Dave-H

It's only an update for the Japanese calendar it appears. I doubt many people thought there would ever be another Silverlight update, I only knew about it because it was offered as an update on Windows 10!

I just got it from here - https://www.microsoft.com/silverlight/ I assume it's the same file!

FWIW there has been a rather unexpected update to Silverlight! It's now 5.1.50918.0. It's just an update for the Japanese calendar change. I was offered it on Windows 10, and downloaded the installer and manually installed it on XP, so I don't know whether MS Update is offering it on POSReady hacked XP or not.

Ah, that's probably the problem! My AvastClear version is 18.8.4084.0, if you have version 19 it probably won't run on XP any more than Avast version 19 will. AvastClear 18 is still available here if you're quick!

Well that is strange! Have you tried downloading it again, perhaps your copy is corrupted somehow? Its size should be 9.63 MB (10,105,016 bytes) and its digital signature should be dated 15 November 2018.

FWIW I used AvastClear many times during my attempts to get Avast to work, and it always seemed to complete the uninstall OK, although it did sometimes take a long time to finish after saying it had deleted the last file. It always eventually completed. The one thing it often left behind was the "setup" folder in the Avast program folder, which couldn't be deleted normally in Windows either. I just got a message saying the folder couldn't be deleted as it wasn't empty, although it didn't appear to have any files in it or its subfolders. The only way I found to delete it was in DOS! IIRC AvastClear does log its actions to a file in the Windows temporary folder, so if it fails again it might be worth looking there to see if there is a log which might give some clue as to what is or isn't happening there.

I've decided to give up with Avast. They've just released a new version of the offline installer for 18.8, which is supposed to have fixed the problems seen on some XP systems. Of course when I tried it there was no difference at all, the main service still will not run. The guy at support says that's it, there will be no more versions of 18, so that's the end of it as far as I'm concerned. Such a shame as I would dearly liked to have found out what the problem was! The latest version of AVG does work, in that at least its main service will run, but still has problems with other services not running as they should. I'm using Malwarebytes Premium at the moment, which has an issue with one of its services, which won't start as a boot service, but generally works fine. The general feeling with the Avast and Malwarebytes support people is that at least in my case the problems may well be simply because my machine is so non-standard. In fact the Malwarebytes guy said that he wasn't even sure that Malwarebytes had ever been tested on a dual processor machine with a server motherboard! The fact that my machine is multi-boot with non-standard paths in the OS installation may be a factor too. Anyway, I'll stick with Malwarebytes for now, it is working and apparently doing its job!

My WEPOS and WES keys both have the "Installed" DWORD set to 0. Only the POSReady key has Installed set to 1. Does it matter if I don't remove them in that case?

Stupid, repeating exactly the same error they made in November and then fixed with a subsequent update! Let's hope they do the same again this time.

Yes, sorry you're right of course! I did go through a phase of installing the even-numbered versions, which is why I had Update 152 saved as the last fully working installation. I'm using 191 now. I should download a version of 151 to keep as the last working installer, thanks for reminding me! Cheers, Dave.

That's right, the current installer doesn't work on XP, but if the updated files are installed manually over an existing installation of Java 8 Update 152, the last which does install properly, it still works fine.

I certainly hope not! I've not seen any evidence of that. Anyway, the Malwarebytes community seem to be all very helpful, and I hope the issue I've got with that (the anti-exploit service won't switch on) will be speedily resolved. If it is, I will probably stick with that.

Well, I've now got a problem with Malwarebytes! After working fine apparently for a day, now one of the services is failing to run, and reinstalling doesn't fix it, in fact it doesn't even seem to be being installed any more! I'm beginning to think that my system just doesn't like security software!

Thanks, I'll check that out. At the moment, Malwarebytes is looking very promising. I've installed the trial version, and it seems to work fine, after a few hiccoughs, and doesn't impact on the start up and closedown time of the machine as far as I can see. Unfortunately, the free version does not have realtime scanning, so I will have to pay for it, but that's not a problem. I'll see how it goes until the trial period expires and decide then.

Unfortunately "it works" is only relative here! Yes, the services run, and it appears to be OK, but it's still crawlingly slow to start up, I'm getting a Windows log error on every boot - "Timeout (30000 milliseconds) waiting for a transaction response from the AVG Antivirus service." This is causing the system to start really slowly. Also there are two boot services not running "avgbidsh" and "avgbuniv". This is exactly the same behaviour as from their Avast equivalents. They run fine on the first install, but won't run on subsequent boots. I found that they will run if their start type is changed from 0 (boot) to 1 (system)! Also the system shutdown is extremely slow, as the main service is not releasing the registry. Using the User Profile Hive Cleanup service (UPHClean) makes no difference as of course when it tries to close the handles "access is denied"! So, I don't know what to do now. A fully working security suite that works on XP and doesn't cripple my system seems to be as elusive as ever! The problem is that nobody seems to be able to reproduce the problems I'm having, which is a complete mystery. Thanks for your offer of trying to help me further @FranceBB, I may well take you up on that! I have one last thing to try first though, and that's Malwarebytes, which still has a legacy version for XP. I'll let you know if that works!

