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Legacy Update: Fix Windows Update on Windows XP, Vista, Server 2008, 2003, 2000

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Re: Legacy Update: Fix Windows Update on Windows XP, Vista, Server 2008, 2003, 2000

#201

Post by highwaylights »

amaccuish wrote: post #189
highwaylights wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Windows 11 is the best it’s ever been. I really don’t understand everyone’s issue. I get they try to push you towards a cloud account, but you don’t have to have one, and the ads can be much easier excised than the bloatware they used to install.

> but you don’t have to have one, A simple Google search refutes this. Ok, if you count running some cmd magic as meaning they don't require you to have a Microsoft account, we're never going to agree. For Joe Bloggs, a Microsoft account is required and there is no way around it.

Fair enough. I mean it’s one line in CMD, but I do see your point.

That said, maybe Joe Bloggs is better off. If he’s not savvy enough to know the difference / be able to Google around it, he might be better of with an online account given he’ll probably not understand why certain things don’t work the same on his machine or care about the implications of taking his account online.

Re: Legacy Update: Fix Windows Update on Windows XP, Vista, Server 2008, 2003, 2000

#202

Post by highwaylights »

badsectoracula wrote: post #39
throwaway0x7E6 wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

really? who, when? I have actually lived through that era, and I can't remember there being negative sentiment about XP. I don't know about the dark corners of the internet, but the people in my circles were neutral about XP, hated Vista, loved 7, hated 8, hated 10 and hate 11 to this day, the only criticism of XP I saw is about the UI, which doesn't make sense to me - switching it was a matter of 3 clicks

Pretty much everyone i remember hated XP's "Fisher Price" look. Also there was a ton of compatibility issues, at the time Microsoft saw Win98 as the biggest competitor to XP and it wasn't until SP2 that XP was seen as good. Funny enough, a quick search for "windows xp fisher price" has this Ars Technica article about exactly that topic (people hating Windows XP when it first came out): https://arstechnica.com/informa…

You gotta stick the Silver theme on that puppy.

It went from a Toys R Us to a slick Lamborghini dealership.

Or how about some of that Olive Green action? Get you the muted natural look, you know what’s up.

Re: Legacy Update: Fix Windows Update on Windows XP, Vista, Server 2008, 2003, 2000

#203

Post by highwaylights »

userbinator wrote: post #96
badsectoracula wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pretty much everyone i remember hated XP's "Fisher Price" look. Also there was a ton of compatibility issues, at the time Microsoft saw Win98 as the biggest competitor to XP and it wasn't until SP2 that XP was seen as good. Funny enough, a quick search for "windows xp fisher price" has this Ars Technica article about exactly that topic (people hating Windows XP when it first came out): https://arstechnica.com/informa…

One of the first things I did was always revert to the Windows Classic theme, because it was very easy to do so. There were also plenty of other custom themes should you want something different. Starting with Windows 8, they removed that option completely.

Windows 8 was genuinely the only one I felt was objectively a step backwards.

Even Vista had its goals in the right place (it was a broken mess, but it meant well).

Windows 8 had so many improvements to the core O/S (even Task Manager was a massive leap forward in 8!) that were just utterly undermined by that horrific metro UI. It must have been so frustrating to have worked there at that time then have some idiot force a touch screen interface on to it that didn’t make any sense.

Windows 10 resolved most of this, and Windows 11 fixed a lot of the fundamental issues with the security model that have plagued Windows for decades.

Re: Legacy Update: Fix Windows Update on Windows XP, Vista, Server 2008, 2003, 2000

#204

Post by highwaylights »

narag wrote: post #106
badsectoracula wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pretty much everyone i remember hated XP's "Fisher Price" look. Also there was a ton of compatibility issues, at the time Microsoft saw Win98 as the biggest competitor to XP and it wasn't until SP2 that XP was seen as good. Funny enough, a quick search for "windows xp fisher price" has this Ars Technica article about exactly that topic (people hating Windows XP when it first came out): https://arstechnica.com/informa…

I must be the only person in the world who really loved that theme. It always cheered me up. The default wallpaper not so much, but I never let the default one anyway. The coloured "rubber" gadgets were very nice. Those haters surely dislike Comic Sans too!

Exactly!

Comic Sans for when I’m happy, Papyrus for when I’m in a mood. Easy peasy.

Re: Legacy Update: Fix Windows Update on Windows XP, Vista, Server 2008, 2003, 2000

#205

Post by bombcar »

giantrobot wrote: post #193
Grazester wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

95 OSR2 came with USB support.

Windows 98SE had a generic USB mass storage driver and generally much better USB support.

