Leaderboard

There is more information about this issue that is not being shared for confidentiality reasons. There's no shade being directed with a statement like that. This isn't a client issue but if people do happen to find ways (like @NojusK did) or other specific software + versions, it is good to post that here. According to Xper, the issue doesn't seem to be with the server itself, rather likely with some other piece of infrastructure somewhere between the client and server. The issue remains, I've had to change browsers to visit the site.

Greetings, I managed to re-create this by changing my user-agent to Google's bot (Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Googlebot/2.1; +http://www.google.com/bot.html): It explains why the search results are hijacked, because this is what the crawler sees, but why is a bigger question. I couldn't re-produce this on Windows 7 with Firefox 115.32.0 default user agent, though.

<OT> I call "BS" This is UE7 *WITHOUT* any of the *ADDED* software (two cannot be disabled, I did enable XPize Lite). There's no way you have 200 MB on UE6 when UE7 *without* any of the *added* software takes 2.85 GB. For reference, my own tweaked XP (teach a man to fish, feed him for a lifetime) only takes 504 MB.

At the risk of sounding like what comedians here in the US refer to as "Captain Obvious", your FDM will work if you *disable/UNINSTALL* Sphinx. To coin another phrase, "Whoala! Problem Solved!"

I don't know what you are using as a firewall, but I do not use software firewalls (I block at the hardware level instead).

It gets installed on all of my XP systems/VMs before they are ever allowed internet access. I do not, under ANY CIRCUMSTANCE, allow access to "Windows Updates". Never have! Never will! And xp-AntiSpy is the "easiest" route to achieve that on new installs.

This will not stand, man. Hmm, it's really strange that FDM downloading doesn't work for you and it works for NHTPG. If we rule out that the download problem is NOT something in the program Settings itself, then I wonder if there is some way to troubleshoot and find out why FDM downloading doesn't work on your system. I also noticed NHTPG has xp-AntiSpy installed for this test, not sure if that changes something or is just for extra security.

Greetings, thank you very much! Changing user-agents to bots is what @EliraFriesnan suggested earlier, did you try the discord bot UA suggested by her in the ordinary browser?

You can't! It's all hands on deck situation.

I've tried several. All worthless and resulted in crashes. But it's been a couple years since I last tried any of them. And I have no need for them nowadays. 10 is way better than XP. Once tweaked, of course.

Same here! Win10 works great on 20yr old laptops with only 2 GB RAM. And I am not referring to those "x-lite" variations! DIY is the only way!

Well... You didn't ask about Win UE 6 (never heard of it). Or even SP3. You asked about SP2. I did a sh-tLo-d of testing when SP3 came out. While it was "minor", I found it to be superiour in every way to SP2. Some of us, whether we admit it or not, cling to our own ideologies whether technically true or not. Are you sure that SP3 broke your system? Because from what you just kind of revealed, Win UE 6 kind of broke your system, did it not? That aside... I'm now off to hunt down "Win UE 6" for the curiosity of it...

It's something on your setup. That version of FDM is working just fine for me in XP x86 SP2 (original SP2, *NO* updates installed, Windows Updates DISABLED).

dang that kinda sucks you'd think in the big 26 we'd have that tightened up

Thanks. You beat me to the punch. Was in-process of installing SP2 to verify. I've used FDM on XP x64, but didn't have a frame of reference for XP x86 SP2.

Just to keep you informed, a short update of progress in development of my ProxHTTPSPoxy's systray menu. At first I provide a new screenshot documenting the current status of development: As you can see, three new items poroviding system proxy related functions have been added: "Check system proxy status", "Set ProxHTTPSProxy to mode System-wide" and "Set System to mode No proxy". I think now it is complete. All necessary functions have been added. Here is the complete list of features implemented in ProxHTTPSPoxy's systray menu: 1. Start ProxHTTPSPoxy 2. Stop ProxHTTPSPoxy 3. Hide ProxHTTPSPoxy 4. Show ProxHTTPSPoxy 5. Check if ProxHTTPSPoxy is running (in RAM) 6. cacert.pem Update 7. Root Certificates Update 8. Open IE Proxy settings 9. Close IE Proxy settings 10. Check system proxy status 11. Set ProxHTTPSProxy to mode System-wide 12. Set System to mode No proxy 13. Edit config.ini 14. Read documentation The test phase is slowly coming to an end. Any further suggestions, opinions or reactions are welcome, of course! So long, AstroSkipper