Update! I have now discovered, quite by chance as I thought I would just give it a try as I hadn't before, that the latest version of AVG works fine on my system! I didn't think it would, as it's virtually identical to Avast (they are the same company). However, AVG 18.8.4084.0 works, and Avast 18.8.4084.0 doesn't! The AVG version is still a bit slow starting up and shutting down, but at least the main service runs, which it won't on the Avast version. The obvious difference I can see between the two is that the UI is different. I'm therefore coming to the conclusion that it's the new Avast UI which is causing the problems on my machine. This is also borne out by the fact that Avast 12 runs reasonably well on my system, but versions 17-18 don't, and in fact versions after 18.3 don't run at all. The fact that the UI changed completely between version 12 and version 17 is no coincidence I'm sure! Any thoughts @FranceBB?

AFAIK MSE will lose automatic updates when POSReady support ends in a few months time, and you'll then have to update it manually with heinoganda's updater, or set up a system to run the updater automatically on a schedule.

I was using 7.38 as well, but as 7.36 appears to be working I've left it at that. I do suspect that running the 7.38 installer again would also have fixed things, but it would be good to have that confirmed! I'm not sure whether the nag was due to the version being used and the fact that it's not the most recent version (which is Skype 8 of course), or whether it just hadn't been updated for a while. This would seem to be bourne out by the fact that the system seemed to be happy with a version which was older than the one previously installed!

That's exactly what happened to me! When the update fails, there should be a link on the failure notice to update it manually. This will take you to the download page on the Skype site. If you do the download and save the file, it should be "SkypeSetupFullXp.exe" and is version 7.36.0.150. Run it and let it update, and Skype should work again, at least it did for me! I would save the file somewhere in case you need it again, but as has been said, I'm afraid that all Skype 7 versions will stop working soon.

This may well become a moot point soon, as MS are saying that all Skype version 7 versions will no longer be supported soon, which probably means that none of them will connect! This will be an end to Skype Desktop on XP, as Skype 8 will not work at all on XP. I don't like Skype 8 anyway (I installed it briefly on Windows 10 to try it) as it doesn't keep all of your conversation history as previous version did, it's more like the Android, iOS and Windows 10 apps.

OK, I did do it (on Christmas Day, how sad is that! ) Step 1) Use "avastclear.exe" to get rid of every file, folder, setting and registry change made by Avast. I've run that many times before, did it in Safe Mode, hopefully all now clear. Step 2) Reboot. Check! Step 3) Go to Start, Control Panel, Administrative Tools, Services and make sure that "Background Intelligent Transfer Service" and "Terminal Services" are set to "Automatic" and have started. If they are disabled, make sure to enable and start them. Background Intelligent Transfer Service was on manual and not running. I set it to Automatic and ran it, after that it did then seem to be running all the time even after reboots. However, I've now noticed that it has set itself back to "manual" again, although it is running at the moment. Isn't it a service that's normally on manual, and just runs when it's needed? Terminal Services was on Automatic and was and is running. Step 4) Make sure you have the latest .NET Framework and C++ Redistributables installed. If you don't, install them and reboot. I didn't have C++ Redistributable 2017 installed (14.16.27012.6). I installed it, and it replaced C++ Redistributable 2015 (14.0.24123.0), which I assume is correct. The 2005, 2008, 2012 and 2014 redistributables are also installed. I have all the .NET versions installed up to version 4.0 (which is the last for XP of course) all with their latest POSReady hack updates. Step 5) Apply the registry patch and reboot. Done! Step 6) Install Avast 18.8.2356 free using the installer provided making sure that you are running it as Administrator. Done, with the same result as before, AV Service not running (and won't run) and just an error message from the UI. There is no "run as administrator" option on XP of course, but I am the sole user and Administrator on the machine. I got an error message about Avast Secure Browser having had an unspecified install error, but I think that may be because it isn't XP compatible. Strange, because I would have thought that the installer would have known I was running XP and wouldn't have offered it! Step 7) Protection services may not start and you might have issues with the UI, but that's "normal" on some systems. Just give it some time and then reboot once again. Rebooted umpteen times, same result as expected I'm afraid! The machine is now taking a long time to start up, hanging on "Loading your personal settings" and taking much longer than normal for the desktop to load. Step 8) After you rebooted, open "avastsupport.exe" and run it. It's gonna automatically check the integrity of the installation and it should report everything with the word "SUCCESS" in green. If it doesn't, click "next". In the next screen, provide the email address of your account and write down all the steps you took before the error happened. This way, a new ticket is gonna be created, but this time it will report everything about your system (but with a bit of luck we won't get there). OK, did that. I have in fact already used this tool with Avast Support, but they didn't say that the result it sent to them told them anything useful. It did say there was a problem with the installation of course. Shall I send you the files it generated to see if you can see anything in them? Cheers, Dave. Oh, and Happy Christmas!

