WinClient5270

Well of course Vista will "work" on Coffee lake, just as it did with Haswell, Skylake, and so on. But the problem is finding proper drivers for Vista to communicate with the hardware. The Asmedia components might work on Vista with the board that you mentioned (AsRock Z370 Tai Chi), but there's another huge problem with Vista when coupled with Haswell (and newer) platforms, which I'm about to go into now: Vista was very unstable for me when trying to use it on my Haswell hardware (ASUS H97-M board, Core i5 4460). Half the time, the OS wouldn't boot without an error popping up on the screen just before the startup orb animation appears that contained the following information: "The interactive logon process initialization has failed. Please consult the event log for more details." Upon closing the error, sometimes the machine would hang on a black screen or it would boot to a semi-usable desktop. If the latter occurred, many services failed to start and I was forced to reboot the machine to get them to start correctly, provided the machine even decided to boot properly on the next boot attempt (again, maybe 5 out of 10 times the OS would boot properly, but otherwise it would either display the aforementioned error or random services would fail to start, leaving the OS in an unusable state). I even installed Intel's own chipset drivers for XP/Vista for Haswell, and doing so had no effect: the error simply persisted. Other users of Haswell/Skylake coupled with Vista (such as @11ryanc, @burd, and @dork) had the exact same problems with different Haswell/Skylake boards and CPUs than what I was using, so I know the problem wasn't caused through any fault of my own - Vista just simply doesn't work properly with any Intel platform after Ivy Bridge. I don't know why this is the case (even Windows XP at least successfully boots consistently on Haswell), but the fact of the matter is that it's more than likely to remain unfixed for the foreseeable future. If you're more technically inclined to fix or have the patience to deal with those issues, more power to you. But most people aren't going to have the patience or know-how when it comes to these errors and will simply opt to use Windows 7/8.x/10 instead (which is what I was forced to do until I went with Ivy Bridge). Since this issue has carried on through Haswell/Broadwell, Skylake, and Kaby Lake, it's pretty safe to assume that Coffee Lake will have the same problem. Just know that if you're buying Coffee Lake to run Vista, you're running the risk of either being forced to use Win7+ against your will, having to deal with the mess of problems I just mentioned, or having to return the hardware and just embrace Sandy/Ivy Bridge. I'll be flabbergasted if this problem somehow doesn't occur with Coffee Lake, but I really don't see that happening. Just don't get too hopeful.

You might try reinstalling your display drivers, since the crashes are related to NVIDIA DLLs. Use Display Driver Uninstaller (DDU) to uninstall them, and then reinstall them and see if the problem still persists. If that doesn't fix the issue, you might need to reinstall Windows Vista (I hate suggesting that but sometimes that's what it comes down to).

That guide is actually somewhat out of date, and I'm probably going to make a new one soon (as well as one for Windows 8.1, which is long overdue). The issue you mentioned about the taskbar can't be fixed though, unfortunately, since the color-coded taskbar button thingy is hard coded into Windows 7, from what I can tell. We (as in AnX, 11RyanC, and myself - we've all been making some updates to the Vista-7 project lately) might be able to find a way to turn that off. What you say about Ivy Bridge is partly true, meaning that there is a workaround to that problem. If you can get your hands on one of the last Sandy Bridge-era motherboards (such as the Asus P8Z68-V LX) which are also verified to support Ivy Bridge CPUs, then you can simply use the Sandy-era motherboard and still get the superior performance of an Ivy Bridge CPU. The Asus P8Z68-V LX has Asmedia USB 3.0, and Asmedia is known for their excellent support for Windows XP/Vista, so if you can go with Ivy Bridge, I'd recommend that motherboard. However, you might need to purchase (or borrow from a friend) a Sandy Bridge CPU in order to boot up the machine and update the board's BIOS to get it to support an Ivy Bridge CPU, since the board's original BIOS version doesn't support the use of Ivy CPUs and won't allow you to boot it with one without installing the BIOS update. This is why I purchased the ASUS P8B75-M board (an Ivy-era board) to avoid having to buy a Sandy Bridge CPU. Unfortunately it does not support USB 3.0 under Vista since it doesn't have a third party chipset (such as Asmedia), only Intel USB 3.0 which obviously doesn't support Vista. I may end up swapping boards later for this reason. Come to think of it, I actually haven't really missed USB 3.x myself. Windows Vista will still recognize the USB 3.x ports and use its generic USB drivers for them, but they just might not run as optimally as they would if Intel provided its own USB 3.0 drivers.