Restoring of the AU notification popup shield in Windows XP by @AstroSkipper Last week I was engaged in troubleshooting regarding AU in Windows XP. In my system AU notification popup shield always worked in the past. In February I disabled AU and it disappeared as usual. But last week, after I had enabled AU again, it didn't appear in systray although an important update was found by MU. I could restore it exactly for one Windows session. After restart it didn't work anymore. I had to find out what was going wrong in my system. And I found presumably the cause of this problem, a not properly working Windows system service called BITS. Many Windows users have a lot of problems due to a malfunction of this service. It should be started by system if necessary. But this doesn't happen in all cases. As I already recommended in my "Complete guide for restoring IE's access to WU/MU website using ProxHTTPSProxy or HTTPSProxy in Windows XP", item 2 of General solutions's list, step 3 system service BITS has to be started for a working WU/MU/AU. But very often Windows doesn't do that. Therefore I created a fix to restore AU functionality and missing notification shield. Here is the link: https://www.mediafire.com/file/6cvbrxg17oth5pz/FixAUWinXP.7z/file. Credits to @AstroSkipper. This fix is no virus and doesn't contain any malware. I know that because I am the creator. If you have problems with your security scanner, add this fix to AV's exclusion list. Scanned by Avast with no results. My fix performs a couple of tasks to eliminate typical problems preventing a popup of notification shield: restoring proper functionality of system services BITS, wuauserv and Cryptsvc, setting system to "No proxy", copying a system file to AU selfupdate, setting AU to "Notify me but don't automatically download or install them", triggering AU to detect updates, improving communication between client and server. Finally it restarts system. Here is a screenshot showing the restored notification shield and a window of an important update offered by AU in my Windows XP system: Fix was tested and is working in my system. Additionally AU can be triggered to show notification shield if it hasn't popped up yet: 1. Check if system service BITS is running. If not, start it. 2. Search for updates using MU website in IE and ProxHTTPSProxy. When searching has been finished, close IE. 3. Uninstall update KB4486463 (2019-02 Security Update for WES09 and POSReady 2009 for x86-based Systems (KB4486463)). 4. Restart computer. 5. After restart check once again if system service BITS is running. If not, start it. 6. AU notification shield should pop up. If not, trigger AU by executing two commands: wuauclt /resetauthorization /detectnow and then wuauclt /reportnow. 7. Now AU notification shield should pop up finally and showing missing update KB4486463. 8. Install offered update KB4486463 via AU. If update KB4486463 doesn't exist in your system or you don't use POSReady trick, choose another unimportant update which was recently installed.

Restoring WU/MU by using the nginx method I didn't test this method but it is said to be working and didn't apparently need ProxHTTPSProxy, This method requires only Internet Explorer 8 and update of Windows Update client. Here is the original link: https://forums.mydigitallife.net/threads/restore-windows-update-for-vista.82336/page-11#post-1724717. Credits to @owouwu at MDL.

Restoring WU/MU by using the WSUS + WUMT method This is an alternative method to search for updates using a WSUS server and the tool WUMT. IE or an additional proxy isn't needed. In my system it's working fine and is used as an additional method. This is the original link: https://forums.mydigitallife.net/posts/1628508. Credits to @abbodi1406 at MDL and MSFN.

