People have figured out that if you change something in the registry, your OS will identify itself as some Retail Point-of-Sale edition and continue receiving updates.

However, the correct answer is that you're not just "no longer allowed to run Windows Update", it's that Windows XP is no longer being updated.

Poor Microsoft, tries so hard to stop people from using Windows XP, it must be very hungry for your money. I bet people will have to rent operational systems from Microsoft in the near future just like Microsoft's Office these days. People should probably start using Linux since PC games are barely any good these days.

Odd, because I have updated like 10 machines since the End Of Life date last April. I was hoping that they would be nice enough to at least allow you to download the updates manually or something. Lol oh well, this pc wont be seeing the internet much anyway. Linux on anything not game related it is from now on!

You could go to Microsoft Update instead, still works with XP (and no, I haven't done the registry hack):

I've also been trying out a few Linux Live CD distros lately, and I like what I see so far.

Download this Service Pack 4 that was made be these guys, it works perfectly and I have done about a dozen systems since the updates stopped working normally.
After your done installing it there will be some updates that you need to do through normal Windows Update.

http://www.ryanvm.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1 … der=asc&start=0

yea or change the reigstry and windows update will think you have XP Embeded which updates are still being made for.

Should Windows XP be updated before or after all drivers are installed?

Found out MS discontinued the service last week too. Used the trusty WSUSOFFLINE to fetch and apply update. Version 9.2 was one of the latest to feature Win XP support. http://download.wsusoffline.net/

I've always liked Autopatcher and see no particular reason not to continue using it. Is it notably inferior to alternatives?
http://www.autopatcher.com/

JayCeeBee64 wrote:

You could go to Microsoft Update instead, still works with XP (and no, I haven't done the registry hack): […]
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You could go to Microsoft Update instead, still works with XP (and no, I haven't done the registry hack):

I've also been trying out a few Linux Live CD distros lately, and I like what I see so far.

See this is what I am used to using to update windows XP and with any brand new install it refuses to even load the updater or the MS update web page. Now I realized that I have a 40gb drive with a fully updated install of XP on it from when some one was going to take this system off of my hands so I swapped that in. The odd thing is that it is even installing more updates automatically!!!

Dreamer_of_the_past wrote:

Poor Microsoft, tries so hard to stop people from using Windows XP, it must be very hungry for your money. I bet people will have to rent operational systems from Microsoft in the near future just like Microsoft's Office these days. People should probably start using Linux since PC games are barely any good these days.

Keep in mind that XP is really old. It's about time they shut that "Retro-OS" down for normal use as "the primaery" system.
You know. It's like Win98, Win95 and 2K. Not that usefull for work anymore, as sequrity holes are widespread on these systems.
If technology is to stop evolving all together, then yeah, XP would be nice to use. It's just a hackers dream today.
(and a retro-users choice for 00's gaming)

Just install XP, drivers and slam that SP3 offline pack on the system, then you are good to go, regarding retro-gaming.
It's the same regarding Win98. Just install Win98-SE, drivers and start gaming. Forget that unofficial service pack.

well depends on my retro machines i need the unoffical service packs, otherwise my FTP client wont install 🤣.

ODwilly wrote:

See this is what I am used to using to update windows XP and with any brand new install it refuses to even load the updater or the MS update web page. Now I realized that I have a 40gb drive with a fully updated install of XP on it from when some one was going to take this system off of my hands so I swapped that in. The odd thing is that it is even installing more updates automatically!!!

Microsoft Update works great for me here as well. I think it may be a chicken-n-egg problem. I recall that a new XP installation must be updated somehow to use Microsoft Update, and it may be that the original Windows Update service is used to do it. Now, if the Windows Update service is shut down, you can't update XP to use Microsoft Update. Which means you must somehow find out which component must be updated to use Microsoft Update, download and install it manually.

dr_st: I believe you to be correct. The problem here I believe is that the original update service now tells you that Windows XP is no longer supported and refuses to allow me to update the updater. So if you have a disc with SP3 or maybe even 2 it is most likely not an issue as you will have the current updater already installed. My disc is SP1 of course 😜

so get nlite and downlod standalone SP3 problem solved

Already downloaded Standalone SP2 and SP3. Did not fix it, so the new updater is not included with either SP. In any case had a HDD with XP for this pc sitting forgotten on the shelf so it is all good. I would be wary of installing a fresh install of XP if you need all of the updates however.

Hi think you need to update the windows updater agent for windows/microsoft update to work.
I think I have that file in my PC somewhere, I used it recently to activate windows update on an ASUS machine, I can check later when I got home.

This was a while ago but I found Automatic updates worked but manually running Windows/Microsoft update did not.
I set it to Download and let me choose, next day sure enough in the system tray was a big list of updates.
This is on standard WinXP, that is haven't had the POS registry hack

did you try slipstreaming the service packs? and then installing