General and specific solutions for problems regarding AU/WU/MU in Windows XP

[user57]

at the microsoft update catalog there is no V3 version
however there is a V4 version 
https://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com/Search.aspx?q=KB942288

did microsoft upgrade these files the last 2 years, or is that V3 version requied ?

downloading the V3 from the link of msfn.org the info tells its from 2009 while v4 from 2014

 

[AstroSkipper]

On 11/15/2022 at 6:33 PM, AstroSkipper said:

Legacy Update - An alternative to Microsoft or Windows Update

Legacy Update is a community-run resource to help you fix the Windows Update service on earlier versions of Windows. More information and instructions can be found on the homepage of Legacy Update.
Here is the link: https://legacyupdate.net/
And this is the download link of the program which is needed to be installed: https://content.legacyupdate.net/legacyupdate/LegacyUpdate-1.9.exe 
Changelogs & older versions on GitHub: https://github.com/kirb/LegacyUpdate/releases 
Very important is the hint for Windows XP users on their homepage:

Some screenshots of this service:



I didn't try this service, no need for me at the moment, but as far as I read in different comments, it works properly with Windows XP and other OSs. Thanks to @maile3241 for the hint!

Cheers, AstroSkipper

Today, I have installed Legacy Update 1.9 on my Windows XP Professional SP3 installation where POSReady updates have never been applied. It's just a pure Windows XP 32-bit. Due to the lack of POSReady updates, I decided to test Legacy Update in this XP installation. It was installed in seconds and calling up this service worked without any problems. It even offered to install root certificates and POSReady updates, which I didn't want and had to untick during the install process, though. The Windows Update search was performed in the Internet Explorer without any settings or actions by the user, and only few minutes later, it was done. Great service! I can definitely recommend it, especially to those who haven't use the POSReady hack. BTW, the result was the same I got in 2014 as all WU/MU updates have been installed at that time. I just wanted to be sure that no updates are missing.

Edited August 14 by AstroSkipper

[AstroSkipper]

A quite legitimate question, which I have also asked myself time and again, is why you should still use MU/WU under Windows XP at all. There are no longer any new updates anyway. The answer is very simple. If you make any changes or retrofit components from Microsoft, it can happen that updates are available for these, which logically could not be installed before. I installed the Windows Media Encoder 9 a few days ago. After a search via MU, an update was actually found. In addition, MU also found a further missing update that was previously installed but is no longer available for whatever reason. It is therefore worth running a search via MU/WU from time to time. 

[user57]

2 hours ago, AstroSkipper said:

A quite legitimate question, which I have also asked myself time and again, is why you should still use MU/WU under Windows XP at all. There are no longer any new updates anyway. The answer is very simple. If you make any changes or retrofit components from Microsoft, it can happen that updates are available for these, which logically could not be installed before. I installed the Windows Media Encoder 9 a few days ago. After a search via MU, an update was actually found. In addition, MU also found a further missing update that was previously installed but is no longer available for whatever reason. It is therefore worth running a search via MU/WU from time to time. 

how about you finally instead could just make a fast installer to install all the upgrades, there is that unofficial SP4 - but here some upgrades are missing (you still have to install a few later) - and the method to install is slow 

instead how about finding all the registry changes and file entrys and making a fast installer - when we might never hear about that again and that problem being solved

and for that TLS 1.3 you make a installer that installs in 1 step and then - it just works, rather then a proxy you make that crypto progress into the normal XP IE8 routines 

[AstroSkipper]

On 6/27/2022 at 4:23 AM, AstroSkipper said:

My essential tools for solving problems in Windows XP — Part 2 — File extractors and packers

7-zip:

7-Zip is a file archiver with a high compression ratio. The main features of 7-Zip:

