Dave-H

Fair comment, and can I remind everyone that any discussion of illegal activities is expressly forbidden here. Take it to PM if necessary, but conversations about dubious product keys are definitely not allowed on the open forum.

My version of crypt32.dll is 5.131.2600.6459, same as yours, dated 7/10/13.

I did read it, but I didn't try it because I wanted to eliminate the other possibility that we were testing one way or the other first. I will try it now. EDIT: OK I ran wuauclt /resetauthorization /detectnow in a command prompt. Is that all I need to do? Everything else was already as stated.

Sorry to report that about 20 minutes ago, the error message came up again, long after the machine was up and running, with HTTPSProxy active. So, it's nothing to do with the check happening before HTTPSProxy is started. Either the automatic checking system isn't using HTTPSProxy for some reason, or the mechanism is failing due to some other cause. It is strange that checks using the website are fine, and updates are being automatically offered again if they're needed as soon as they're removed, but the routine regular check for updates done by the system is failing. It's not a big issue of course, as there is almost zero chance of an automatic check ever finding anything now, but I'm a bit of a completist, and I'd like to see everything working again!

Thanks all. Just to report no sign of the error message again so far. If it doesn't appear tomorrow or the next day I think we can assume that delaying the automatic update services until after HTTPSProxy is up and running has fixed the issue.

OK, here it is! WindowsUpdate.log

Both files are fine, no complaints from Malwarebytes at all!

Wow, thanks, I was going to ask about the command prompt window sitting there for a minute on every boot! I will see how things go with the error messages and let you know. I'll need to wait a couple of days as they only seemed to appear on alternate days anyway.

Thanks both, I'll give that a try and let you know! I'm still not certain that the services starting before HTTPSProxy has started is the cause of the error messages, but this should prove it one way or the other. Just one query, why would i need a second batch file to stop the services if I'm shutting down anyway?

The Dropbox site works fine in XP on 360Chrome 13.5 FWIW.

I just noticed I forgot to answer this, sorry! I appears that the start time of the AU and BITS services are not logged in the Windows Event Viewer, so I can't tell how long after that the error message appears.

Yes, that 'Services' tab is very inviting, but of course is purely informational! For your systray icons, I can well recommend @ntfoxy's SysTrayUtil. I used to use Tray Factory, which isn't free, but this is simpler and better I think! Make sure you have the latest version of the dll (read through the thread) and you will need to probably manually add and tweak its registry entry. Now I've got it the way I want it, it works flawlessly!

@AstroSkipper I had a look at the current version of Glarysoft's Quick Startup. It doesn't seem to be able to delay system services, the 'delay' option appears to be greyed out on all of them. If you have an earlier version which might work better, I'd love to try it.

Thanks @AstroSkipperand @NotHereToPlayGames. I already use Startup Delayer version 3.0 to delay some other things which cause the boot to be very slow if they're not delayed, but it doesn't seem to be able to delay the start of services, only startup programs. Please tell me if I'm missing something! I will have a look at the other option and see if delaying the Automatic Updates and BITS services with that makes the errors go away. If it works I may well use that program instead of Startup Delayer for the other functions too. Cheers, Dave.

I'm sure @jumperwill confirm one way or the other, but I don't think there ever will be a 'full release'. As I said earlier, this is all built on the original KernelEx, of which the last version was 4.5.2. I'm sure if you search you will find the installation file. Only once you have that installed can you proceed with any of the later updates AFAIK.

Yes I did mention a while ago that it would be really great if it were possible to have ProxHTTPSProxyMII with HTTPSProxy's user interface, I'm so pleased to see that it looks as if it is possible! I suspect that as far as XP is concerned there will be no further advances on the available proxy servers, which now seem to be pretty vital to keep full online access working on XP, once this has been done, that will be it for the foreseeable future. You may well find that your work will be used by many people who will just take it for granted and not thank you for it or give you any feedback about it, but you'll get plenty from me I promise!

Thanks. BITS was already on Manual. I've now put the Automatic Updates service to Manual too, although as you say, it starts anyway. A pity that XP does not have the 'delayed start' option of later Windows versions.

Sounds great, looking forward to trying it out!

AFAIK you still can't install later versions of KernelEx as they are. You have to first install the last version of the original KernelEx, 4.5.2, and then update it with the later files. Is that still correct @jumper?

Yes, it was working when I removed an update to test it, and I assume it still is. Maybe it's only the routine automatic checks which are failing. The message does say that it will try again, but there seems to be no way of knowing whether it did actually do that. If it did, presumably it then succeeded as there is only ever one message each session.

OK, fair enough!

No joy I'm afraid, the error messages are still there.

I can't see much point in going to all the trouble to translate a browser based on Chromium 80, when 360Chrome 13.5 is based on Chromium 86.

OK I've done that, I'll let you know what happens!

I would say 'leftover' myself, but 'remnant' is just as good! The error is still coming up unfortunately. I did wonder if it was because it checks on boot, and needs HTTPSProxy to work, and HTTPSProxy is just not up and running quickly enough to prevent the check failing, but today the error appeared long after the machine was booted up, so that can't be the case. Maybe the automatic checking system just can't use HTTPSProxy.