SD73

I just booted my machine up for the first time in a couple of weeks. Without any registry modifications I was given the Yellow Shield with 5 Updates. Like Dave, my Malicious Software Removal update asked for a license agreement consent. I'll wait for this to reboot and see if it finds another 5 updates that you guys apparently got prompted for before I ask for any advice regarding registry modifications.

I had one update that would continually want to reload after each boot. I don't remember the number, but off hand I think it ended with "46." In any case what fixed it was deleting and recreating the SoftwareDistribution directory. If that happens to you say the word and I'll post the procedure if you need it.

It looks like it stands for "Primary Interop Assemblies." I am not sure which pieces of Office use them so I'll leave .Net be for the time being.

Thanks for taking the time, Acheron. It looks like Office 2003 needs .Net because of "PIA"s. I'm not sure exactly what part of Office that is or if I use it, but I'll leave it alone just in case. Re: Norton's DNS. I guess the best answer to your question is maybe. They try to keep their DNS servers as updated as they can with known malicious websites trying deploy malware or scam you in one way or another. If you try going to the website you browser will give you an "Unsafe" message warning you against going. That said, if a malware is on a website that Norton has not updated its DNS with you won't be blocked or warned from going there. So that's why I say it's a good free first defense.

Hello, Gentlemen. Am I understanding you correctly? I run BitDefender and MalwareBytes Anti-Exploit. Can I safely remove ALL .Net Framework from my PC? I thought some apps used .Net as part of their programming code? For what it's worth my two major applications I use are Outlook and Word from Office 2003. Thanks in advance for the clarification! Also, I'd like to mention using Norton's ConnectSafe free DNS as another layer of malware Defense. Below is the link should you feel like checking it out. https://dns.norton.com/configurePC.html

Well i for one am certainly glad you did post here. I I know myself well enough to know that little trick of yours would have been the very last thing I tried. Thanks again!

I've been racking my brains trying to figure out why I had a some errors showing up in my event logs. I ASSumed it was because in my never ending cause to eliminate Services I don't need I disabled something I shouldn't have. Since my machine is primarily for sending out emails once a month and not much more I've tried to secure it as best I could by eliminating as many extraneous things I could. So after a lot or researching why I was getting 1502, 1508, 1511, and 1515 all related to Temp Profiles I ended up back here. The place I should have started as I would have saved a few hours of troubleshooting. Thank you GLNZ for asking this question. I never would have thought of posting it here. And thank you Bluebolt for your answer! This issue has been around for over a decade and I tried many of the solutions posted with not luck at all. Your's worked like a charm. It was simple as pie too! And now my Task Manager shows just 26 Service running. The O/S on my old machine seems as speedy as a new machine. Thanks guys for such a fantastic forum!

What glnz said. Hmuellers posts were instrumental for getting me going with this. I do hope he can redeem himself. He left some big shoes for someone else to fill if not. That said, this is a terrifically talented and nice group of people to work with. Guys like Heinoganda and others have offered me a wealth of help offline too.

Thanks, Dave!

Hello Dave and Dencorso, would it be possible to get those two files emailed or PM'd to me too? I'd like to give this update a whirl too. Thanks fellas!

Great ideas, guys!

Mcinwwl, I don't think it would be a bad idea to have the info repeated somewhere else with a curated area telling visitors of what the most recent updates are so they could easily keep up and download them as need be. Then the advanced, and slightly advanced users here could act as a test-forum for new patches as they're released and if there are no issues you could update your blog with safe patches and suggestions that we come up with here as we go along. There are a ton of great tips for securing the XP operatng system along with great free software to keep it safe in light of Microsoft's abandoning the product.

You are way too clever, hmuellers. That's a lot better than trying to rely on my memory.

Thanks for the links, explanations, and updates guys. This is really the goto place! One thing that continues to concern me going forward is keeping up with what patches I've already applied and those I need too. I haven't kept them so when a new one is brought up that needs applying and as the years progress I'm afraid I may miss some of these if I don't get to the board regularly. Does anyone have any suggestions on a way to easily know if we're up to date with the software that doesn't get automatically updated? hmuellers instructions for starting off now are fantastic. I think anyone coming on board could easily secure their machine with little doubt as to what they need to do. But the casual user would probably have issues going forward in keeping their PC's secure. On a side note, how does one browse the Microsoft repository of newly available patches that are shown for download in the links above? I was not even able to find the NDP30SP2-KB3072308-x86 while searching to download that one prior to dencorso's posting it. Thanks guys!

glnz, I just did that myself. No problems on my end. However, I can't locate NDP30SP2-KB3072308-x86 to install. I did locate the other two updates heinoganda mentions and they installed fine.

Thank you Heinoganda, I will check that out. I really appreciate the heads-up!

Mccinwwl,, I think one complete summary with everything needed at one place would be a terrific idea. Thumbing through this thread kept me putting it off for a long while myself. Then having definitive followup procedures that needed to be applied that we could all check in one central location would be ideal. I for one just followed hmueller's well detailed instructions and have kept up on the cert updates and other downloads as advised. However, I've never removed anything Framework or Silverlight related. I may have missed that. If I did, having everything like that suggestion in one centrally maintained and curated spot would absolutely be helpful to me and I think others that may be hesitant of jumping on board. I haven't had any of the explore issues you mention. I do run Anti-Exploit too, but I use BitDefender with it and Chrome for everything but Microsoft Updates.

I can't really offer you too much insight as I've only just started using the POS Updates within the last week or so. I haven't had any failures or problems with the huge glut of them that installed when I converted. I'd say around 50 or so. Then another 12 or so of the manual Framework updates and what not. Smooth sailing. I do use Bit Defender, and I streamlined about every unnecessary service and program off that machine that I could think of and really just use it for an outgoing emailing machine. Have you done the procedure to clear your Software Distribution Folder? In the old days I'd run into a few stuck updates in there that'd keep failing until they were cleaned out.

I have no problems to report with any of the recent updates. I'm also considering throwing the Updater in my Startup Folder so remembering to do that whole process becomes less of a concern.

Thanks HMuellers! I think that'll save some other people in the long run. One other request I'd throw out there. And I think some else has brought it up once too, but adding the dates to the files that manually need to be downloaded will go a long way to help keeping track of the files we've already installed as we move forward. Anyway, thanks again guys. This is a terrific community of people united to keep XP going long and strong!

Thanks Dencorso! That was it!

Wow! What a fantastic site this is. I'm super happy to have discovered it and extended the life of what was an excellent running PC. Special thanks to hmuellers for his easy to follow instructions for setting up and staying current with the patches! I just finished running them all and it went amazingly smoothly! The only issues I had were both from the 2 downloads from the WIndowsupdate domain. NDP20SP2-KB3074546-x86_B00E38544466254F6C7314127D2F658078C9D53A.exe NDP30SP2-KB3072308-x86_DF948B25BC71432E5CADE81A55E0840A833B8BDC.exe Each time I ran those two I'd get the following message from my browser no matter what OS I tried downloading from XP / Win 10 / or Linux Any help to get those would be greatly appreciated and thanks again for such a fantastic resource! Your connection is not private Attackers might be trying to steal your information from download.windowsupdate.com(for example, passwords, messages, or credit cards). NET::ERR_CERT_COMMON_NAME_INVALID