Vistapocalypse

Some readers may not know what a broken record sounded like. In the days when music and other audio was sold on vinyl records, a crack or scratch often prevented the stylus (needle) from following the groove containing analog audio. In some cases the stylus skipped forward, but in a good many cases it skipped backward, causing the same passage to repeat over and over until someone intervened to break the cycle. I have seen many of your posts far and wide. Your preferred topic is always old Vista patches, but you seem to have an aversion to post-EOL patches (such as the one that was required to solve this thread), and you seem to believe that Firefox 52.9.0 is the only browser worthy of discussion. Your “broken record” analogy seems appropriate.

Confirmed. Those Windows 6.0 updates were released in 2019, so this thread’s title is somewhat perplexing (nothing has changed). You should definitely install the April 2019 SSU first. I would recommend that you then install the September 2019 SSU KB4517134, but I haven’t experimented enough to say that it is “required” for your purposes. Finally, install the latest version of KB4474419. (The first version had issues.) But if your objective is to salvage Windows Update for Vista, I’m afraid you are barking up the wrong tree. Any update for Windows 6.0 released in April 2019 or later will change the build number to 6003 (updates for IE9 being the only exception I know of), and it has been found that Windows Update gives “Vista 6003” the cold shoulder - but by all means try it yourself sometime.

Great news! However little use we may have for Internet Explorer, it seems that Vista is still quite attached to it, so Vista users can benefit from the enhancement discussed here. It might be worth mentioning that the last cumulative security update for IE9 with an sha1 signature was KB4507434 in July 2019. (I’ll leave the can of worms labeled sha2 on the shelf.) July 26 was the third anniversary of VistaLover’s original post about enabling TLS 1.1 and 1.2 on Vista, and we all owe him a debt of gratitude.

Although it seems doubtful that this issue is in any way related to Firefox, it might be helpful if OP could confirm that Firefox is selected as default browser in order to finally settle such questions. It’s puzzling that OSVersion values are still present after using Haller’s Reg file. For future reference, greenhillmaniac of MSFN has Reg files at his Repository in the Extras folders for x64 and x86 respectively.

True - but if a program needs Vista’s help to connect, I believe Vista is going to use Internet Explorer’s engine regardless of the user’s browser preferences. If I am mistaken, then this thread has no real reason to exist.

When it comes to Firefox, you are absolutely correct: ESR 52 would probably work just fine on Vista REM, certainly on SP1, and supported XP. Why would it have any need for a Windows update that was released after Vista’s EOL? I believe you are also correct that the OP has unresolved Windows Update issues, and I wish you luck with that. With the possible exception of @burd, I also believe I am thus far the only poster in this thread who has actually enabled TLS 1.2 on a Vista system, and I do not believe I will be posting here again.

Pardon me for intruding again, but I’m increasingly convinced that you don’t have IE9. If you have a restore point that was created before embarking on this adventure, then I would suggest that you use it! If you can activate your software by visiting their website using a browser such as Firefox, then by all means do so! That would obviously be much easier than enabling TLS 1.2 systemwide.

@terryindorset is Internet Explorer 9 installed? I would be very surprised if TLS 1.2 could be implemented with IE7, although I doubt that anyone ever tried.

I believe you are quite correct! It looks like Haller only posted one Reg file, whereas Vista x64 would require a more complex Reg file than Vista x86. MSFN’s own greenhillmaniac has separate Reg files for x86 and x64 at his repository, but I have not used them (having used Regedit in connection with Vista x86 long ago). However, I believe the full path to the additional x64 keys is probably more like HKLM\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\InternetExplorer\AdvancedOptions\CRYPTO\...

I didn’t reply because I didn’t know the answer (having long ago made the registry changes), but I’m curious if you have found the answer yourself by now, assuming your software is now able to communicate with the vendor. As VistaLover once pointed out here, Windows Mail can also benefit from TLS 1.2 support. Much to my surprise, Microsoft is still making monthly security updates for IE9, although sha2 support (another Server 2008 topic) has been required for about a year now.

