Dave-H

Strange, my Firefox 50.1 hasn't offered to update itself to 51, I guess I'll have to force it. Good news that things still work in the beta of 52, let's hope that remains the same for the release version! Edit: Strange, I just checked "About Firefox" on my installation of 50.1, and it said it was up to date! 51 does officially support XP I assume?

Just to confirm that it does work fine in the current Firefox version 50.1.

Thanks den, but I think I found that article when I was searching before, it is from 2015. I think the fundamental problem is that things were changed with the Windows 10 Anniversary update, and the settings detailed there don't now actually change anything. The article has not been updated to reflect that. You can change the user lock screen image, which you see when you log off, but you can't change the default lock screen, which you see when you boot up, unless you have Windows 10 Enterprise. Those settings don't do anything now even in Windows 10 Pro, you're still stuck with that wretched cave image!

Just to add, I ran XP for several years with the Program Files and Documents and Settings folders moved to other locations and re-named, with no problems. I did have a dual boot system, which made it a lot easier. I just copied the folders to the new location using Windows 98, and then went back into XP and searched and replaced all the relevant registry entries, which I had Registry Workshop installed to do easily. Worked fine, with no problems. I moved them back to their default locations a few years later when I had re-configured my drive setup, and again no problems.

I have Office XP installed, which is Office 2002, so you have an even older version of Word than me! I think if you have any Office programs installed, even standalone ones, you will be offered the Compatibility Pack. Without it, it would be impossible to work with documents generated in later versions of Word.

Just for interest, there was as I thought the usual Malicious Software Removal Tool for Windows 7, 8.1 and 10, and a Flash update for 8.1 and 10 this month. There was also the now usual all-in-one cumulative security roll-up for Windows 7 and 10, but strangely there wasn't one for Windows 8.1! Incidentally, I'm assuming that the updates for the Office 2007 Compatibility Pack will probably end this year, if they haven't already. I think 10 years after release is the nominal maximum length of support?

I was afraid of that. I guess that's the end of being able to update Firefox to the latest version then, unless you're someone who doesn't need to play HTML5 video. Only in a couple of months too. Oh well, it was nice while it lasted.........

Does that mean that it will stop working for those of us who already have it installed if we install the update to Firefox 52? I see they are dropping support for some other plugins with that version too. Can we use Google's Widevine Content Decryption Module, which seems to now be the supported alternative? Does it work in Windows XP?

Well that must be a first! I guess probably nothing for us at all this month then, unless there are Office 2007 Compatibility Pack updates for those of us who have it. Also, I would have thought that later versions of Windows would still get the Malicious Software Removal Tool this month. I'd be very surprised if that was skipped. Flash will probably be updated on 8/8.1 and 10 as well.

As I understand it, you still have to have KernelEx 4.5.2 installed to be able to use the later versions, as they are updates to that. I think 4.5.2 gives the system the basic functionality of KernelEx, and the later updates supply later dlls for it to work with. I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong!

Indeed, but I actually had KB2973115 installed (I thought), and I still had the problem! Anyway, to make the netbook and main machine the same, I've now uninstalled KB977354 from the main machine and (re)installed KB2973115 on it, which has replaced KB2756918 in the Add/Remove list, as expected. Still no prompts for further updates. That has restored six of my files back to the versions they were before. I will do the same on the netbook. What do we think about KB977354? I'm not being prompted to install it again. It looks from its KB page to be a very complex update, relevant to a lot of things that are not directly .NET related as far as I can see.

Just out of interest, I compared what .NET 3.0 SP2 updates were being shown now on my netbook compared to my main machine. The main machine now shows (in listed order) - KB2756918 KB2861189 KB977354 KB960043 KB3188734 The netbook now shows (in listed order) - KB960043 KB2861189 KB3188734 KB2756918 So KB977354 is missing from the netbook, the others are the same, although the order is different. If KB2973115 contains later replacements for the files in KB2756918, do you reckon I should install it? As I said earlier, a fair few files on the main machine (I have no way of checking the netbook) are now earlier versions than they were before.

Thanks, that's good to know that the Baseline Security Analyser at least is still valid in this scenario. I'm using version 2.2 though, and have been for years.

It is strange that most of the .NET updates that you posted here to manually update post EOS XP SP3 systems were never actually offered by MS Update at all, even with the hack. The most recent one was the first for many months. Thinking again about the MS Baseline Security Analyser, and Belarc Advisor, am I right in assuming that both these systems will not recognise the hack, and will therefore treat the system as a native XP SP3 system? If so, they will not take into account any subsequent updates, even those served my MS/Windows Update, and will report the system as being up to date even if further updates are actually available, either through the hack from MS/Windows Update, or manually.

@heinoganda LOL, I thought you'd probably say that! I have now rebooted, and MS Update still says I don't need any updates. I've also scanned with Baseline Security Analyser and Belarc Advisor, and they both say that I'm up to date and not missing any updates. That being the case, I think I'll leave things as they are unless any more problems rear their heads, like updates coming back again. Interesting what @Yellow Horror said, as KB2973115 was one of the updates that was originally in my Add/Remove Programs list that I uninstalled. There's no evidence that it's been reinstalled, but KB2756918 is now in the list, even though from what Yellow Horror said it's older than KB2973115! Bizarre!