@FranceBB I just had my subscription to Avast Internet Security refunded as I couldn't get later versions to work on my machine, and was stuck with version 12. When the licence was revoked it reverted to the Free Antivirus version, and then immediately updated to the latest version 18.8 which doesn't work! Anyway, I do now have a log from the AV Service of 18.8, if it's of any use. You asked about it a while ago. [2018-12-23 19:29:29.203] [info ] [settings ] [ 656: 660] paths.ini_store configuration is empty, settings ini store folder to asw::instup::GetDataDirectory. [2018-12-23 19:30:17.546] [info ] [svcmain ] [ 656: 660] Installing CrashGuard global exception handler... [2018-12-23 19:30:17.546] [info ] [crashguard ] [ 656: 660] CrashGuard global exception handler installed [2018-12-23 19:30:17.546] [info ] [crashguard ] [ 656: 660] CrashGuard initialized successfully, external dumping enabled [2018-12-23 19:30:17.546] [info ] [crashguard ] [ 656: 660] Crash handler installed successfully process-wide from module 4194304 [2018-12-23 19:30:17.546] [info ] [svcmain ] [ 656: 660] Service starting up. [2018-12-23 19:30:17.640] [info ] [base_init ] [ 656: 660] Entering basInitLibrary... [2018-12-23 19:30:17.640] [info ] [base_init ] [ 656: 660] Calling cmnbInit... [2018-12-23 19:30:17.640] [info ] [base_init ] [ 656: 660] Calling CrashHandlerInstall... [2018-12-23 19:30:17.640] [info ] [crashguard ] [ 656: 660] Crash handler is already resident in this process. Enabling only manual dumping from this binary. [2018-12-23 19:30:17.640] [info ] [crashguard ] [ 656: 660] CrashGuard initialized successfully, external dumping enabled [2018-12-23 19:30:17.640] [info ] [base_init ] [ 656: 660] Validating paths... [2018-12-23 19:30:17.640] [info ] [base_init ] [ 656: 660] Initializing languages - getting ini... [2018-12-23 19:30:17.640] [info ] [base_init ] [ 656: 660] Initializing languages - GetLocaleInfo... [2018-12-23 19:30:17.640] [info ] [base_init ] [ 656: 660] Initializing languages - basCreateLanguagePath... [2018-12-23 19:30:17.640] [info ] [base_init ] [ 656: 660] Initializing languages - basInitThreadLocale... [2018-12-23 19:30:17.640] [info ] [base_init ] [ 656: 660] Initializing language paths... [2018-12-23 19:30:17.640] [info ] [base_init ] [ 656: 660] Loading Base.dll... [2018-12-23 19:30:17.656] [info ] [base_init ] [ 656: 660] Calling GetComputerName... [2018-12-23 19:30:17.656] [info ] [base_init ] [ 656: 660] Calling InitTCPIP... [2018-12-23 19:30:17.656] [info ] [base_init ] [ 656: 660] Leaving basInitLibrary... [2018-12-23 19:30:32.656] [error ] [serviceapp ] [ 656: 660] failed to connect to service controller [2018-12-23 19:30:32.656] [info ] [svcmain ] [ 656: 660] Service shut down completely. [2018-12-23 19:30:32.656] [info ] [settings ] [ 656: 5224] WatchThread gracefully terminated. That's it, and it just repeats on every boot and if I try to start the service manually. The key line is obviously "failed to connect to service controller". What the "service controller" actually is I have no idea, and I couldn't find anything that really explains it anywhere. I think I will revert now to version 12 of the Free Antivirus. 18.9 is now supposed to be coming in January, which is my last hope unless the problem can be diagnosed. You said you had some test software I could try? Well now's the time if you have it! Cheers, Dave.

Fine here. The only anomaly I found with this IE update, off topic I know, is that Windows 8.1 did not have to be restarted after installing it, which is very unusual for an IE update! Both my Windows XP installations and my Windows 10 installation did have to be restarted, as I would expect.

7.36.0.150 is still working this morning. It turns out I already had the installer saved, as the "last official XP version", although 7.38.0.101 seems to be the last one which actually works on XP.

I just tried running Skype 7.38.0.101 and just got a message saying I wouldn't be allowed to log in any more unless I updated. Uh oh, I thought, this looks like the beginning of the end for Skype on Windows XP. I pressed the update button, and it appeared to download something quite large, which then said it had failed. I tried again with the same result. I then clicked on the "download manually" button and was taken to the Skype download page, which of course said I had to have at least Windows 7. I pressed the download button anyway just to see what happened, and it downloaded a file called SkypeSetupFullXp.exe. "Interesting" I thought, and ran it. It "updated" Skype, which then to my great surprise worked again. It turns out it's version 7.36.0.150, older than the one I had before! I'm now wondering if I should update it to 7.38.0.101 again (I have the offline installation file) or just leave it and see if it carries on working!