- High compression ratio in 7z format with LZMA and LZMA2 compression
- Supported formats:
Packing / unpacking: 7z, XZ, BZIP2, GZIP, TAR, ZIP and WIM
Unpacking only: APFS, AR, ARJ, CAB, CHM, CPIO, CramFS, DMG, EXT, FAT, GPT, HFS, IHEX, ISO, LZH, LZMA, MBR, MSI, NSIS, NTFS, QCOW2, RAR, RPM, SquashFS, UDF, UEFI, VDI, VHD, VHDX, VMDK, WIM, XAR and Z.
- For ZIP and GZIP formats, 7-Zip provides a compression ratio that is 2-10 % better than the ratio provided by PKZip and WinZip
- Strong AES-256 encryption in 7z and ZIP formats
- Self-extracting capability for 7z format
- Integration with Windows Shell
- Powerful File Manager
- Powerful command line version
- Plugin for FAR Manager
- Localizations for 87 languages

The latest version 23.01 from 20.06.2023 still supports Wimdows XP.
Homepage: https://www.7-zip.org/
Download link of 32 Bit version: https://www.7-zip.org/a/7z2301.exe
Download link of 64 Bit version: https://www.7-zip.org/a/7z2301-x64.exe

WinRAR:

WinRAR is a powerful compression tool with many integrated additional functions to help you organize your compressed archives. WinRAR supports all popular compression formats (RAR, ZIP, CAB, ARJ, LZH, TAR, GZip, UUE, ISO, BZIP2, Z and 7-Zip). WinRAR allows you to split archives into separate volumes easily, making it possible to save them on several disks for example. WinRAR is a trial product, meaning you have the chance to thoroughly test it. The program can be used absolutely free of charge for 40 days!
Last version compatible with Windows XP is WinRAR 6.02. Higher versions don't support Windows XP anymore.

Download link of 32 Bit version: https://dl.filehorse.com/win/compression-and-backup/winrar-32/wrar602.exe?st=SbzTXEEXkA-QIyqb3giTsg&e=1656381022&fn=wrar602.exe&x-clickref=1101lvURYqNr
Download link of 64 Bit version: https://dl.filehorse.com/win/compression-and-backup/winrar-64/winrar-x64-602.exe?st=MBUaNQiVXmgEmCOyR9_WSg&e=1656381255&fn=winrar-x64-602.exe&x-clickref=1101lvURYwRa

UniExtract2:

Universal Extractor 2 is a tool to extract files from any type of archive or installer. After the release of UniExtract2 2.0.0 RC 3 in 2020, a new nightly build has been uploaded last month, UniExtract2 2.0.0 RC 4 Nightly (15.10.2023). Below are the download links of both versions: 

Link to UniExtract2 2.0.0 RC 3: https://github.com/Bioruebe/UniExtract2/releases/download/v2.0.0-rc.3/UniExtractRC3.zip
Link to UniExtract2 2.0.0 RC 4 Nightly (15.10.2023): https://update.bioruebe.com/uniextract/files/nightly.zip

innoextract:

Inno Setup is a tool to create installers for Microsoft Windows applications. innoextract allows extracting such installers without running the actual setup executable. innoextract currently supports installers created by Inno Setup 1.2.10 to 6.2.1
The current version of innoextract is 1.9.

Download link: https://constexpr.org/innoextract/files/innoextract-1.9-windows.zip

KB_Extractor:

KB_Extractor is a special extractor for Microsoft updates. The last version is 1.2 from 26-06-2011. Simply drag the update you wish to extract onto the pre-saved executable, and wait for the extraction to complete.

Download link: https://www.vistax64.com/attachments/kb_extractor-exe.23613/

A list of all parts of my My essential tools for solving problems in Windows XP can be found in my post of Additional Resources.
Link: https://msfn.org/board/topic/183498-general-and-specific-solutions-for-problems-regarding-auwumu-in-windows-xp/?do=findComment&comment=1216513

Update notification!

I have revised my article "My essential tools for solving problems in Windows XP — Part 2 — File extractors and packers". 7-Zip has been updated to the version 24.08. And some files in the package UniExtract2 2.0.0 RC 4 Nightly has been updated on 06.07.2024, too.

Cheers, AstroSkipper