Dave-H

All this month's updates seem to have installed fine here. Does anyone know whether the new KB3142029 update for .NET 4 replaces any previous updates, as some in the past have done? If it does I can ditch the installers from the outdated updates.

Thanks @sdfox7, but thanks to help from @dencorso, updating the Roots Certificates and spoofing the User Agent, I can now load the basic Google search page in IE6SP1 on Windows 98SE. What I can't load is Google Advanced Search, as it uses https, or indeed any other https pages. This seems to be unfixable.

Well things seem to have changed again for the last few days. On both my XP computers, any attempt to use the help links in the Event Log entries now results in the Windows Help and Support Center window just coming up and "not responding" permanently and eventually having to be forcibly shut down. On Windows 8.1 the links all still all just going to the Microsoft homepage.

Well I think I might have now got it to install. I tried in Safe Mode and it wouldn't run at all, so I then tried again in normal mode with everything closed except Explorer. Nothing looked any different when I ran it, but checking HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Active Setup\Installed Components\{EF289A85-8E57-408d-BE47-73B55609861A} now, it is showing version 46,0,2195,0 installed, which I think is the latest. Still no joy with IE6 though, it still shows "cannot load page" on Google. Anything else I can try?

Let's hope so, fingers crossed!

So Windows Update is working normally it seems! If you do a manual check presumably it shows no updates available? Updates usually only come once a month, on the so-called "Patch Tuesday" which is the second Tuesday of the month, so I wouldn't expect to see any more now until May 10th unless there is an emergency patch release for any reason.

If you look under Help>About Internet Explorer on IE, what version does it actually say you've got? IE8 is the highest version for XP. If it is indeed IE7 or IE8 you have installed, it may be that the Windows Update components are missing or corrupted.

Thanks guys and sorry for the delay in replying. I tried downloading and installing Blackwingcat's latest certificate update file, but it doesn't seem to install. When I run it I just get a progress window that flashes up for an instant and then vanishes, and checking the entry at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Active Setup\Installed Components\{EF289A85-8E57-408d-BE47-73B55609861A} it still doesn't seem to be the right version. Any ideas why it wouldn't be installing as it's supposed to work with 98SE?

If you want to know what updates were downloaded and installed, you should find them listed in your Windows System Log. To scan for updates, go to Windows Update using the link in the Tools dropdown on Internet Explorer. Select custom rather than automatic.

Got them, thanks for the heads up!

I'm sure I know what the answer to this will be, but I thought I'd ask anyway! I am just updating an emergency installation of 98SE that I keep on a USB stick. I have it so I can boot my computer into it in case of a dire fault that prevents me accessing any of the normal operating system drives. It works fine apart from a problem with the sound, which is for another thread, and I finally yesterday got around to getting the internet access up and running on it. Ideally I just want to use Internet Explorer to keep it as simple as possible, and I've updated it from IE5 to IE6SP1 with all the latest versions of the files. Of course I've now found that there are a lot of sites it just won't load, including all the Google sites, which makes it pretty useless! Basically it seems that any https site now won't work at all, you can't even access it. This is presumably because of outdated certificates and security protocols, and I accept that there may be no solution to it now, but the strange thing is that one of my own sites, which doesn't use https or any secure protocols to my knowledge, will open in my normal install of IE6 on 98SE, but won't open in the version on the memory stick. I can only assume that the protocols and/or certificates on my normal installation are more up to date than on the new install, so has anyone got any idea how I can at least make the new installation as up to date as possible in this respect, either by importing/installing an update, or just transferring the necessary files from the other installation?

Well when it showed no sign of being a temporary problem, I finally tried asking about this on the MS support forums, with the inevitable result. The usual "fixes" were suggested involving scanning for system file errors and using a new profile, and when I reported that (surprise, surprise) this made no difference, there was no further response from the MS "technician", as usual. What a joke, but I suppose i shouldn't have expected any different! I don't really care if the Event Log help links in Windows XP or 8.1 have finally been depreciated, but they should at least have the decency to say so!

Glad to hear that you got it sorted!

The version on your support CD is probably very far from being the latest one. I would go to AMD's site, download the latest package for your graphics hardware, uninstall the Catalyst Control Center and the graphics driver, and reinstall them using the latest package.

Did you uninstall and reinstall the Catalyst Control Center?

Thanks as always jaclaz! Yes, I found the links in the chocolateyInstall.ps1 file in the \chromium.49.0.2598.0\tools folder after I unpacked the .nupkg file with WinRar. As you say, what a performance just to get a couple of links!

Thanks @sdfox7, but my message wasn't worded very well. It was only the policy templates file I was after, not Chromium as a whole! Incidentally your link to 49.0.2598.0 seems to just prompt the download of a 3.3 kb .nupkg file. Just out of interest, what exactly do you do with that?

I've always used large fonts on Windows 98, 2000, and XP. Even at 1024x768 on my old CRT monitor I did, as I just found the text too small otherwise, and on my present 1920x1080 monitor it's really essential! The text size on Windows 8.1 seems to be fine on its standard settings, so I guess MS finally got it right! I did find in the past that some programs did not display their dialogues properly with large fonts selected, but that's pretty rare nowadays.

Thanks 5eraph, that worked perfectly!

Wise words as always Den! I've not been tempted to apply SP4 as I too think that with the POSReady updates a SP3 XP installation is as complete and secure as it can be now. I would certainly use SP4 if I had to make a new XP install now, but not otherwise.

Oh dear, so I missed the boat! I suppose there isn't an archived copy anywhere of the last Chromium 49 version?

@5eraph I tried your instructions here just out of interest, and the necessary option isn't listed in the Group Policy template for me. There are loads of options, but not "Suppress the unsupported OS warning". It isn't there at all. Any idea why? I'm using Google Chrome 49.0.2623.112.

Officially they released 12.18 to update security protocols which were out of date and starting to compromise the browser's stability, as well as presumably its security. I and many others were getting frequent random sudden shutdowns on Opera 12.17 which was of course a real problem! Since upgrading to 12.18 I haven't had a single one. It's very slow indeed now with javascript heavy sites like Facebook and YouTube, and one of the worst things now is that the submission of forms sometimes doesn't work after you've filled them in, meaning you've got to start again from scratch in a different browser, which is really annoying! It's still a great browser, arguably the best ever produced, and I wish Opera's new Chinese owners would tell them to revive it!

Thanks for that, I will certainly have a look at those options now that my preferred one has gone! It's mainly annoying because Vivaldi were specifically trying to create a browser that would substitute for Opera 12 for power users, who use things like the unequalled user configurability of Opera 12, which will probably actually never be equalled. I've been using Opera for many years, and it was very sad indeed when Opera decided to go down the Chromium route and re-build the browser as a shadow of its former self, even though I understand their reasons for doing it. There is of course no guarantee that the latest versions of any browser will always work on XP.

@vwestlife Yes, I just saw that, sad but I suppose inevitable. I was really hoping that Vivaldi would eventually be a long-term replacement for Opera 12 for me. I guess if you want a supported in-development browser for XP now it's Firefox or nothing, but I'm sure that Mozilla will drop XP and Vista support as soon as it becomes in any way awkward to continue with it.