Unlike patches for Windows 6.0 per se, the Server 2008 security updates for IE9 never listed Vista as an applicable OS in the extractable text document. It does not follow that installation is blocked on Vista. However, installation might very well be blocked unless sha2 support has been properly installed. The last dual-signed cumulative update for IE9 was KB4507434 in July 2019.

What security software is installed? At least on Vista and Windows 7, “black screen with cursor” was sometimes an antivirus conflict.

I believe you mean 3.5.11, which is the version listed in Last Versions of Software for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 despite considerable discussion along these same lines in May 2019. I realize this is too elementary for MSFN, but installing Windows 7 on the Vista hardware would solve numerous software compatibility issues.

I wanted to react to your June 2020 post, but I cannot find it. AFAIK, the “googlebot” agent solution was first mentioned at MSFN by UCyborg in a June 22 post.

Under DVR/PVR Software, NextPVR no longer has ONG support for Vista, and a legacy download link for version 4.2.5 seems to be needed: https://forums.nextpvr.com/showthread.php?tid=59880. (Recent 5.x versions require .NET Core, which was shown not to work on Vista earlier in this thread.) Also, Microsoft’s electronic program guide service ended on April 2, 2020, which greatly reduces the appeal of adding TV Pack 2008 to Vista systems with Windows Media Center.

Member @SIW2 posted at another forum that it works, assuming sha2 support has been installed. (I believe one or more Server 2008 servicing stack updates are prerequisite for the update SIW2 provided links to.) My last attempt to use MSE on Vista was in July 2019. I believe the definition and engine updates were still dual-signed at that time because I was able to manually install them without sha2 support. The deal breaker for me was that MSE 4.4 was only able to detect and quarantine an EICAR test file intermittently, not consistently. So I opted for Avast 18.8 instead.

The greater evil is YouTube’s owner, Google. They are not in the habit of making things easy for Firefox, much less for developers of Firefox forks. As VistaLover pointed out on page 1 of this thread (which has not benefited much from subsequent expansion IMO), Firefox Quantum 63 or above supports Polymer v2 but UXP does not. If MCP thinks they can backport Polymer v2 support to UXP, then I wish them luck. For XP/Vista, Yandex 17 (or perhaps one of the Chinese Chromium backports) is the alternative.

Yandex 17.4.1 (a 2017 version based on Chromium 57) supports YouTube’s Polymer v2 as well as XP. (VistaLover prefers a portable version based on Chromium 58, but I don’t know if anyone has used it on XP.) Another advantage: I found in February that a current version of UBO (not a legacy version) worked with Yandex 17.4.1 on Vista. My Vista hardware is currently out of commission so that might have changed by now.

Microsoft/Rovi EPG data expired on the evening of April 2. Attempts to Get Latest Guide Listings fail, producing an error message never seen until recently: This might really be the end of Microsoft's EPG service.

The last version of iTunes for Windows to support XP was of course 12.1.3, released in September 2015. Versions older than 12.6.5 have been unable to sign in since October 2019, apparently because the iTunes Store now requires secure TLS 1.2 connections. If anyone is interested, a workaround has just been posted in the Windows Vista forum that might also work for XP:

My apologies. I was under the impression that YouTube had already introduced changes, as mentioned in March 8 posts on page 4 of this thread (i.e. "lack of miniatures"). I must have missed the YT announcement that even bigger changes were coming 31/03/2020. I can hardly wait!

Solution for Chrome 49 was posted by VistaLover on page 1 of this thread February 6. This will be my last reminder for those who did not read the thread.

It is a moot point since the OP has already enabled TLS 1.2 and this thread appears to be concluded, but the only prerequisite for the IE9 standalone installer is SP2.

Microsoft/Rovi EPG data expired on March 19 and efforts to Get Latest Guide Listings have failed. Microsoft may have finally figured out how to retire their EPG service. Then again, the situation looked just as bad on New Year's Eve. Correction: After a brief data outage, I now have Microsoft EPG data until the evening of April 2.

You could always create and upload a profile photo, i.e. avatar (e.g. I put a Windows Vista flag on the Titanic using Photoshop), or just use this one: