Dave-H

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!

Glad you found it! It was an update for security protocols, and the main thing it cured for me was that Opera 12.17 kept on suddenly shutting down all the time for no apparent reason, which was very annoying as you can imagine, and that was something to do with security issues, which were fixed in 12.18. I'm not holding my breath for any other updates to Opera 12 though sadly!

That link works for me too in IE8, and in Opera (both version 12.18 and version 36).

Whenever I've tried that, the "http" has been automatically changed back to "https" and it's failed again.

Yes, I found both of those as well, but changing them for another image in the same place with the same name made no difference, the cave picture still obstinately stuck there on the default login screen! I'm becoming convinced that it must be hard-coded somewhere.

Thanks Noel, yes I looked into WinAero, and discovered the same, it used to be possible to change to a custom image using it, but since the Anniversary Update, no longer, all you can have now is the cave image or a plain colour field (which is actually the selected "accent colour" IIRC), not a different image. I'd still like to know where that cave image comes from, as if its source can be identified, the potential must be there to change it, even if it's hard coded into a dll or some such. As I said, there seem to be quite a few conspiracy theories about why Microsoft has removed this facility in Windows 10 Pro!

I've recently "upgraded" to Windows 10, and the first thing I wanted to do was to get rid of that picture of some rocks in the sea through a cave mouth on start up and replace it with a custom image. Unfortunately all my researches seem to indicate that since the Anniversary Update, this is now impossible, at least if you have auto-login enabled, which I have. I can change the user lock screen, and make the user logon screen the same just by using the UI settings, but it seems to be impossible to change the default logon screen (the one you see when you first start the system) unless you have to put in a user password. If the password is bypassed, the default login screen (the rocks through the cave mouth) seems to be fixed and cannot be altered! Has anyone found a way around this? I gather that the gpedit functions which used to control this, so that people could use their own branding on the lock screen for instance, have now been depreciated in the Anniversary Update unless you have the Enterprise version of Windows 10. They've now been removed form the Pro version, which is really annoying! There are dark mutterings that this was removed because it would have enabled people to prevent Microsoft from forcing advertising onto people's logon screens. Does anyone have an answer to this? Presumably that cave picture must come from somewhere (it's not the one in C:\Windows\Web\Screen, I've already tried that!) so presumably it can be changed, even if it's awkward and difficult to do. I can't imagine that I would want to change it all that often! Any advice appreciated. BTW, I know I can change the image for a plain colour field using a registry hack, but I'd really like to actually have a different image!

Thanks Noel. I'm not a big user of the Windows apps, but there are some that I find useful. The Anniversary Update (1607) is the version I have, I never experienced any earlier ones so I've nothing to judge it against, but it does seem to be fine. Cheers, Dave.

Just thought I'd come back here one last time to say that I'm afraid I finally decided to do the "upgrade" to Windows 10! I thought I'd probably bite the bullet and do it sometime anyway, as several of the apps that I was using on Windows 8.1 (including some paid for ones) seem to have now been abandoned in favour of Windows 10 UWP apps, which don't work on 8.1 of course. They are not updating the 8.1 versions any more as far as I can see. I guess they couldn't wait to abandon 8.1, which is a shame, as it will probably be now added to the list of short-lived "Cinderella" Windows versions along with ME, Vista, and to some extent even Windows 2000 (which along with ME was only around for about a year IIRC before they were both replaced by XP). I looked into it, and to upgrade to Windows 10 Pro from 8.1 Pro was going to cost me over £100 if I had to pay for it, so I thought I'd grab it while it was still free if you know where to go. See you on the Windows 10 forum I'm sure (probably many times!)