Sorry for the inactivity, everyone. I was recently injured in a car accident and I've been recovering from that for the past week, so I haven't been online much at all. Thanks for understanding. Origin 2015 is the last version of the Origin client to support Windows Vista, which is why it's separated from Steam (which continues to support Vista - even XP). Do later versions of Origin work on Vista (albeit unofficially)? If so, I'll gladly move it to the ONG section with Steam as an UNS option. You're very welcome, and thanks for the positive feedback. I'm glad you find my videos useful and will take your suggestions into consideration. SUMMARY OF CHANGES TO THE LIST FOR SEPTEMBER 24/OCTOBER 3, 2017: September 24th: Removed Epic Browser from ONG section and added Epic Browser v.58.0.3300.190 as the final version of the browser to work with Vista. October 3rd: Added Speedtest App in (ONG) "System Management, cleanup, and analysis" section.

I have no issues running the latest version of Pale Moon under my Vista installation. I personally use the x86 version of the browser, however, since I've found it to work better overall (even on non-Vista OSes). If you use the x64 version, that may be your problem. If not, then I don't really know what to tell you as I use the same drivers as well and don't experience those crashes/DLL errors.

Thanks for the information, burd. Added to the list. Hate to hear about Epic Browser on Vista

I happen to be that friend that likes Vista, JFYI, lol. On the Intel side of things, Ivy Bridge is the last platform from Intel to properly support Windows Vista. Haswell and later have a weird bug with Vista that causes it to not boot up half the time, rendering it unusable on the platform(s) if you ask me. While Ryzen might work, I wouldn't get my hopes up. If you're really keen on using Windows Vista today, I say you should go for a high end processor from the Ivy Bridge lineup. I personally have the Core i7 3770, and it runs like a charm with Windows Vista Ultimate. Even if the platform is a few years old, it still provides excellent and efficient performance that can suit almost anyone (I run virtual machines and play a few Dolphin games, and I have no issue doing these tasks - even simultaneously). And if you haven't already, make sure to check out my Last versions of software for Windows Vista/2008 list. There, you'll find a large library of information regarding the current state of third party support for Windows Vista. It's really not as bad as it may seem. The best all around web browser for Vista is probably Pale Moon (based on Firefox, but not the same thing), as it's the only known one that still gets major version updates on Vista, with no end of support in sight. Good luck, and welcome to MSFN!

SUMMARY OF CHANGES TO THE LIST FOR SEPTEMBER 19, 2017: Rearranged some existing misalphabetized items. Increased the font size of subsection headers from 12 to 14 for easier reading, and color-coded them (purple) for easy distinguishing between main section headers. Added BleachBit to (ONG) "System cleanup, management, and analysis" section. Added dBpoweramp: CD Ripper to (ONG) "Optical disk media management software" section. Added Asset UPnP audio server, dBpoweramp: MP3 Converter, and PerfectTUNES to (ONG) "Audio creation/editing tools" section. Removed Open Broadcaster software from ONG section. Added OBS Classic 0.659b to "Music/video streaming software" section. Added OBS Studio 18.0.2 to "Music/video streaming software" section. This may be removed (and OBS Studio placed in the ONG section) in the future if Vista support is added back (the OBS homepage claims Vista is still supported), but as of right now, OBS Studio versions 19.0 and onward aren't compatible with Vista due to missing dependencies and will not launch at all. I will post a complaint about this on the OBS forum and wait for a response. Whatever happens will be posted here when it happens.

SUMMARY OF CHANGES TO THE LIST FOR SEPTEMBER 17, 2017: Removed Sonic Mania disclaimer, as the game has now been tested by MSFN member burd and confirmed to be working on Vista. Added Maxthon to (ONG) "Web browsers" "Multi-engine supported browsers" subsection. Simplified link descriptions in the "Quick Links" section to be less overly detailed and more to-the-point.

