LightAlpha263

Any help with downloading the over 200 security updates (with hotfixes) would be helpful. Option 1 would be to go onto "Installed Updates" in WU in Win7 and go to the support links, downloading from there. However, there is a possibility I might download a replaced update for some reason. Option 2 is onto the Microsoft Update Catalog. However, finding and downloading updates there is tedious. Slow. Tedious.

Thanks. I will attempt to make it multi-language. And yeah, I am in the process of downloading the updates into their folders now.

LINK TO ORIGINAL FORUM: http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/175691-vague-intention-of-unofficial-sp2-for-windows-7/ INFORMATION: I am working on an Unofficial Update Rollup for Windows 7 SP1, primarily designed to help easily update fresh installs of Windows 7 SP1 and for when Windows 7 goes unsupported, help to add more unofficial packages and utilities one would need after the EOL date passes to keep running Windows 7. The link above are the first posts on the matter, and I have gotten far enough to decide to keep going with this project. I recognize that there are several people out there trying to do the same, and I would like to cooperate with them. My project, however, is mostly designed to help for when the EOL date happens, though I guess I can put to use 4, maybe 3 years in advance. The project relies upon scripts, Batch and VBS, to run itself, and the Windows Application musa.exe to install the .msu (really .cab with a different file extension) files. Detailed documentation will be posted on an external website soon. The project is currently a WIP. No download links will be provided until the project's basic function works. This project is OPEN SOURCE, partially because I have no choice since I'm using scripts that can be edited or copied through notepad, partially because I want it to be. (I bet I could figure out how to lock the installer, but I won't try yet unless I feel someone might just copy this project and say they did it themselves ). DOWNLOAD LINKS: None at the moment. As mentioned above, when the project reaches an actually usable state, then I upload it. MORE INFORMATION: -If you'd like to know more earlier into the project, you can PM me, and I'll probably answer whatever question about this project you have. -The update cycle will be monthly unless otherwise stated (as said above). -Version number is: V0.2 (Alpha). -I'm downloading all the updates now. I have no idea when I'll be done, because I'm very busy in real life. OFF-TOPIC THINGS: Much of the inspiration for this project comes about 50% from the "Convenience Rollup" that Microsoft made in May 2016, and about 50% from Tomaz's Windows 2000 Unofficial Service Pack 5.2. Here's a link to the forum for the Windows 2000 USP5.2: http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/156521-unofficial-sp-52-for-microsoft-windows-2000-wip. Here's to more preserving of older versions of Windows NT *clink*. "Why hasn't there been an unofficial update something for NT 4.0? Perhaps we'll never know. I guess 5.X and 6.X are more special. Just kidding, I like NT4 a lot, but it's too old and pointless to make a rollup for that, much less how to find the updates." -LightAlpha263 (2016).

Ah, someone already has it going. However, as I've read, it hasn't been updated in awhile. If I can get into contact with the creator of the ULZ to maybe move this Unofficial Update Rollup from being a ton of VBS and Batch Scripts to an actual .exe installer, that would be great. I also checked out the Simplix pack, and see the most recent post there was from September of 2015. I realize that there are many people in-advance attempting to make update rollups and such. I'm going to continue working with mine here, and just for customization, I'll start by downloading the Security Updates by going onto Windows Update, seeing Installed Updates, right-clicking, clicking View Details, then clicking the support link. You can usually download the updates from the support page. Also, I will be creating a new topic named "Windows 7 Unofficial Update Rollup (WIP)" for future updates on this project. Link: http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/175706-windows-7-unofficial-update-rollup-wip/

Please change mine. Windows2000User --> LightAlpha263 Thanks.

Just a little update on the project before we return to talking about Win2K: The selection of what categories of updates to install is going to be done by VBScript. After the notice screens, it will ask "Do you want to install (update category)?". If yes, it writes "install(update category)=1" to an inf file. If no, it writes "install(update category)=0" to an inf file. The inf file is install.inf. The batch script will examine the .inf, and it will determine what the user has selected. The VBScript will also examine, and ask the user once more if that's what they want to install. If no, then it asks again what to install and writes to install.inf. If yes, the batch script uses the info in install.inf to run other batch scripts which install the updates. That's all.

