Up-to-date Windows 2000 universal install media creation guide

[Kurt_Aust]

OK, I've altered the security warning to:

As Windows 2000 has been out of support since July 2010 and no current major web browser (or plugin) works reliably on it, it is not safe to use Windows 2000 on an Internet facing machine.

[tomasz86]

I still think it's just a bug in the new version (which is known to be very buggy). I've seen many people reporting in the Opera forums that Opera 12.00 works fine in Windows 2000. Have you tested it on more than one machine?

Saying that

Opera have dropped support for Windows 2000

while the company (Opera Software) officially says that Windows 2000 is supported and doesn't say anything about leaving it is just not true...

It is not a new situation that early versions of a major release are buggy/unstable. It was like that in case of Opera 10 & 11 too. I'd just wait for a while until they fix the bugs and then see if the problem still persists.

Edited June 22, 2012 by tomasz86

[Kurt_Aust]

OK, I've changed the notice to indicate that Opera is buggy while Firefox no longer supports Windows 2000.

If Opera gets their act together I'll indicate that they're the only major browser to still support Windows 2000.

[tomasz86]

The bugs (freezes, etc.) seem to be gone in the new development snapshot of Opera Next so there's hope that the next version of Opera 12 will work fine in Win2k.

Edited July 1, 2012 by tomasz86

[Kurt_Aust]

July updates

Deletions:

Hotfix\770-msxml4-KB973685-enu.exe

Hotfix\780-msxml6-KB973686-enu-x86.exe

Additions:

Hotfix\770-msxml4-KB2721691-enu.exe . . . . . 2,053,704 . Optional, Microsoft XML Core Services 4.0 sp3

Hotfix\780-msxml6-KB2721693-enu-x86.exe . . . 958,536 . Optional, Microsoft XML Core Services 6.0 sp2

[tomasz86]

OK, I've changed the notice to indicate that Opera is buggy while Firefox no longer supports Windows 2000.

If Opera gets their act together I'll indicate that they're the only major browser to still support Windows 2000.

Well, the Win2k support has been dropped in the latest development snapshot of Opera 12 released yesterday

It does work after changing the dependencies (no unofficial kernel/updates required) but the browser itself is still extremely buggy.

Actually, it seems that Firefox 10 ESR is the only (stable) major browser officially supporting the system. Firefox 10 ESR is going to be supported until Firefox 19 is released (info). Standard versions of Firefox starting from v13 require the unofficial kernel to run. On the other hand, if someone doesn't want to / cannot use the unofficial kernel then there are other small browsers like Qupzilla which are actively developed and do work in a stock Win2k (Qupzilla uses Webkit engine so it's also very fast).

I don't mention Chromium and its clones because they are still not 100% functional even with the unofficial kernel and all other unofficial updates installed.

Edit: If someone still wants to install the newest development build of Opera 12 without too much hassle then install BWC kernel first, and after that you will be able to run the Opera 12.50 alpha installer normally. One good thing is that the UI freezes so common in all previous builds of Opera 12 seem to be really gone in this one.

Edit2: By the way, this development snapshot is way more stable then the "official" release.

Edited July 20, 2012 by tomasz86

[tomasz86]

Opera 12.01 is ready... but still buggy (the UI freezes completely from time to time, at least in Win2k).

@Kurt_Aust

What do you think about adding information about Firefox ESR 10 to the guide? It officially supports Win2k and is going to be updated until February 2013.

[Kurt_Aust]

Yep, I plan to add info and script install support for Opera 12.01 and Firefox ESR next time I update it.

[tomasz86]

I'm writing now from Windows 8 Enterprise (trial) + Opera 12.01 and I've experienced exactly the same bug (frozen UI) as when the browser was used in Windows 2000. Initially I thought that the bug was somewhat related to Win2k but now can say for sure that Opera 12 is just buggy in general

[Kurt_Aust]

OK, so Firefox ESR it is.

[PCBONEZ]

Pardon the latecomer newbie question but I read this whole thread and I don't see it mentioned anywhere, so I'm gonna ask.

.

Is there are prerequisite SP level for the original W2k media, or does this SP update all of them even with no SP present on the original CD?

.

Thanks.

.

[tomasz86]

Pardon the latecomer newbie question but I read this whole thread and I don't see it mentioned anywhere, so I'm gonna ask.

.

Is there are prerequisite SP level for the original W2k media, or does this SP update all of them even with no SP present on the original CD?

Unofficial Service Pack 5.1 is cumulative which means that all previous service packs are included in it.

[PCBONEZ]

Unofficial Service Pack 5.1 is cumulative which means that all previous service packs are included in it.

WOW! - That was fast! - 4 minutes flat!

Thank you!

[tomasz86]

WOW! - That was fast! - 4 minutes flat!

Thank you!

No problem

You can safely integrate it over any SP (or no SP) although Gurgelmeyer himself recommended using either SP0 or SP4. Still, it shouldn't really matter.

[tomasz86]

@Kurt_Aust

Your link to WMP9 from the first post is dead. Maybe you could update it to the one listed here:

http://www.windows2000.tk/updates/index.html#kb316992

It's the direct URL for the same file (the MD5 matches yours).