I downloaded (what is supposed to be) the browser) from MajorGeeks and it appeared to be nothing more than a re-packaged version of Tor... I think simply listing Tor Browser and Firefox 52 ESR shall continue to saffice. I see no difference between them and this browser that warrants a new entry. Thanks a lot for trying the game out on Vista, I will now remove the disclaimer. Thanks for letting me know about Maxthon. I have added it to the ongoing support section. I personally couldn't get Qupzilla 2.0.1 to install in Vista (installer gave an NSIS error), and 2.0.2 would install and run, but as soon as I tried to load any webpages with it, it crashed the entire operating system. It is for this reason that I added Qupzilla 1.8.9 as the true last version for Vista. Pale Moon and Dooble are already in the ONG section. Pale Moon IMHO is the best browser choice for Windows Vista. As I mentioned earlier, the main developers actually listened to me when I told them about the problems with the 64-bit version of the browser under Vista back in June 2017. Instead of backing out of supporting Vista or blaming me for using an "obsolete" operating system, the problem was fixed and the browser works better than ever. In addition to the former, it also utilizes Windows Vista's features quite well, such as DirectWrite font rendering and system codec support (these were added in Platform Update and Platform Update Supplement for Windows Vista), something that Google never managed to (properly) pull off with Chrome. Speaking of Chrome, even Windows Aero was no longer utilized in Google Chrome under Vista after version 40, due to Google discontinuing development for the Vista version of Chrome and simply throwing Vista on XP's version of Chrome... To this day, it irks me that this occurred. They can blame "low usage" and "lack of feedback" all they want to, but I know d*** well that they did it as an excuse to drop Vista and XP support simultaneously. Kill two birds with one stone, so to speak. The fact that Mozilla and Moonchild managed to pull these things off just fine without the apparent need for "feedback" doesn't help Google's case. Oh well, who needs Chrome when we have Pale Moon, Slimjet 10, and Firefox 52 ESR?

I'm sorry, but PirateBrowser has been discontinued, so I don't think I'll bother adding it. The last update to the browser was in April of 2015, and the PirateBrowser domain has been down for quite sometime (since December 2015), giving solid evidence that the browser will no longer be updated. You can still view it on Wayback Machine here, though.

I was able to install all updates except for KB4039325 (does not apply to your system message). According to this link, it's related to Hyper-V, so it was expected since Vista doesn't have Hyper-V, obviously.

Added to the list, thanks.

SUMMARY OF CHANGES TO THE LIST FOR SEPTEMBER 12, 2017: Updated Dolphin Emulator to UNS status, after discovering here that the application is not officially supported on Windows Vista. This has been the case for a long time and I did not know about it until today, so this change does not signify any undesirable changes in compatibility or functionality in the latest release of Dolphin for Windows Vista users. Even the latest "Development" releases of Dolphin continue to work just fine in Windows Vista. I also previously failed to mention that the application is 64-bit only, so this information has been added. Added GPU-Z to (ONG) "Hardware identification and temperature management" section. Added download links for .NET Framework 4.6.0 and 4.6.1. Added HideMe VPN to (ONG) "VPN Clients" section.

It's SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom, released for the GameCube, PS2, and Original Xbox. Not veering too far off topic, the game was released in 2003 (I would've been 11 years old at the time), so I enjoyed playing it when I was a kid, and now it makes a very entertaining speedrun (which I'm learning to do now). In my opinion, it's a pretty solid platformer and does a great job at adapting the SpongeBob brand to a game, especially for a licensed game. It's a shame that you're having issues... Maybe you could just use Windows 7 for heavier gaming, and use Vista for everything else? I suppose that would be more desirable than downgrading your hardware to a GTX 900 series card. I wonder why these drivers don't utilize 3D applications properly. Have you tried the same drivers in Windows 7? I would do so and see if things perform similar or the same as they do in Vista. BTW: If you're interested in further exploring Battle for Bikini Bottom, here's a little tip. To remove those red triangles, use these settings instead: http://prntscr.com/gkfkdj http://prntscr.com/gkfklb Also, to get a more HD-effect and to improve the game's lighting, give the DolphinFX Post-Processing Effect plugin a try: https://forums.dolphin-emu.org/Thread-dolphinfx-post-processing-suite-for-the-opengl-backend

Sorry to hear that the 365.19 drivers didn't work. I really don't know what to tell you at this point, other than to buy a Vista-compatible GPU, such as something from the 900 series or below. Or perhaps the GTX 1060, 1070, or 1080 would work better than the 1050 with the modified drivers, since I believe that the modified drivers are geared toward those cards more than the 1050. I don't have a GTX 1000 series card to test, or I'd be able to assist you better... again, my apologies. The drivers utilize graphic intensive programs for me just fine, for example Dolphin (though one could argue that Dolphin is more CPU dependent, it still requires a pretty decent GPU to work properly): http://prntscr.com/gjlw88 However, since I'm using a GTX 750ti, maybe the issue doesn't affect me for some reason? Who knows...