Thanks for this all. As Dibya mentioned, I want to make a more custom unofficial service pack/update rollup. I think it will be predominantly consist of batch scripts, calling to VBScripts when needed or for graphical selection and such. The first run file will be a batch script that will run in the background throughout the whole of the updating process. The VBScripts will run to show graphical things, such as the "Welcome Screen". If will perhaps tell the user what is happening, if how to input the information wanted through the batch script, and so on. Development for 32-bit systems is my first priority, as I can more easily test that. However, since scripts are universal, it won't be too hard to port it over to 64-bit systems such as my own. I will only release the UUR/USP when it is available across both platforms unless one side of the project is far from completion compared to another. I won't really talk about it much on this topic, since this topic is about a USP for Windows 2000, not Windows 7. Once the project reaches beta-stage, I will create a topic for it. Thanks for all the info!

IMPORTANT: Future updates to the project will be here: http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/175706-windows-7-unofficial-update-rollup-wip/ ORIGINAL POST: What tools do you use for creating an unofficial update rollup? I've decided to perhaps try at making one for Windows 7, come 2020 and it becomes unsupported. Starting out now would extremely limit the amount of updates needed to add the final product. I've looked a web.archive.org archived version of your site, and it says "Knowing that there exist no other tool I had no other choice than to begin writing my own script which could be used for merging SFXCABs. I am not a programmer and do not have any advanced skills in this field so the only way to do it was to use a batch script. I have been working on the script since 2011 with great help of people from MSFN and RyanVM.net forums. It is still not finished but does the job and I have been improving it on a daily basis. I am going to make it public later when it is ready." When will you release such a tool? My progress so far on this endeavor was using VBScript to create the first message boxes. I'm thinking that the updater will go like this: Welcome the user, go through licensing agreements and such, move the files to a "C:\WIN7UUR" directory, let the user select what he/she wants to install (I plan the options to be: Security Updates, Hotfixes, IE11, Unofficial Updates provided they exist, and the latest .netframework to run on Windows 7.), tell the user that once it is done that it will ask if you want to restart the computer and recommend you say "yes", and run batch files inside folders named after the updates they include (security, hotfixes, IE11, so on) that use the /quiet switch of wusa.exe to install all updates in that folder. It'll take a long time to write individually "run kbxxxxxx-x86.exe /quiet" into batch scripts over and over, but it'll work. The last update to be installed, will be in the "security" folder. The line of code will go like this "wusa.exe C:\WIN7UUR\security\kbxxxxxx-x86.exe /quiet /warnrestart", which according to what I've read, installs the update, and asks the user if they want to restart the computer. This is the only way, I believe, that I can do this without actually making an update rollup the same way as normal. However, I have not found a VBScript command for telling the computer to execute batch scripts, select things determining what to make the script do (in this case, run batch scripts in selected folders that install updates.), and other things. Now some may ask "Why don't I use the convenience rollup provided my MS?" to which I'll answer "It includes Windows 10 promo updates, telemetry tracking updates, and so on. It also doesn't include core features of what I want included, such as updates to IE11." Any help on accomplishing this would be appreciated, and if you can release the tool, that would help me as to not go through this project in this method, which I am not sure is easier or harder than the one you have been using. And of course, I hope your health improves, and that we can focus on preserving Windows 2000 too. Good luck!

It's alright, please get better. Also, the new site looks great! Get better soon, wish you luck!

Alright. Good sign, and perhaps try getting a link to the archive. Also, try to organize the archive. Yes. However, there may be functions that a Windows 7 Program would expect wouldn't be present in a 2000-Extended Kernel that is designed to run XP Programs. If an Extended Kernel is made and designed to emulate 7, then if it works, yes, a script can be made and Windows 7 Programs can run.

Ah, thanks for that explanation. I was getting confused.

Then how does the extended kernel emulate NT 5.1+ if all it does is tell a program/program installer that it is NT 5.1? Does it even emulate it at all or does it just hope that the program installed won't have XP exclusive features that keep the program from functioning properly?

Perhaps try a dual boot.

Strange. I got VLC 2.2.1 working in one setup that had good enough hardware. You say versions 2-2.2.2 (2.2.2=latest version) will do the error, but I say that again, 2.2.1 had worked fine for me.

