(Project) Legacy Windows Updates reopened

[WinFX]

Well in case you do not know Windows Update v3/v4 was removed in August 2011. I started working on a project that consists of opening Windows Update v3 and v4 but locally to install that small amount of updates.

What I did was install on my LGA775 Windows 2000 Advanced Server, then install the services of IIS 5.0, DNS and WINS (required for Windows 9x); There are articles and videos on youtube to know about Windows server. Create a domain www.update.microsoft.com and v4.windowsupdate.microsoft.com and then edit the hosts file to access the site from your network and not from the MS servers. Then use the ruby script called "wayback_machine_downloader" to download sites from the Web Archive since content is stored in this site.

I started testing the WUP3 site from Windows 95 OSR2.5, and here I show you a screenshot and a list of some errors that I witnessed:

This capture is really from my Windows 95 VM, it is not an image of a site from 2011 or earlier.

Here the defects:
1. My Windows 95 is in Spanish but the Windows Update is in English, even though you have the folder / Static_w95 / V31site / x86 / w95 / en
2. Neither seek me updates when I click on Product Updates I get an error
3. This is not whit Windows 95, if not with the NT 4.0 is not redirected to me.

[WinFX]

Sorry for my bad english i talk spanish

[greenhillmaniac]

So, this solution would be limited to what is archived in archive.org. That is kind of a limitation for everyone except EN-US systems. I recently tried and compile Windows 95 updates in PT-PT, and most (if not all) of the links I found were dead or not archived.

[WinFX]

I only downloaded a snapshot of the year 2005 that had about 750 files, but now I'm downloading from 3 AM one that has about 85000 that is downloading everything until 2003 since from 2004/2005 it takes more unnecessary time because WUP5 / 6 is stored and WUP4 is stored in another server-domain.

You are right greenhillmaniac was the lack of files, so for the tests to take a long time because very slow and more than 9 hours downloading and barely 30012 of the 84853 files when writing this.

 

[CamTron]

Muy interesante!

It seems complicated to set up, though. Is there a way to get direct links to the update .exe files from archive.org? I tried downloading some earlier this year, but the archived Microsoft website isn't very functional (missing some backend content), so I wasn't able to download them from the wayback machine.

[cc333]

This is fun!

Regarding the missing backend stuff, can't one infer what it does by examining the frontend client stuff, and then re implement it somehow?

How do the inner workings of v6 differ from v3/v4? Aside from cosmetics, I haven't noticed a huge difference in functionality, so maybe the v6 backend can be hacked for use with the v3/v4 UI?

c

[broken120x120]

This is a very interesting idea and it would be really nice to see this working. This is also a huge undertaking, so I wonder if it would possible to make this a collective effort. Surely this would benefit countless enthusiasts, would it not?

[WinFX]

Here I have the compilation of files at the moment that I was able to rescue from Windows Update v4, I think I don't even have half but at least it's a breakthrough.

ALPHA VERSION 1.0 https://drive.google.com/open?id=1X-CCTARVFjV9BBnMziqsq-PN45vsl4YK

 

Remember to extract it with 7zip, the file is supercompressed to -2MB, if you have no errors

Edited November 3, 2019 by WinFX

[0dium]

I am not an expert but as far as I know it's almost impossible to determine what happens in backend by looking on frontend. By doing some googling we can find an information that activeX object runs from your PC in Internet explorer when go to windows update website. Question is how does it determine what updates are already installed and how exactly does this information gets sent to windows update server. 

[WinFX]

Excellent great news, I have discovered two sites to download updates for all Windows that require these versions of Windows Update, in English and Spanish at least.

I don't know if it would be legal to share external links in this forum since this is a collaborative project for people who for some reason continue to use these versions of Windows.

There is a project called WULOS which has all the updates from Windows 95 to Vista.

You could create a Windows Update with languages such as VBscript and JScript compatible with IE5 especially, in order to update these versions, Windows 2000 and XP keep the update in the registry after it is installed but I don't know if it happens with Windows 9x.

[0dium]

Gonna try installing windows 2000 server. Had no much luck with w10. Was a bad idea anyway.

[S3S1S7]

@WinFX Hello, i have been working with trying to use older versions of Windows with the experience that you would have from that era and i have actually got Windows Update working on 2000 to 7 and suprisingly enough Windows 2000 and Windows XP worked better with Windows Update than Windows Vista and Windows 7, while i have got Windows Update working on 2000 to 7 i have not got i to work with Windows 98. I would really like to help with making information like my Windows Update sucess and programs like these out there to more people and i would really like to help in this project. Message me for more information.

[i430VX]

The Windows Update site that 9x uses has been shut down since 2011 or so, IIRC.

[Davi Pietro]

Any news on the project

[xpandvistafan]

@WinFX Any news about this project? It would be really nice to get it working again. Where is the Hosts File in Windows 95? I cannot find it. I am currently running IIS on Windows 2000 Advanced Server SP4 but when I access it from 95, it redirects to fe2.update.microsoft.com.

Edited February 19, 2022 by xpandvistafan