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On decommissioning of update servers for 2000, XP, (and Vista?) as of July 2019


Mcinwwl

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OK, I uninstalled Chrome Frame, which made no difference to Microsoft Update.
As you can see from these "before and after" user agent detections, it would appear that the UA is "live" from IE8 (rather than being injected by something else) as the reference to Chrome Frame has gone.

Clipboard-1.thumb.png.eb110881376b2fa0b660cf8856ae48d2.png

Clipboard-2.thumb.png.9fce47753120e06ffe90b82f3a68d202.png

What the 'BTRS111060' bit is I have no idea, and researching it doesn't help. It seems that "BTRS" followed by a number is not uncommon in UA strings, but what it actually is seems to be rather vague to say the least! One suggestion was something to do with Bluetooth, but I think that's rather unlikely in my case!

:)

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1 hour ago, Dave-H said:

What the 'BTRS111060' bit is I have no idea, and researching it doesn't help. It seems that "BTRS" followed by a number is not uncommon in UA strings, but what it actually is seems to be rather vague to say the least! One suggestion was something to do with Bluetooth, but I think that's rather unlikely in my case!

@Dave-H Maybe BTRST - The Braintrust Token? The Braintrust Token is an ERC-20 token issued on the Ethereum blockchain network by the Braintrust Technology Foundation, a nonprofit foundation. Perhaps you had got some adware in the past but anyway. Backup your user agent if needed in the future and set it back to original one just for testing purpose! Or use an addon to manage user agent strings! Here a link:
https://www.howtogeek.com/howto/18450/change-the-user-agent-string-in-internet-explorer-8/
And what about item 7 of our list?

Edited by AstroSkipper
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1 hour ago, Dave-H said:

OK, I uninstalled Chrome Frame, which made no difference to Microsoft Update.
As you can see from these "before and after" user agent detections, it would appear that the UA is "live" from IE8 (rather than being injected by something else) as the reference to Chrome Frame has gone.

Clipboard-1.thumb.png.eb110881376b2fa0b660cf8856ae48d2.png

Clipboard-2.thumb.png.9fce47753120e06ffe90b82f3a68d202.png

What the 'BTRS111060' bit is I have no idea, and researching it doesn't help. It seems that "BTRS" followed by a number is not uncommon in UA strings, but what it actually is seems to be rather vague to say the least! One suggestion was something to do with Bluetooth, but I think that's rather unlikely in my case!

:)

It is also strange that your browser looks different than mine or @AstroSkipper 271fUBU.png

Edited by maile3241
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6 hours ago, Dave-H said:

OK, I still had TLS 1.1 enabled, but that was the only difference.
I've reset it and set it up the same as yours now, but it hasn't changed anything.

Clipboard-1.png.346306e8dd490d5f80759fa3e1f83f30.png

I'm slightly puzzled as to why your window is labelled "Internet Options" and mine is labelled "Internet Properties".
:dubbio:

I would recommend disabling SSL 3.0. It is vulnerable to the POODLE attack. Only about 5 percent of websites still support SSL 3.0 Mine has only TLS 1.0 and TLS 1.2 enabled. 

Edited by xpandvistafan
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4 hours ago, AstroSkipper said:

@Dave-H Maybe BTRST - The Braintrust Token? The Braintrust Token is an ERC-20 token issued on the Ethereum blockchain network by the Braintrust Technology Foundation, a nonprofit foundation. Perhaps you had got some adware in the past but anyway. Backup your user agent if needed in the future and set it back to original one just for testing purpose! Or use an addon to manage user agent strings! Here a link:
https://www.howtogeek.com/howto/18450/change-the-user-agent-string-in-internet-explorer-8/
And what about item 7 of our list?

