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x64 Edition Updates Until 2015?


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Here's my concern: I am aware that extended phase support for Windows XP x64 Edition goes down the drain with 32-bit Windows XP on April 8, 2014. But Windows Server 2003 is in extended phase support until July 2015. And Windows XP x64 Edition shares more in common with Windows Server 2003.

So for an extra year, will I be able to manually download Windows Server 2003 updates and use them to patch my system running Windows XP x64 Edition? I enjoy using 64-bit Windows XP and my system is pretty snappy with it. So the longer I can run the OS, the happier I am.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Cheers,

Jody Thornton

(Hamilton, Ontario)

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Darn! I was hoping for a more drag and drop solution. but you did answer my questions, and that was very helpful.

Now it means I have to decide on an alternate lightweight OS that can run select Win32 apps, and yet not be a pig like Windows Vista or Windows 7.

Cheers,

Jody

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A three line script can make it drag and drop once you have the patched file. It only needs to do the following:

  1. Extract the update package.
  2. Copy the patched update.exe into the extraction directory.
  3. Run the patched update.exe

:)

"%~1" /u /x:"%~dp0%~n1"
copy /y "%~dp0update.exe" "%~dp0%~n1\update\"
"%~dp0%~n1\update\update.exe"

Edited by 5eraph
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  • 1 year later...
  • 1 month later...

Since my thread was getting hijacked by this topic I'd just thought I'd move what responses I'd have from there to here ...

With the concerns raised that Microsoft may lock XP64 users out of Windows Update, wouldn't it be possible to use Windows Update Downloader to grab the Windows Server 2003 patches anyway? From there, modification of the patches should be pretty easy, right?

Granted, it'd be wise to make a backup/system restore before applying any patches, but.

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That's one possibility. But I don't have much experience with the Windows Update Downloader. I always check the Microsoft Security Response Center and use their link to the latest Security Bulletin Summary on Patch Tuesday, which is posted on or just after 10am US Pacific Time on the second Tuesday of the month. On that page (for example, 2014 March) I expand "Windows Operating System and Components" and look at the rows for "Windows XP Professional x64 Edition Service Pack 2" and "Windows Server 2003 x64 Edition Service Pack 2". Then I follow the specific bulletin links at the top of the columns to their download locations.

I check the lists for both operating systems because they're sometimes different. Only the XPx64 row will include updates for Media Player 11, because WMP11 is not supported on Win2003. And the Win2003x64 row sometimes includes updates that are relevant to XPx64 and still offered on the Windows Update website for XPx64 despite their absence from the XPx64 row in the Bulletin Summary. Microsoft's left hand often doesn't know what the right hand is doing...

Edited by 5eraph
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I dont understand why this is such a big deal. Windows 9x has been dead for nearly 8 years and its still useable. Sure M$ might of forgotten about you, but not the 3rd parties. XP is still 2nd most popular OS out there. And since windows XP x64 is the 2003 code which still has time I don't understand the panic.

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I dont understand why this is such a big deal. Windows 9x has been dead for nearly 8 years and its still useable. Sure M$ might of forgotten about you, but not the 3rd parties. XP is still 2nd most popular OS out there. And since windows XP x64 is the 2003 code which still has time I don't understand the panic.

The "big deal" is that Jody, and others, believe that using an OS that is no longer officially "supported" is not as secure and therefore puts them more at risk to viruses, hacker's attacks and other malware, and they want their computing environment to be as safe and secure as possible. That is a perfectly valid desire and they are correct in their belief. But I, and others, believe that the amount of additional risk they will be subjected to is so minimal as to not be a factor for the average user, provided that the OS and other software they run meet their needs with the hardware they use, the other software is kept up-to-date, and they protect themselves with a good router with a hardware firewall, use an up-to-date software firewall, anti-virus and anti-malware, and most importantly pay attention and be a smart computer user and don't do anything stupid, since the biggest weakness in computer security is always the user. As the users of Win9X and Win2K will attest, the daily use of "unsupported" OS will get more difficult as time goes on, but in general it is more likely to be because of harder to find drivers for newer hardware, changing web standards making older browsers not fully functional on newer web pages, or evolving media standards making it harder to play newer media smoothly, than because of security issues. I don't at all mean to say that security issues are not important, especially these days, but following the above advice should minimize the impact for the average XP user for quite awhile.

Cheers and Regards

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I don't think it's right to call it panic so much as concern, but that's not to say that Microsoft hasn't been really ramping up the scare tactics to try and get the remaining XP user base to convert.

I'd mentioned in my thread that XP users are being met with increasingly obnoxious amounts of scorn. A lot of people, tech journalists and common users alike, are convinced that the moment April 8 rolls around, every XP machine is going to be nothing more than botnet fodder or a steaming pile of malware. However true or untrue this might turn out to be, XP's current status in the global PC market does warrant some concern. It can't enjoy security through obscurity because it's still commanding a third of the market share right now (according to Avast! at least); malicious types are still going to see XP as a juicy target if they find an unpatched exploit or vulnerability.

Granted, I'm aware that XP64 enjoys some added insurance in the form of shared architectural security improvements with the other x64 OSes, and it has a few quirks of its own that has prevented malware from sinking its hooks into my machine, but I do like the idea keeping any leaks plugged regardless.

As a side note, I don't really consider an OS dead until it simply can not serve any useful function for a modern user. Reading these forums has been eye-opening when it comes to seeing what you guys can do with systems everyone's given up for useless.

Heck, after reading some of the topics here, an IT friend of mine thinks that "Firefox on Windows 98" should be the Tamarian idiom for teaching an old dog new tricks.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Cumputers don't get viruses on thier own. The people using them give them viruses. I would never blame the OS for getting a virus if I Caused that to happen. I think people have been brainwashed by microsoft into thinking that cumputers just magically go up in flames or somthing without security updates i honestly do not know. I have ran computers without patches and AV for years and never get viruses or get attacked. Why becasue I know what I am doing.

Honestly there are tons of people out there that just don't get virus it has nothing to do with security updates or antivirus. It has everything to do with bad user habbits or lack of technical knowledge in knowing what is going on with things and how viruses or malware find their ways onto PCs. And in every scenario it requres the user to initiate it.

Simply best advice is dont use Internet exploder. use firefox and keep it updated, install add block plus and no script. Disable Java plugin unless you for somreason need to run java. Turn off file sharing. Disable all of those useless services. Don't install things that you don't know what they are or whats in them. Passowrd the account. If you can get a good harware based fire wall block all ports except ports like 80 or instant mesaging etc, then that means the only way u can get anything is through those ports. Use a router between u and the internet at the very least. All of these things will keep you from getting any viruses or malware even without patches.

Do not ever think just becasue you are running a supported OS that you are safer than me. I can run with no updates no AV and not get virus all while other people who run windows 7, or 8 have massive spyware infections or viruses. From installing things even when they are promted and warned by the OS simply cuz they don't know what they are doing.

Edited by oldskool
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