Vistapocalypse

That was only for Home Premium and Ultimate systems with Media Center. Some thought it could not be installed on a system that was already running SP2 (it dates back to 2008), but I successfully did so in 2015 and used it until Microsoft pooped the party (see Windows Media Center EPG ending in January 2020). It’s hard to think of a good reason to install it in 2021, unless some bright person wants to solve the EPG dilemma. It did add support for Clear QAM, which could be useful if your North American cable provider does not encrypt basic channels. It did not add support for h264, but I believe there was a hack that only worked for x86.

Sorry, that sentence was about Vista and therefore OT here. I don’t think there is any way to install similar SHA-256 support on XP, so Idrassi as quoted above by Proteus probably does make a valid point with respect to XP support.

Mounir Idrassi’s English might not be the best: “drop complete support” might mean “completely drop support.” Windows 7 received updates adding SHA-256 support in 2019, but there seem to be many Win7 diehards who avoid Windows updates. I notice that Vista does not exist as far as Idrassi is concerned, but we too could have SHA-256 support by installing Server 2008 updates.

I presume your experience was on Vista. (The previous poster was asking about Windows 8 RTM. Perhaps @Jody Thornton might take a look at that.) I also presume it was before you joined MSFN, having searched in vain for an earlier post with more details. In December 2020 you were running Vista RTM with .NET 4.0. The OP of this thread asserted that SP2 is a requirement, which I have no reason to doubt. Of course no software that officially supported Vista should require a .NET version higher than 4.6.0 and a large majority would be fine with 4.5.2, and numerous problem reports have convinced me that installing 4.8 on Vista SP2 is a big mistake. However this thread is about 4.7.2, which seems to have a decent track record among MSFN members running Vista. For those who want a higher .NET version to try newer software on Vista, this is the highest version that could be suggested. You might want to read WinClient5270’s May 16, 2019 posts on this subject as well.

I have not yet heard any reports of iOS compatibility being broken (if you have Windows 8.1, please try it and let us know), but I’m sure it is only a matter of time. No one cares less about old Windows versions than Apple! (Well, Google comes pretty close.)

It’s been nearly a year since Apple ended support for Windows 7 and 8. The last usable version is 12.10.11.2. Recent versions have many bugs even on Windows 10. I have an iPhone that has never been synced with any PC (Vista is obviously not an option), and I see no real need to do so.

You figure you have been supporting MCP by using one of roytam1’s builds for XP? That’s rather ironic, because MCP clearly thinks otherwise. The only reason FF45 was selected was that it did not require SSE2. I think a majority of us have processors that support SSE2, and if you are able to use FF52, then that includes you. A similar patched version of FF52 has been requested more than once, and would be a fine idea - but there might not be any upstream to pave the way.

Well there was a recent post saying that the update agent must be manually installed to get Windows Update working for Windows 8: https://msfn.org/board/topic/177788-after-fresh-w8-install-cumulativerollup-updates-enough/?do=findComment&comment=1203269 (SP1 for Win7 did not include SHA-2 support, but is nevertheless needed to get Windows Update working now.)

Does Windows Update even work for a fresh install of Windows 8 RTM in the age of SHA-2 requirements? (For Win7 RTM, the update agent and SP1 must be manually installed first.) If it does, then your task is simple. If it doesn’t, then someone with an old installation needs to make a list. Of course the list will end with January 2016 updates.

I cannot very well discuss alternative methods of updating that I never used (and are probably OT here). Microsoft probably has zero personnel assigned to ensuring that no unnecessary updates are delivered to XP and Vista users, but they might have someone working on ways to foil your efforts! Probably most Server 2008 SP2 updates were identical to their Vista counterparts, but Vista had more features. Server 2008 had Hyper-V, but updates for that should not be applicable to Vista. Server 2008 reached EOL in January 2020, and subsequent updates are supposed to require an ESU license. Include KB2712808 in your ISO if you wish, but I believe it is unnecessary.

I’m not sure what to make of that, particularly since Windows Update per se no longer works for Vista. Can you confirm that KB3170455 was already installed, and that KB2712808 was nevertheless applicable? Possibly related: KB3170455 was re-released for Server 2008 in September 2017 (but not “for Vista,” which was EOL by then). More information here. Looks like greenhillmaniac has that version as well, but it’s in the Server 2008 repository.

Package Details at the Catalog say KB2712808 was replaced by KB3170455, and Package Details for the latter agree.

I can hardly believe this news: https://www.theverge.com/2021/8/11/22619667/nortonlifelock-avast-merger-deal-anti-virus-cyber-security-software

True, Flash EOL is not OS-specific, which is why moderators decided that the thread in the XP forum should be open to all members, so don’t hesitate to post a question there. I’m not sure what OS Mathwiz was referring to. I know he has Windows 7, so perhaps he is installing those ESU updates. It sounds to me like Microsoft has not done anything that would prevent a suitably old Flash Player ActiveX from working, but I don’t really know.

Hi Jody. Running Windows 8 must get lonely. I’m content to say goodbye to Flash Player myself, but you might be interested in something that Mathwiz posted last night in the main thread on this subject: https://msfn.org/board/topic/182654-adobe-flash-shockwave-and-oracle-java-on-xp-part-2/?do=findComment&comment=1203135

WinClient5270 listed ShareX Portable support for Vista as ONGoing, but noted that it Requires installation of Microsoft .NET Framework 4.6.2, which requires special procedures to install on Vista (unlike 4.6.1). In fact https://getsharex.com/changelog/ states that the .NET requirement was upgraded to 4.6.2 beginning with version 12.1.0 in March 2018, so you are fortunate if 12.4.1 functions well with .NET 4.6.1. The changelog also says the .NET requirement was again upgraded about a year ago to 4.7.2 beginning with version 13.2.0, which might also be doable on Vista.

If you have installed .NET Framework 4.8, downgrading to a .NET version that better supports Vista might get 8.6.0 working. If you used mfplatsetup for the benefit of Firefox, that might conceivably affect Camtasia as well. Current versions require Windows 10.

It seems that VLC 3.0.16 was released about a month ago. I have no idea when they will end support for version 3, which still supports XP and Vista.

If that concerns you, there is a workaround that you could try: https://msfn.org/board/topic/176686-server-2008-updates-on-windows-vista/?do=findComment&comment=1197007

Dolphin 5.0 is said to have been the last version to support vanilla Vista x64, but let us know what happens if you try a higher version.

You may have learned that from a video posted in 2020. I was quoting something the developer wrote in February 2021 that winvispixp is also aware of. Good luck!

Should be 88.0.1 as win32 posted Feb 27 (at another forum), “NTEXT is deprecated in favour of NTDLL, so no modification of the Firefox executable is necessary.” Firefox 89 has unsolved font rendering issues that win32 has acknowledged.

WinClient5270 has been inactive for many months, but he started working on the original post back in May 2016. In previous years I used to check that link to see if it still worked, which is the most surprising part. Perhaps he got it from a webpage such as this one, where the x86 link still works but the x64 link has been 404 for years.

Is that even a 64-bit app?

Windows 7 is not supported by Blender anymore, and Requirements further specify “Haswell architecture and newer” which is inhospitable to Vista. Previous versions might be worth a try.