Dave-H

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.

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.