Great, I'd just say that I did the HFSLIP2000 in a Windows 2000 VM on Virtualbox. I then got the patched files, and made it into a bootable ISO using ImgBurn. It's freeware, and it includes OpenCandy adware. I just extracted the true EXE from the installer EXE. :3 Anyways, downloaded a boot image (it was XP-SP2 I believe) and burnt that into a bootable ISO. Works great

I would like to also make an inquiry onto this issue. From what I can figure, the Extended Kernel helps emulate Windows XP. So as long as Firefox supports Windows XP, you're good to go in terms of updates. However, in the near future, Mozilla might end support for Windows XP, and thus, the Windows 2000 Extended Kernel. That is why I suggest using Firefox ESR on any legacy systems. It is a special version of Firefox that is given ONLY security updates for a full year. Active ESRs right now are Firefox 38 and 45. Their full current versions are 38.8.0 and 45.2.0 I believe. There is no version X.9.0 and after. After 8 major releases, the ESR version is discontinued. This means, however, that Mozilla can cancel support for Windows XP/2000+Extended-Kernel in say Firefox 50, but Firefox 45 ESR will likely remain supported until there are no more 45 ESR releases. Personally, I'd say run ESR 45. Just note that this is designed for businesses and enterprises that cannot afford a bug in the latest features and such, but we can't afford losing compatibility with Windows 2000, so it's pretty similar situations. Also, my actual answer to this: Use the latest UUR from about 2014. It runs Firefox great, and almost is up-to-speed with my 2004 laptop on XP-POSReady2009. I think it's faster the last time I checked. This was a while back, I have yet to test it again as I mess with an old Dell Latitude C800 that is dual-booted with Windows 2000 and 98.

HFSLIP2000 can be downloaded in two ways. 1. With hotfixes, updates, and other things already put into place and HFSLIP2000 being ready to run. 2. Without hotfixes, updates, and other things already put into place. This is useful usually ONLY if you want to download specific software to slipstream onto your to-be Windows 2000 ISO/Install-File-Archive/CD. I really recommend downloading with option 1. It takes out hours of work. However for the time it takes to create the updated files, it may take a while. I did it on an non-updated Windows 2000 SP4 VM. It took several hours. If you can wait, I highly recommend you do so. HFSLIP2000 is the closest thing we have to an SP5, and can arguably be considered better as it is easier to include/exclude certain updates at the will of the user and/or developer. If you choose option 2, please note that the files on http://windows2000.tk are links to Microsoft webpages that are being taken down. Windows 2000 SP4 installer has been taken down recently, for example. However, it is possible that these files may have been archived using Internet Archive's Wayback Machine at https://web.archive.org. Just insert the link of the taken down update and it may show up. I recommend you choose the most recent option, but stay in the years between the earliest archive of the page and March-April 2016, as after that, updates were being taken down. If there's an archived page for late April 2016 and beyond, it will likely redirect to a "page not found" page. Also, you can use Tomaz's Windows 2000 Archive, accessible using the HFSLIP2000 link and clicking "Public" or just click this link: https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0Bw_nt4aAJIoPWWNBay13dTlXOWs#list. Here, anything related to Tomaz's projects can be found, such as saved Windows 2000 updates, unofficial update rollups, HFSLIP2000 itself, and more. It's pretty late right now for me, I hope I helped you! So ya, I'm happy that Windows 2000 is still alive.

Ah, it's times like this that must make life very annoying. I'm no "trusted source" on Web Hosting, but perhaps you can give Weebly a try. Or Google Sites rather than Google Drive. Or perhaps, you can attempt to invest in hosting all this yourself on a server of your own. Maybe with Windows 2000 (Only problem being security). Weebly: http://www.weebly.com Google Sites: http://sites.google.com

Obviously, copy the information on how to use HFSLIP. Secondly... Yeah, there's this. And make a link to the Windows 2000 Update Archive more obvious. Windows2000.tk/archive doesn't work. However, clicking the link to HFSLIP download does take you there, just inside several folders which you can get back to the root from easily.