This is quite odd... Does the GPU fan spin before Vista boots up? Or does it just simply stop spinning as soon as the OS boots and the drivers are loaded? If so, this is quite odd as the drivers seem to work fine with @burd's configuration. Also, have you tested an operating system that "officially" supports the GPU, such as Windows 7? If so, did everything behave as expected? If you have tried the above and the GPU fan never spins, this sounds more to me like a hardware issue. As I stated prior, I also use this driver with my GTX 750ti and have no problems whatsoever, unless for some reason this only affects the GTX 1050 GPUs, which would make no sense to me... I have also fully patched my Vista system up to April 2017 (and installed all Server 2008 updates released since May 2017, for extra security), which I recommend doing if you haven't already (I assume you haven't, since those updates I suggested prior weren't already installed). In contrast to newer versions of Windows, updating Vista actually is worth it as Microsoft made many improvements to the system outside of the major updates (SP2, Platform Update, etc.) that fixed small bugs that Vista had here and there, which may remedy the issues you're experiencing. ...and if you are concerned, Windows 10's telemetry was never backported to Vista either, so you're safe from that. If you need help getting Windows Update un-stuck from the infamous "Checking for Updates" stage, I have made a video about it on my YouTube channel here that may be of use to you. If all else fails, it might be possible to modify the 365.19 suite of drivers (last "official" version to support Vista) by adding in the hardware IDs for your GPU to the driver's INF file(s), which may fix your issues. Please let me know if you're interested in trying this, and I'll do my best to assist you. Good luck, and let me know how my solution(s) work for you!

SUMMARY OF CHANGES TO THE LIST FOR SEPTEMBER 7, 2017: Simplified the information contained in the "Introduction" section to be less overwhelmingly detailed, and more to-the-point. Added links to Last versions of software for Windows 95, Last versions of software for Windows 98, and Last versions of software for Windows 2000 threads in the "Quick Links" section. Also added a link to a new video tutorial on how to get Windows Vista updates until 2020 (video created by me). Updated information about Firefox 52.x ESR: the browser should continue receiving updates until May 2018, rather than the previous Sept. 2017 date. Added Sonic Mania in "Games" "Unofficially works on Vista" subsection, along with a disclaimer that the game has not been tested by anyone on this forum, and compatibility was only verified by word-of-mouth by someone on the Steam forum. If someone here tests the game on Vista and finds it to be working, I will remove this disclaimer. Updated Logitech Gaming Software entry to v8.96.81. Added TorGuard VPN client to (ONG) "VPN clients" section. Removed "Post-EOL updates for Windows Vista" section as the addition of the link to my video tutorial and the side note of information in the "Quick Links" section pretty much eliminates the need for it (big thanks to MSFN user @greenhillmaniac for allowing me to link to his Server 2008 update repository in my video).

I don't think trying other driver versions would be an option; as far as I know, the modified 372.70 drivers are the only ones that support both Vista and the GTX 1000 series GPUs, unless there's a way to make older drivers support the newer graphics cards. Newer drivers don't work, most likely due to missing Win7+ dependencies not found in Vista that the drivers rely on to work correctly. I don't remember what version exactly I tried (this was about a year ago), but I do know that it was post 370.xx series. I received a Code 39 error in Device Manager upon installing the drivers, and the drivers would not function properly. I know this solution is pretty obvious, but you never know... But do you have Service Pack 2 (KB948465), Platform Update (KB971512), and Platform Update Supplement (KB2117917) installed? Platform Update and Platform Update Supplement for Windows Vista adds support for the DirectX 11 API, as well as a few additional APIs from Windows 7 to improve compatibility with newer software and drivers. Also, I've found that the update slightly improves overall system performance and stability. You may also try installing the Driver Framework version 1.11 update for Windows Vista which improves support for newer drivers, see here: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/2685813/user-mode-driver-framework-version-1-11-update-for-windows-vista--wind Personally, I use the modified 372.70 drivers in my environment, but with a GTX 750ti, and I also don't game much except for playing certain Dolphin games (i.e. SpongeBob Battle for Bikini Bottom), and I have no issues doing that. Perhaps someone else gaming with Vista using a similar configuration as you (GTX 10xx card with the same drivers) could chime in with a more helpful reply. I hope I helped you regardless, though. Good luck!

