pcalvert

FWIW, I was just looking at this web page: WSUS Offline Update And what did I see at the top of the page? This: So, use of this well-known tool is another possible option (for Office 2007, but previous versions of the tool may be available for earlier versions of Office).

@Vistaboy Give this software a try: http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/149901-batchpatcher-downloader/

Here's a relevant article on this topic: The truth about Windows 7 and 8.1 'spy patches' KB 3068708, 3022345, 3075249, 3080149 For security reasons, I dislike the idea of not installing updates (it's a bad practice). I've chosen to install updates (minus some optional ones), and to disable telemetry (CEIP). Here's the method I used: Source: How to disable Telemetry and Data Collection in Windows 10 And here's another relevant article: How to Turn Off Telemetry in Windows 7, 8

This is definitely a useful program. It would be even better if it preserved the timestamps of the downloaded updates.

Here's a script you can use to uninstall the new Metro apps: Remove Windows Store apps in Windows 8, Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 And here's a tutorial on how to manually uninstall them: How to uninstall an App in Windows 8 This is how I removed all the apps using PowerShell: Get-AppXPackage -Allusers | Remove-AppxPackage Get-AppXProvisionedPackage -online | Remove-AppxProvisionedPackage –online I learned about that here: Completely disabling Metro apps in Windows 8.1 Note: There are a few apps that Windows will simply refuse to remove.

I can confirm that this works. Thank-you.

Personally, I don't really trust the POSReady 2009 updates. My Windows XP began having strange problems after I started installing them. And one person reported that installing those updates wrecked his Windows XP system. I decided that from now on, I'm going to be very selective about which of those updates to install. For example, I'll probably install the .NET Framework updates (if I keep .NET installed), as well as any other updates that will install without using the POSReady hack. EDIT: To clarify, this is the main reason I don't completely trust those updates (most of them): (Emphasis added.) Source: Registry hack enables continued updates for Windows XP Also consider software vendors producing software that is still compatible with Windows XP. They will almost certainly be testing their software on "stock" Windows XP SP3 systems; it is highly unlikely that they would test their software on Windows XP systems that have been updated using the POSReady 2009 hack.

FYI: Nearly undetectable Microsoft Office exploit installs malware without an email attachment I think I'm going to get rid of (or disable) Outlook and Outlook Express.

It can't be that because I don't have anything Office-related installed. In fact, I am starting with a relatively pristine system. However, I do have IE8 installed. Based on my testing, the POSReady 2008 hack itself seems to be the culprit. Test #1: Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\WindowsEmbedded\ProductVersion] "FeaturePackVersion"="SP3" [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\WPA\PosReady] "Installed"=dword:00000001 Result: Scanning for updates is fairly quick (normal speed), but updates released after February 2016 are not found. Test #2: Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\WPA\PosReady] "Installed"=dword:00000001 Result: Scanning for updates is extremely slow.

Does anyone know what causes scanning for updates to take "forever" and possible solutions? By "forever" I mean no results after waiting for more than one hour. Based on previous experience, such behavior does not seem at all normal.

FWIW, I was able to find MBAE v1.10.1.24 here: https://malwarebytes.box.com/s/xhbp0e8xyj4iom093gdtwyervxva0zxh I found the link and info here: https://malwaretips.com/threads/malwarebytes-anti-exploit-2017-update-thread.71901/#post-653879

I use this tool to search for updates: It's not perfect, though. When using it to search the Microsoft Update Catalog, it returns a long list of updates, but does not filter out the ones which are already installed. And when I used it to search for Windows XP updates, I didn't see any .NET Framework updates in the list, so the list is obviously not exhaustive. Even so, it's still very useful.

Thank you for creating this very useful software.

Thank-you! That information may be very useful.

Has anyone tried installing the .NET Framework updates that were released in 2014 to 2017 on a Windows XP SP3 system that has not had the POSReady reg tweak applied to it?

And what about this one?: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\WindowsEmbedded\ProductVersion] "FeaturePackVersion"="SP3" Delete or keep?