I have a suggestion regarding HFSLIP 2000, seeing as it's basically an installer with a service pack. Here it is. If you're not aware, Windows 2000 supports a non-destructive reinstall, though it's not that obvious. It requires that you already have 2000 installed. Basically, it goes like this: 1. Boot off the slipstreamed Windows 2000 ISO 2. Select the option that "installs" Windows 2000. 3. It will detect that Windows 2000 is already installed when you reach the Partitioning Page where you tell the installer where to install Windows, at which point it will ask if you want to "repair" the Windows 2000 Installation by pressing the R key. 4. It will basically proceed to install Windows as normal, with an exception that all the programs, settings, files, users etc. will still be there! This of course means several screens in the installer are bypassed during the graphical installer portion of setup. I tested this in a VM and it worked seamlessly, only taking a few minutes (The VM had 2GB of Ram and an emulated SSD, so of course it went fast). I have yet to test this on physical hardware, but I believe that it will work just fine. I'm already using my old Laptop, a XP-Era Fujitsu Lifebook S7010, to test old OSes on good-enough hardware to see if they can still do enough things. I've found that using Windows 98SE with some tweaks works fine, and I already know Windows 2000 just isn't dead yet. Maybe somewhere, this tutorial (in more detail) can be hosted on the Windows2000.tk site, as it basically simplifies setting up Windows 2000 (of course adding blackwingcat's kernel later). UPDATE: I couldn't find a way do successfully install the extended kernel on top of a slipstreamed install other than installing UUR v11 Daily 11/30/14 (That is US Format, INTL Format 30/11/14) which I downloaded from a link in a now taken down Youtube Video called "Windows 2000 in 2015" by experienceRCOS. Until I got HFSLIP2000 working, I deployed and tested Windows 2000 by following these steps: Install SP4, Install SP5 (Original), Install UUR v11 Daily 11/30/14. Never mind that, unless it's actually a good idea. Anyways, is installing UUR v11 Daily 11/30/14 after installing Windows 2000 through an ISO that was HFSLIP2000 created safe? Or does that downgrade the W2K Install or ruin some of the updates or something else. I've already done it and I don't see a notable difference other than I got the Extended Kernel working.

I'm sure of the same. I honestly was just wondering if that were to be true, since I have at least SOME time to my disposal (and not VM machines) to test this. By all means, I'm rather confident of the same response coming from Tomasz seeing his busy schedule (which I can relate at most times). Really, it would be nice if this project reached beta testing. Ah... that's all nice. I've been waiting for something of the sorts for a while with the Post-EOL Windows 2000 Community. I really think you should do that, as it will ultimately progress the effort of keeping Windows 2000 alive. Also, "As for something on a larger scale than that, I cannot really say or promise anything for the moment". Does that mean USP5.2 won't be ready for beta testing for many years to come, or just a few months?

Archive.org has been a lifesaver for me at times. For example, things just like this. Also, a pretty obvious, Microsoft stopped hosting Windows 2000 SP4 installer! While I happen to have this on my external HDD, here is a link in case anyone needs to download it, courtesy of the Wayback Machine:https://web.archive.org/web/20141120202456/http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/confirmation.aspx?id=4127 That's all, good luck with this project, and again, I'll test if you still accept testers, Tomaz.

Just noticed this. Are you still accepting testers? I'm interested.

Alright, thanks. I will test that with a spare machine with XP on it, I'll just temporarily dual boot it, or just test it in a Virtual Machine.

Yep, I'm reviving this while trying not to be banned I guess? I have downloaded a driver (Not for 9x!) from the Fujitsu website for my Fujitsu Lifebook S7010 which even though there isn't any documentation of anyone using Windows 98 on it, I'm trying anyway. My plan is to use the utility KernelEx to allow this 2k/XP installer to work and hopefully get the driver working period. An advantage with this driver (that I'll link down below) is that (kinda unfortunately at the same time) it comes with Intel Proset Wireless. Even though it's a bit bulky and not all user friendly, and kind of annoying, it worked when I had that laptop on 2k. So, my theory is by using KernelEx to provide a compatibility layer for 2k, which is more likely to work than trying to provide the layer XP-wise and above, it will install and allow me to connect to Wireless Networks! Link:http://www.fujitsupc.com/downloads/mobile/WLAN_INTEL_2200BG,2915ABG_V9.0.4.26_XP.EXE Notes: I haven't done this yet. It's a theory that I will hopefully get around to testing later. I have already found 9x drivers for other devices on the Laptop. Also, the laptop doesn't OFFICIALLY support 9x, and even though the website lists 2k drivers for almost all of the devices, there is no where that says 2k was officially supported either. The link above was listed under XP, but I know it works with 2k because I tested that during the Laptop's 2k stage. If you want me to create a topic saying EVERYTHING involving me getting 9x to work on this laptop (if it works), then just tell me and I'll do it happily. Respond if you test this yourself and tell me your results if you can. Why do this: Because I can, and I want a 9x laptop that isn't broken.