Dave-H

I updated 7.36 to 7.41 on Windows 10 to see what would happen, and it worked, and is still working after a couple of days! I'm fully expecting it to be blocked again soon with the update nag though, at which point I will try the folder substitution trick.

I take it this is available in US English only? I can't find a British English version, or any other languages for that matter!

Actually, it looks as if KB4462157 hasn't replaced KB4461614. Although when I first installed KB4462157, KB4461614 seemed to vanish from my hidden updates list on MS Update as I expected, it then came back again and still said I'd hidden an important update. I noticed on the KB4462157 KB page that it says "Fix: After KB 4461614 is applied, Access 2010 and Excel 2010 stop working." I therefore tried reinstalling both of them, but the problem was still there, they give different error messages, and you get the KB4462157 one until you uninstall it, and it's then replaced by the original KB4461614 error message. Both updates do replace MSO.DLL it appears, but I guess they're just two different versions which are both incompatible with XP in different ways! Strange that having KB4462157 installed doesn't seem to override KB4461614 though.

KB4461614 now replaced by KB4462157. Same problem, but different error message! "winword.exe - Entry Point Not Found : The procedure entry point EnumCalendarInfoExEx could not be located in the dynamic link library KERNEL32.dll."

Same scenario, but it's now KB4461614 which is causing the problem. Uninstall that and hide it and it should come good. I'm still hoping they will release a substitute which does work soon as they did last time!

Thanks, I've actually now got back in again myself on 7.36. I had to do it by logging out and back in again, something I never normally do, and it then connected and now seems to be fine again. No joy with 7.41 on Windows 10 though, I still can't get past the upgrade screen. I suspect this would now also happen if you were running 7.38 on XP. I'm wondering if they're now forcing anyone on Skype 7 versions after 7.36 to upgrade to Skype 8 if they want to carry on using it, but are still allowing XP systems to log in with 7.36 (only). If that's the case I hope it stays like that, but I guess it's more likely just to be an oversight, and they will eventually block 7.36 as well. EDIT: Now I've found that 7.36 still works fine on Windows 10 too! It does pop up a warning about not being happy with the version, but it still carries on working and you can dismiss the warning. I went on the Skype forum and there are several huge threads with people ranting about now being forced to "upgrade" to what they consider to be a far inferior version! Someone there said that you can save a copy of the 7.41 folder, install 7.36 and then replace its folder with the 7.41 one, and it still works without the update nag, but I haven't actually tried that. As long as 7.36 carries on working I'm happy with that.

Skype 7.36 is now refusing to log me in on Windows XP. Skype 7.41 is now showing the update nag on Windows 10, and there seems to be no way around it. A reinstall and uninstall/reinstall makes no difference, I can't now get past the nag screen, and updating to version 8 seems to be the only option. I would do that on Windows 10, but I hate the idea of not having my full chat history at my fingertips in the application any more!

I reinstalled 7.38 a few weeks ago, and today the update nag came back. Back on 7.36 now.

AFAIK the only current problem update is KB4461614. Uncheck it and hide it when you see it in the Microsoft Update list.

You should be able to hide it in Windows/Microsoft Update so it doesn't install again. I assume you've got automatic updating switched on. I would recommend that you switch it off, and configure it just to prompt you when updates are available, not actually install them! IMO it's important to keep control now of exactly what is updated on your machine.

Thanks, that's very interesting and helpful. So it sounds like version1809 isn't actually ready for prime time yet! Perhaps I won't keep on trying to get it........

As the thread title really. I'm using version 1803 and when I check for updates I'm still not being offered the 1809 update from last October. I know that the roll-out was "paused" a couple of times, but as far as I can see all devices should now be being offered it. My system has always received previous updates through Windows Update with no problems. I realise I can update manually, but I don't want to do that unless I absolutely have to, just in case there is a compatibility problem of some sort, but how can I find out if that's the case?

Are these updates the same thing as the "preview" updates that you get offered on Windows 7 and 8.1 if you manually check for updates? They are marked "optional" of course!

I actually downloaded it while I was still in Windows 10, using Firefox 64, so that's why I got the right version! Interesting to know that I might well have got an earlier version if I'd done it with FF 52.9 ESR on XP. The installer presumably contains the 32 bit and 64 bit versions, as it correctly installed the 32 bit version on XP.

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.