This is the reg tweak that I used: Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\WindowsEmbedded\ProductVersion] "FeaturePackVersion"="SP3" [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\WPA\WEPOS] "Installed"=dword:00000000 [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\WPA\WES] "Installed"=dword:00000000 [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\WPA\PosReady] "Installed"=dword:00000001 Even though I got that from this forum, I now suspect that this is not the best/correct reg tweak to use. I believe that I need to delete that first registry key. Correct? And are there any others I should also delete?

I checked and found that I already had Windows Installer 4.5 installed, but due to some strange behavior I investigated further and saw that the version I have is 4.5.6002.23731, which is for Windows Vista and not Windows XP. I'm not sure how that got on there, but I am fairly certain that I didn't install it, so my guess is that it was downloaded and installed by some software. I'd like to roll back Windows Installer to the previous version so I can install the correct Windows XP version of Windows Installer 4.5, but I am not even sure that it is possible. And if it is possible, I don't know how to accomplish that. Can it be done?

I have a Windows XP Pro system that I applied the POSReady reg tweak to that has a problem -- security updates aren't being offered anymore. The system got crapped-up due to the testing of a lot of security software, so I restored from a backup that was made in December 2015. These are the most recent (latest) updates that were installed: ie8-windowsxp-kb3134814-x86-embedded-enu_10f3fd3d69bc17467abeb7125240a9cd1247b168.exe windowsxp-kb3126593-x86-embedded-enu_28707de25730ebbb4d0e5f02d156dff431bc6e6d.exe Those are both from February 2016. I'm no longer being offered newer security updates; I'm only being offered a few optional "updates" (like Skype) that I declined in the past. What do I need to do to fix this?

My mother has a Windows 8.1 PC with GWX Control Panel and Never10 installed on it. This past Wednesday, GWX Control Panel reported the presence of files related to Windows 10. Running Never10 reported that "Windows 10 Upgrade is ENABLED for this system!" Apparently, a Windows update re-enabled the ability of Windows 8.1 to be "upgraded" to Windows 10. In addition, neither GWX Control Panel nor Never10 are able to reverse this condition or delete the Windows 10-related files. Considering that the period for the free "upgrade" to Windows 10 has passed, it seems rather strange that this would happen now. Something else strange also occurred. I sent the following two links to my mother so she could download the latest version of GWX Control Panel. Download page: http://ultimateoutsider.com/downloads/ Direct download link: http://ultimateoutsider.com/downloads/GwxControlPanelSetup.exe My mother's reply: "My computer won't let me download either one. I click on the link and I wait and it doesn't open." I downloaded GwxControlPanelSetup.exe, changed its name, and then uploaded the renamed installer file to a personal website. My mother was then able to download the (renamed) GWX Control Panel installer and install the latest version. The latest version of GWX Control Panel also failed to fix the problem. I'm not sure what to think of all this. Phil

I found this article yesterday: http://www.chntpw.com/reset-forgotten-microsoft-account-password-windows-10-8/ It's probably too late to help you, but it might help someone else. Phil

The download link in the first post isn't working for me. Phil

Hi Dave, Well, I did have it briefly installed at one point, but it annoyed me so I removed it. I am going to try switching to Classic Search and see if that works. If so, I'll probably stick with that. Thanks for the feedback (you too, Dclem). UPDATE: Switching to Classic Search worked. I used this method to make the switch: Restore Classic Search in Windows XP Phil

I just discovered that the search function in Windows Explorer is broken. The little animated search dog appears, but the area above him is completely grey. I am wondering if one of the recent POSReady updates is responsible. Has anyone else encountered this problem recently? Phil

Woody Leonhard recently pointed out that there are two new suspicious updates: Source: MS-DEFCON 3: Get patches installed, except for a couple I downloaded both of them. Here are the file names (and other info): 1150451 bytes Mar 2 19:02 windows8.1-kb3103709-v2-x86_b99cdf57e8814c1a882ece313690c5431068847d.cab 11592414 bytes Mar 2 19:16 windows8.1-kb3115224-v2-x86_55b4b6444674bcddcb9922b0dea12b0e7dd15ef9.cab Obviously, those are for the 32-bit version of Windows 8.1 Notice that both updates have "v2" in their file names. I checked my collection of updates to see if I have earlier versions of these updates. I do not. Phil