I have made a complete guide with all the tips and steps which have to be performed to restore access to Microsoft Update website by using IE and ProxHTTPSProxy or HTTPSProxy. Of course at your own risk without any guarantee! And just to clarify: I am not the author or contributor of these patches and tools. I am a user and have examined my problems while restoring MU in Windows XP. This guide is the result of my examinations to help other users. Of course, I did some modifications due to the fact that some patches don't work properly or something is missing. If you want improvements to these tools and patches, please contact the authors! This guide is based on patch + proxy method created by @Windows7fan from MDL. Complete guide for restoring IE's access to WU/MU website using ProxHTTPSProxy or HTTPSProxy in Windows XP To be successful in restoring of access to MU website, you have to keep the order of following steps. Please, do not change this order! 1. Check BIOS and Windows due to correct date, time and time zone. Perform a time sync! 2. If you have used "WSUS server" in combination with "WUMT" in the past, remove it completely by "Remove_wsus.cmd". This batch file does not work properly, so you have to remove this registry key manually: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate. You can let "Remove_wsus.cmd" perform this by adding the following line (without quotes): "reg delete "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate" /f". Start Automatic Update service. In the system panel, Automatic Update may not be shown greyed out. 3. Go to Windows Services. Three system services are absolutely important for MU: BITS, wuauserv and Cryptsvc. These services should have been started and set to automatic. 4. Configure Internet Explorer. Internet Zone to standard, Trusted Zone to high with only these three URLs associated with MU: http://www.update.microsoft.com/, https://www.update.microsoft.com/ and http://update.microsoft.com/. Credits to @maile3241 and @AstroSkipper. Go to Internet Explorer Options, Advanced. Check if TLS 1.2 is enabled. Uncheck entry "Check for server certificate revocation". 5. Before installing updates, apply "PosReady.reg" if not already done. 6. Install these four updates KB4467770, KB4019276, KB4493435, KB942288-V3. Credits to @maile3241. 7. Apply "Tls 1.2.reg". Credits to @maile3241. 8. Execute "rootsupd.exe". 9. Install the latest Windows Update Agent 7.6. It's version 7.6.7600.256. Download link: http://download.windowsupdate.com/windowsupdate/redist/standalone/7.6.7600.320/WindowsUpdateAgent-7.6-x86.exe 10. Install "ProxHTTPSProxy". Download link: https://i430vx.net/files/XP/ProxHTTPSProxyMII_REV3d_PY344.7z, credits to @heinoganda. Here you have to edit the config file "config.ini". Under section [SSL No-Verify] I added fe2.update.microsoft.com and deleted update.microsoft.com under sections [SSL Pass-Thru] and [BYPASS URL]. This is working for me. 11. Download and install one of these packages: an English all in one version, credits to @Windows7fan from MDL, @xpandvistafan, @maile3241 and @AstroSkipper from MSFN: https://drive.google.com/u/0/uc?id=1z5NGORov8OS7iBkoFVsvWOTOE1_LCjoQ&export=download or a German all in one version, based on the version above, modified and updated by @AstroSkipper: https://www.mediafire.com/file/0y1zmwv8z4lch9s/Restore_WU_XP_DE.7z/file. Credits to @Windows7fan from MDL, of course. Here you have to check if "install.cmd" did its job properly, i.e., all commands in "install.cmd" should have been performed completely. Additionally, you have to verify the existence of patched "wuaueng.dll" in both folders system32 and system32\dllcache in form of a binary comparison. Be aware of SFC which tries to restore an original old version of this file! After patching, restart your computer and recheck! Verify if really all registry entries have been added. All bold files mentioned here are in these all in one versions included. They can be installed manually (all registry entries of "install.cmd" have to be added manually too) or automatically by applying "install.cmd". 