty of running it on modern hardware. The tricky part is that this applies even if you're using a VM. I learned the hard way that Windows 98 isn't compatible with Ryzen CPUs, even through VirtualBox. I had to try again on another PC with an older Intel CPU.
- accrual 3y agoA patch is available [0] to allow Windows 98 to be virtualized on more modern CPUs including Ryzen CPUs. It patches the "TLB Invalidation Bug". [1] [0] https://github.com/JHRobotics/patcher9x https://github.com/JHRobotics/patcher9x [1] https://blog.stuffedcow.net/2015/08/win9x-tlb-invalidation-bug/ https://blog.stuffedcow.net/2015/08/win9x-tlb-invalidation-b...
- gattilorenz 3y agoFor early-ish windows 98 era machines, 86Box is a very good option.
- sedatk 3y ago> Archivists take note - if you want something to live for a long time, it needs to be easy to emulate how do archivists have a say in this?
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- WarOnPrivacy 3y agoMy most recent use-case for XP (in VMs) is to deploy IE as a remote app, to access old DVRs that require ActiveX for web view.
- majjam 3y agoDoes anyone have any experience with 0patch? I use it to keep a couple of old Win7 systems patched but it makes me nervous…