I think 98 SE was the first time I didn’t have to slipstream a floppy driver or something.

Re: Legacy Update: Fix Windows Update on Windows XP, Vista, Server 2008, 2003, 2000

#206

Post by chungy »

giantrobot wrote: post #193
Grazester wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

95 OSR2 came with USB support.

Windows 98SE had a generic USB mass storage driver and generally much better USB support.

Actually it was Windows Me that had a USB Mass Storage driver. Windows 98SE still didn't include one.

Re: Legacy Update: Fix Windows Update on Windows XP, Vista, Server 2008, 2003, 2000

#207

Post by kroltan »

justsomehnguy wrote: post #190
kroltan wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a 16-button mouse (one of those gaming ones with basically a numpad near the thumb), works out of the box. Same with a variety of dodgy Bluetooth chinesium junk, a drawing tablet, a VR headset... Maybe 10 years ago I had an issue with a 3G modem? Put short, I cannot corroborate your experience at all. (I have been on and off Linux the last 10 years due to gaming, but it seems I will be able to stay this time,…

> Put short, I cannot corroborate your experience at all. Put short, you transpose your success to the whole universe.

Cool, I solved Life!

Now, in retrospect, my tone was inappropriate, I'm sorry. The very fact we have such different impressions of Linux demonstrates it's still a bit messier than it could be.

Re: Legacy Update: Fix Windows Update on Windows XP, Vista, Server 2008, 2003, 2000

#208

Post by synaesthesisx »

bambax wrote: post #178
synaesthesisx wrote: post #7

It amazes me how many machines there are still out there, connected to the internet, running Windows XP (a 21+ year old OS)

I'm amazed you're amazed. I use cutlery that's 150 years old, every day, tableware that's over 80 years old, even kitchen rags of the same age. My dryer is 20 years old and works fine. I wear shoes, coats, sweaters that are over 15 years old. My main stereo system is 25 years old; even the Sonos components (that I hate) are over 15 years old and still work ok. I kept a motorbike for 25 years, and then eventually it w…

Comparing physical goods to technology is not exactly a fair comparison - technology such as operating systems has moved significantly in 20 years in terms of features, performance, security etc. Running a 20+ year old, unsupported OS is a security concern.

Re: Legacy Update: Fix Windows Update on Windows XP, Vista, Server 2008, 2003, 2000

#209

Post by wereallterrrist »

froggit wrote: post #152
wereallterrrist wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Damn near pure FUD with any remotely, remotely mainstream laptop. The Linux ecosystem is so wildly more consistent and predictable than Win10. I mean, my laptop doesn't overheat daily in my bag when its booted to Linux, but yeah, Windows is so easy. /s

> I mean, my laptop doesn't overheat daily in my bag when its booted... /s When you say booting in your bag, are you describing the act of intentionally booting it without removing it from the bag while the bag is open (because taking it out of the bag is a surprising amount of seemingly unnecessary effort) or the "why is my bag warm to the touch oh shit my compy's on" surprise wake from sleep while the bag is closed…

I mean there's a serious bug where Windows will not properly realize it needs to /stay asleep/ and will wake itself up in your bag, and sometimes stay on.

Linus did a whole video on it - you have to unplug your laptop, then close it, or risk a serious issue.

Just one example of hoops that Windows users become conditioned to.

Re: Legacy Update: Fix Windows Update on Windows XP, Vista, Server 2008, 2003, 2000

#210

Post by IntelMiner »

accrual wrote: post #2

I haven't tried this personally but I'm already a huge fan of it. I build and benchmark various retro PCs and some of them are fast enough to be fully patched, which I do if it's an option. For XP I really like the unofficial SP4 service pack which rolls up all post-SP3 updates into a single executable, with or without .NET. The later POS-only patches are also available. It makes it really simple to bring an old syst…

I made the mistake of talking about retro systems in a large (600~ plus) slack chat at work a while back. There was a new guy to the company who turned out to be a red teamer

He tried to argue that the kinds of ancient malware that XP would be vulnerable to (Blaster, Sasser, ILOVEYOU etc) were somehow still threats to be concerned about in 2022 (nearly 2023!) against modern operating systems because "I literally wrote my thesis on attacking Windows Defender"

Has anyone (aside from Dancoot on youtube) tried to actually threat model this kind of thing? I find it hard to believe that 20-30 year old malware can even function let alone be a threat either to modern machines or modern networks. There's no way my Windows 98 gaming PC is going to breach the security of my Win10 laptop

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