12. If you have problems in configuring ProxHTTPSProxy, or you get error code 0x80072f8f while trying to access MU website, have a look at my thread: 13. Use "CAupdater" or "Certificate Updater 1.6" to update your root certificates. The download link of Certificate Updater 1.6 can be found here: https://msfn.org/board/topic/175170-root-certificates-and-revoked-certificates-for-windows-xp/?do=findComment&comment=1095349 14. If the button "Check for updates" doesn't work on MU, close Internet Explorer, open MU from Start Menu again, and in most cases it will load successfully. 15. If you have a fresh installation or a reinstallation of Windows XP, it seems to be necessary to install MU ActiveX Control manually because it won't be downloaded automatically any longer. Without any confirmation by me (no opportunity to check it), here is a guide how you can do that. Credits to @maile3241: https://msfn.org/board/topic/178377-on-decommissioning-of-update-servers-for-2000-xp-and-vista-as-of-july-2019/?do=findComment&comment=1213831 16. If on MU web page error code 0x80072F78 appears, turn off your firewall temporarily. If MU is working now, add the program "wuauClt.exe" into the exception list of your firewall and turn your firewall back on. In any case ProxHTTPSProxy or HTTPSProxy must not be blocked by your firewall. Same for Internet Explorer, of course. If on MU web page other error codes appear, rename the Windows folder "SoftwareDistribution" to "SoftwareDistribution.old" and let MU generate a fresh one. Maybe you have to disable an "HTTPS scanning" feature of your security software temporarily or make exclusions for MU related sites. 17. Do not use the same "DataStore.edb" in "SoftwareDistribution" for access methods WSUS server/WUMT and MU web version! I have two DataStore.edb files, one for WSUS server and one for MU. One for all doesn't work in my system. 18. Use only http-links to open MU in IE. Direct link is http://fe2.update.microsoft.com/microsoftupdate/v6/default.aspx?ln=en or http://fe2.update.microsoft.com/microsoftupdate/v6/default.aspx?ln=en&g_sconsumersite=1 19. MU works only if ProxHTTPSProxy is enabled. 20. For testing, I added a link to my working ProxHTTPSProxy's config.ini: https://www.mediafire.com/file/vr1klatuzjh6v5c/ProxHTTPSProxy_-_config.ini/file 21. If completing all of these steps didn't help you at all, even after repeated execution, you may have a rather general problem relating to MU in your Windows XP installation. In this case, you can try to manually reset Windows Update components. Here is my post how you can do that: https://msfn.org/board/topic/183498-general-and-specific-solutions-for-problems-regarding-auwumu-in-windows-xp/?do=findComment&comment=1216508 After that kind of reset, I recommend performing all steps once again (from step 1 to 20 inclusive). Of course, some steps won't be necessary any more but checking which to perform or not will cost a lot of time, therefore senseless. Although I am not a friend of automatisms, I also offer a tool here to perform this reset of Microsoft or Windows Update automatically. Anyway, I recommend to back up your system partition completely at first or at least the Windows folder SoftwareDistribution. This tool called Reset Windows Update Tool (Script) is said to be working properly, but it has not been tested by me, so no guarantee of success and use at your own risk. The last XP compatible version is 10.5.3.7: https://www.mediafire.com/file/k48ll6e41eypogy/ResetWUEng10.5.3.7.zip/file and a less recent version 10.5.3.4 with a help file included: https://www.mediafire.com/file/wl0yrq98me8dfkj/ResetWUEng10.5.3.4.zip/file 22. If unfortunately none of all these 21 steps helped you, then you should presumably think about a complete reinstallation of Windows XP. I did all these steps (except steps 21 and 22) and for me MU is working flawlessly in my Windows XP Professional system. If you enjoyed this guide, or maybe you found it interesting and helpful, I would be pleased about any reaction by liking or upvoting. Greetings from Germany, AstroSkipper