SUMMARY OF CHANGES TO THE LIST FOR AUGUST 22, 2017: Moved Internet Explorer 9 to "Independently-based" "Web browsers" subsection. This change was made so that the title of IE's subsection was consistent with the rest of the subsections, in that the title is written based on the browser's codebase name, not the rendering engine. Added Yandex Browser v17.4.0.2461 to "Chromium based" "Web browsers" subsection. Added Business Contact Manager for Outlook 2013 Database Tool to "Additional Microsoft software" section. Added UC Browser to (ONG) "Chromium based" "Web browsers" subsection.

Thanks everyone for the submissions! I have added them and will mention them in the Aug. 22, 2017 SOC. Speaking of browsers, I personally find Pale Moon x86 to be the best all-around browser for Windows Vista at the moment. It still receives major version updates on the OS quite often, and multimedia/codec support has been greatly improved with 27.4. The x64 version works fine as well, but YouTube was somewhat broken for me with it... I had to enable "MSE for WebM video" in Options to get any videos to play. The x86 version is not affected by this. The overall browser's UI fits Vista and Windows 7 quite well, and the browser has not adopted an ugly, unfitting material design UI, which is a plus. It's also worth noting that the head developer actually listened to me when I pointed out the problems with the outdated MS Visual C run-time library DLLs causing the x64 version of the browser to not load in Windows Vista, and he fixed the issue no questions asked without pinning the blame on me for using an "outdated" operating system. I can definitely respect and appreciate that. On another note, while almost all other browsing options are at a dead end for Vista (whether by placing Vista on a security-only release, announcing that Vista support will be dropped soon, or just simply dropping support for it altogether), in the case of Pale Moon, it does not seem as if this will happen anytime soon. The browser has slowly isolated itself away from Mozilla's code changes/decisions, and as such, OS-support decisions made by Mozilla mostly don't affect Pale Moon at all, which means that Vista support is likely to continue for the foreseeable future. I certainly recommend Pale Moon over all other browsing options if you're running Vista, or even newer versions of Windows. However, the aforementioned departure from Mozilla's decisions does bring with it some downsides... since the browser is not a simple branch of Firefox anymore, certain extensions for FF won't work with PM. I don't know of any examples off the top of my head but I have seen a few users complaining about that before a while back. The extensions I use aren't affected by that so it isn't an issue for me, personally. @11ryanc did. It's a version of the thread from a few days ago before today's additions were added in, however, so it's not 100% identical. I do keep an offline copy of the list (in .docx format) updated though. Thanks to the recent donations (and disabling of ad-blockers), the chances of MSFN going down anytime soon are getting thin though, so I won't be moving the list to a new forum unless that happens. If it does happen, I have picked BleepingComputer as the alternative forum for the list, so be looking for it on there (if MSFN does go down, of course).

LOL. Small world... Oh, did I mention that I LOVE Amazon?

I will definitely donate next time I get paid... Had to rebuild my computer (motherboard died) and make some repairs on my mail delivery vehicle (US Mail carrier here) in the past couple of weeks, so I really can't afford to do it at the moment. I also made sure Ublock Origin was disabled for the site. I say if you make extensive use of the site and if you can afford to do so, you really should donate, even if it isn't much... A little goes a long way.

I am happy to announce that I will be holding off (hopefully indefinitely) on posting this list to an alternative forum, since MSFN will remain online for at least another month (hopefully much, much longer...). I also don't want to be committed to updating the topic on another forum. Let the submissions resume!

If it's okay with the admins here, I have decided to create a tribute video for MSFN and I uploaded it to my somewhat well-known YouTube channel. It is unlisted for now, and I will publish it on August 12, 2017 IF MSFN is officially offline then. The main purpose of the video is for archive purposes more than anything, just to briefly browse through the site before it gets taken down. It is quite short as I wanted to be able to fit it to a single song, and it's really only a small glimpse into this large library of information. I tried to choose well-known topics in the Windows 9x, 2000, XP, Vista, and one notable topic from the Windows 8 forum (Server 2012 updates on Win8), since this website was more well known for supporting older operating systems. This video probably could've been better made, but I don't really want to bore people with just scrolling through random topics for 10 minutes or more (we have Wayback machine for that ) Here's the link to the video, for those interested (if you see your main profile page in the vid and want it removed, please let me know and I won't hesitate to edit it out and reupload. There's only a couple of profiles featured in the video for just a few seconds so I don't think it'll be a problem):