OK, here is my report! I uninstalled all the .NET 3.0 SP2 updates that were listed with KB numbers in Add/Remove Programs. The oldest one went back to 2010, there were some from 2012 and a couple from this year. I didn't note down the numbers because I assumed I could get them from the system logs. I then ran MS Update, and was prompted to install a standalone update, and then four others. The problem seemed to have gone away, but when I scanned again later, KB2756918 had come back again! I reinstalled it, and immediately scanned again a couple of times and all was OK. We'll see if it sticks! Analysing the logs produced some interesting results........ What was removed was (in chronological order of removal, most recent first in the Add/Remove Programs list) - KB3188734 removed KB960043 removed KB3072308 removed KB2973115 removed At that point, according to the log, KB2756918 automatically installed itself! KB2656407 removed KB2604110 removed KB977354 removed At that point, all the removals having apparently completed successfully (I wasn't aware of what KB2756918 had done in the background) I rebooted. Then, according to the log - KB958483 installed KB977354 installed KB2832411 installed KB2861198 installed KB3188734 installed KB960043 installed Only one of those, KB2832411, was in the list that I was prompted to install by MS Update! The ones I did install from MS Update, according to its updates log, were - KB951847 KB982524 KB2832411 KB2861189 KB3189598 All these apparently installed successfully, but only one of them, KB2861189, is listed in Add/Remove Programs! All the others are only cursorily mentioned even in the registry, which makes me think they're not really installed at all! My system files scanner shows that a number of files have now been replaced with earlier versions, some from several years earlier than their predecessors. I've just done another MS Update scan, and it still shows clean. I wonder if it still will after a reboot........... So, make of that what you will, it all seems a total mess to me, but as long as MS Update is happy that I don't need any updates, I'm happy!

I will certainly post my results once I've started on it! As @Mathwiz suggested, I will start by uninstalling all the .NET 3.0 SP2 updates that are listed in Add/Remove programs, and see what MS Update then offers.

Well I installed those eight .NET updates on my netbook, and against all my expectations, they all installed fine and I'm now being told that the system is up to date! So, it obviously is possible to avoid this endlessly repeating update problem, as this and @Mathwiz's experience proves. So, can I now fix my main machine without uninstalling and reinstalling all the .NET options? The first thing I will do is see exactly what versions and what updates to them are installed on the netbook, then I can compare the main machine. Watch this space!

Just wanted to report what's happened with my XP netbook concerning the .NET updates. It receives the monthly patch Tuesday updates the same as my main machine, the only difference is that I have never installed on that machine any of the standalone .NET updates that have been posted here, which I have done on my main machine which now has the looping KB2756918. The recent updates all installed fine on the netbook (eventually, it took several hours to scan for them!) including KB3189598. I then did another scan, which was quick this time, and I'm now being prompted to install eight .NET Framework updates! They are - KB2861188 (.NET 4) KB2861189 (.NET 3.0 SP2) KB2840628 (.NET 4) KB2789642 (.NET 4) KB2742595 (.NET 4) KB2756918 (.NET 3.0 SP2) KB2737019 (.NET 4) KB2729449 (.NET 4) So, shall I install them all and see what happens?! I'm very afraid that KB2756918 will then loop permanently again as it is doing on the main machine.

Well I'm still stuck with KB2756918 wanting to install over and over again! I'm wondering what would happen if I switched automatic updating on, would it just keep installing over and over and over again in the background ad infinitum?! I could just hide it of course, I'm pretty sure it isn't actually necessary and the .NET 3.0 files I have installed are newer that those in it, but that's just a workaround, not a real fix.

Thanks @heinoganda, I managed to fix the updating error by running the .NET repair tool (the first time I've ever known it to actually work!) I've now successfully installed KB3189598, but as I feared I'm now being prompted to install KB2756918 again, which I suspect will now keep prompting me to install it no matter how many times I apparently successfully do!

All OK here except KB3189598 which failed with error 0x645. As @heinoganda said this is actually a duplicate of KB3188734 and KB3189017, I uninstalled KB3189017 (I never installed KB3188734 as it caused another problem with it producing a nag to install another update (KB2756918) which never stopped being prompted for). After doing that apparently successfully, I tried to install KB3189598 again, and it failed again, with the same error. Anyone any ideas?

I've just tried running my Dropbox client (I don't use it very often) and it has auto updated from version 14.4.19 to version 15.4.22. Still seems to be working fine. Is dropbox.exe set to Windows 2000 compatibility mode?

Thank you! That fixed it. I hadn't realised that the option wouldn't be there by default. All working great now. Cheers, Dave.

Hi, I'm just trying to get this to work on Firefox 50 on XP, but I'm not having any luck. Sorry if I've missed something really obvious, but my main head scratching is over the "media.gmp-eme-adobe.forceSupported" option in the Firefox configuration settings. It doesn't seem to exist in my Firefox installation!