Here is the official instruction from Microsoft how to reset Windows Update. I've crossed out instructions that aren't referring to Windows XP or 2000. Furthermore I've added steps I found that they are missing or could be helpful. Make a backup if you want to perform this. In any case read carefully! Manually reset Windows Update components (KB971058) Important: Follow the steps in this section carefully! Serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly. Before you modify it, back up the registry for restoration in case problems occur! To reset the Windows Update components, follow these steps: 1. Open a command prompt. To do this, use one of the following methods, depending on your version of Windows: Windows 8.1 and Windows 8: From the Start screen, swipe in from the right side to display the charms, select Search, and then search for cmd. (Or, if you are using a keyboard and mouse, type cmd at the Start screen.) In the search results, press-and-hold or right-click Command Prompt, and then select Run as Administrator. Windows XP and earlier versions: Press the Windows logo key + R, type cmd in the Run box, and then press Enter. Right-click cmd, and then select Run as Administrator. 2. Stop the BITS service, the Windows Update service, and the Cryptographic service. To do this, at a command prompt, type the following commands. Make sure that you press Enter after you type each command. net stop bits net stop wuauserv net stop appidsvc net stop cryptsvc 3. Delete the qmgr*.dat files. To do this, at a command prompt, type the following command, and then press Enter: Del "%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Application Data\Microsoft\Network\Downloader\qmgr*.dat" 4a. If this is your first attempt at resolving your Windows Update issues by following the steps in this article, you should skip step 4 and go to step 5. You should follow step 4 at this point in the troubleshooting only if you cannot resolve your Windows Update issues after you follow all steps except step 4. (Step 4 is performed by the "Aggressive" mode of the Fix it Solution that was mentioned earlier.). Rename the softare distribution folders backup copies. To do this, at a command prompt, type the following commands. Make sure that you press Enter after you type each command. Ren %systemroot%\SoftwareDistribution SoftwareDistribution.bak Ren %systemroot%\system32\catroot2 catroot2.bak 4b. Reset the BITS service and the Windows Update service to the default security descriptor. To do this, at a command prompt, type the following commands. Make sure that you press Enter after you type each command. sc.exe sdset bits D:(A;;CCLCSWRPWPDTLOCRRC;;;SY)(A;;CCDCLCSWRPWPDTLOCRSDRCWDWO;;;BA)(A;;CCLCSWLOCRRC;;;AU)(A;;CCLCSWRPWPDTLOCRRC;;;PU) sc.exe sdset wuauserv D:(A;;CCLCSWRPWPDTLOCRRC;;;SY)(A;;CCDCLCSWRPWPDTLOCRSDRCWDWO;;;BA)(A;;CCLCSWLOCRRC;;;AU)(A;;CCLCSWRPWPDTLOCRRC;;;PU) 5. At a command prompt, type the following command, and then press Enter: cd /d %windir%\system32 6. Reregister the BITS files and the Windows Update files. To do this, at a command prompt, type the following commands. Make sure that you press Enter after you type each command. regsvr32.exe atl.dll regsvr32.exe urlmon.dll regsvr32.exe mshtml.dll regsvr32.exe shdocvw.dll regsvr32.exe browseui.dll regsvr32.exe jscript.dll regsvr32.exe vbscript.dll regsvr32.exe scrrun.dll regsvr32.exe msxml.dll regsvr32.exe msxml3.dll regsvr32.exe msxml6.dll regsvr32.exe actxprxy.dll regsvr32.exe softpub.dll regsvr32.exe wintrust.dll regsvr32.exe dssenh.dll regsvr32.exe rsaenh.dll regsvr32.exe gpkcsp.dll regsvr32.exe sccbase.dll regsvr32.exe slbcsp.dll regsvr32.exe cryptdlg.dll regsvr32.exe oleaut32.dll regsvr32.exe ole32.dll regsvr32.exe shell32.dll regsvr32.exe initpki.dll regsvr32.exe wuapi.dll regsvr32.exe wuaueng.dll regsvr32.exe wuaueng1.dll regsvr32.exe wucltui.dll regsvr32.exe wups.dll regsvr32.exe wups2.dll regsvr32.exe wuweb.dll regsvr32.exe qmgr.dll regsvr32.exe qmgrprxy.dll regsvr32.exe wucltux.dll regsvr32.exe muweb.dll regsvr32.exe wuwebv.dll And following added by me (@AstroSkipper): regsvr32.exe mssip32.dll 7. Reset Winsock. To do this, at a command prompt, type the following command, and then press Enter: netsh winsock reset 8. If you are running Windows XP, you have to configure the proxy settings. To do this, at a command prompt, type the following command, and then press Enter: proxycfg.exe -d If you are running other versions of Windows, at a command prompt, type the following command, and then press Enter: netsh winhttp reset proxy 9. Restart the BITS service, the Windows Update service, and the Cryptographic service. To do this, at a command prompt, type the following commands. Make sure that you press Enter after you type each command. net start bits net start wuauserv net start appidsvc net start cryptsvc 10. Windows Vista only: Clear the BITS queue. To do this, at a command prompt, type the following command, and then press Enter: bitsadmin.exe /reset /allusers 11. Install the latest Windows Update Agent. 12. Restart the computer. Article ID: 971058 - Last Review: 12/08/2015 06:57:00 - Revision: 42.0 Applies to Microsoft Windows Update Here is a link of the original document: https://web.archive.org/web/20160307084624/https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/971058 And here is the the latest Windows Update Agent: http://download.windowsupdate.com/windowsupdate/redist/standalone/7.6.7600.320/WindowsUpdateAgent-7.6-x86.exe. It's version 7.6.7600.256. Supposedly all these steps should be done by a Microsoft Fixit Tool. No guarantee! Not tested! Here is the link: https://www.mediafire.com/file/r98pvby076rub6j/Mats_Run.WindowsUpdate.exe/file Although I am not a friend of automatisms, I also offer a another tool here to perform this reset of Microsoft or Windows Update automatically. Anyway, I recommend to backup your system partition completely at first. This tool called Reset Windows Update Tool (Script) is said to be working properly, but it has not been tested by me, so no guarantee of success and use at your own risk. The last XP compatible version is 10.5.3.7: https://www.mediafire.com/file/k48ll6e41eypogy/ResetWUEng10.5.3.7.zip/file and a less recent version 10.5.3.4 with a help file included: https://www.mediafire.com/file/wl0yrq98me8dfkj/ResetWUEng10.5.3.4.zip/file Have a lot of fun! Kind regards, AstroSkipper

Is that due to the fact that Windows XP is running in a VM? I do not have these connections, I have a real installation of XP.

Check your settings relating to ActiveX in IE Options, tab Security, Internet Zone. Verify whether ActiveX is enabled or set it to low..

And are you now able to access MU successfully?

There are different ways to do that: Disable SFC by patching a system file. Or stop the service wuauserv and try to replace file. Finally you can try replacing from outside of your installation.

Now you've got error code 0x80244004 which means you "failed connecting to server". Please upload your WindowsUpdate.log now!

POSReady updates have to be installed logically after applying POSReady.reg in any case.

Well done! Exact description what you did. No need to apologize. I wonder why in your log window green connections exist to urls outlook.live.com and login.live.com.