How do I set it back to the original user agent string?
Having never knowingly changed it from the default, I've never done it, in fact I didn't know that you could change it on IE without an add-on!
As for #7 on the list, switching the Windows firewall off has never made any difference, and I really don't want to uninstall Malwarebytes as I seem to remember it was a bit of a problem to get working properly in the first place! You said you never got it working properly, but it does seem OK for me at the moment and I don't want to mess it up. I think if it doesn't help switching off all its scanners, uninstalling it completely is clutching at straws a bit.
This has to be a certificate problem surely? Either a needed certificate is missing, or one that is installed is incorrect or invalid.
:dubbio:

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11 hours ago, Dave-H said:

How do I set it back to the original user agent string?
Having never knowingly changed it from the default, I've never done it, in fact I didn't know that you could change it on IE without an add-on!
As for #7 on the list, switching the Windows firewall off has never made any difference, and I really don't want to uninstall Malwarebytes as I seem to remember it was a bit of a problem to get working properly in the first place! You said you never got it working properly, but it does seem OK for me at the moment and I don't want to mess it up. I think if it doesn't help switching off all its scanners, uninstalling it completely is clutching at straws a bit.
This has to be a certificate problem surely? Either a needed certificate is missing, or one that is installed is incorrect or invalid.

I didn't say you should uninstall Malwarebytes I suggested to deactivate all autostart components and services by using Sysinternals Autoruns (portable tool, lists all autostart entries) with the effect that after restarting no module of Malwarebytes is in RAM any longer. This can be reverted easily without harming your installation. Only a few clicks. Due to your Windows Firewall here another screenshot of my ICMP-Settings: https://imgur.com/9iqJdDP
And your are right either your error code is caused by SSL problems reading certificates or unsuitable settings in your system. And you see we have already found a lot. :yes:

Here I've uploaded for you the latest XP compatible version of Autoruns. More recent versions don't run under XP.
https://www.mediafire.com/file/m4b2khdjjjfvlic/Autoruns_v13.98.zip/file

Edited by AstroSkipper
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@Dave-H A proper user agent is very important to let a web site working correctly providing all services for a visitor. Your user agent is bit strange and especially your entry "BTRS111060". My IE 8 user agent is "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 8.0; Windows NT 5.1; "Trident/4.0; .NET4.0C; .NET4.0E; .NET CLR 3.0.4506.2152; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 3.5.30729). You can see an absolutely clean UA string. Now there are two ways to change the UA string in Internet Explorer 8: editing registry entries or using an addon called UAPick. Here is the link: https://www.enhanceie.com/ietoys/uapick.asp and download link: https://www.enhanceie.com/dl/UAPickSetup.exe
Here more information about IE UA strings and related registry keys: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/windows/internet-explorer/ie-developer/compatibility/ms537503(v=vs.85)?redirectedfrom=MSDN, https://www.heelpbook.net/2014/useragents-on-internet-explorer-registry-workaround/ and this one https://admx.help/?Category=Windows_8.1_2012R2&Policy=Microsoft.Policies.InternetExplorer::Customized_UserAgent_String.
By the way browser modes have been provided since IE8 to help developers fix issues quickly by telling a site to render like a previous version of the application. You can find it in developer tools -> browser modes.
In my opinion using UAPick is much easier and safe. I had installed it years ago and you can deactivate it  or uninstall whenever you want. Install it, backup your current UA string and then override it using my  IE 8 user agent. Then try to access MU again. Hope will never die! :thumbup

Edited by AstroSkipper
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After a bit of registry editing, this is my IE8 UA now.

Clipboard-1.thumb.png.2958d5ce531a648a81b7ff8e784abf19.png

No change on Microsoft Update.
I will try disabling Malwarebytes.
I already have Autoruns installed, although the self-protection module might fight it.
As it was that which gave me grief before I'm a bit apprehensive, but i'll give it a go!
:)
 

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16 minutes ago, Dave-H said:

I already have Autoruns installed, although the self-protection module might fight it.
As it was that which gave me grief before I'm a bit apprehensive, but i'll give it a go!

Don't be afraid. I use Autoruns since 1995. It's from Sysinternals i.e. from Microsoft. It's totally safe. And there is nothing to install, it's portable. Make exclusions to Malwarebytes! :)

Edited by AstroSkipper
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