Solved Updates

[Vistaar]

...I did another Factory restore but the first thing I did before any updates etc was to install FF 52.7.3 23 bit from my back up HD, now all is OK as far as getting on the www. I have updated but only up to SP1 the Windows says I am up to date??

It sounds like SP1 did not install properly (it almost never does via Windows Update; it's a wonder you made it to SP2 on your earlier attempt). I'm not sure it your Vista is 32 bit or 64 bit, so:

32 bit: Download Windows Vista Service Pack 1 Five Language Standalone (KB936330) from Official Microsoft Download Center

64 bit: Download Windows Vista Service Pack 1 Five Language Standalone for x64-based Systems (KB936330) from Official Microsoft Download Center

It's good to know that Firefox can still be installed at an early stage; I wasn't sure if that was possible anymore. Microsoft's website has not supported IE7 for years, and IE9 requires not only SP2 but also Platform Update and Supplement.

As Imacri quite correctly pointed out, if your factory image included a free trial of Norton, McAfee, etc, then you cannot simply uninstall it; you need to download and run the appropriate removal tool. (That goes for Avast also.) If you need help with that, please let us know what product you need a removal tool for. You should also uninstall ancient versions of Flash Player and Java right away. (If you need either of those, you can download up-to-date versions after taking care of Windows updates, antivirus and browsers; but even current versions should be regarded as security risks.) I also recommend running sfc /scannow from an elevated command prompt soon after restoration because your factory image may have corrupt files (see https://support.microsoft.com/en-us...er-tool-to-repair-missing-or-corrupted-system).

 

[mich]

Thanks for the links Imacri, SP2 now installed all from sdt windows updater and so is Avast, the PC came with McAfee but I have deleted that, all appears to be going well but who knows how long that will last.
@Vistaar, it is 32 bit and I am using FF relegated IE to the sideline, I am about to do a scan with Avast.

 

[lmacri]

SP2 now installed all from sdt windows updater and so is Avast, the PC came with McAfee but I have deleted that, all appears to be going well but who knows how long that will last....

Hi mich:

If you haven't already done so, it still might be worthwhile to run the McAfee Consumer Products Removal (MCPR) tool as instructed in the support article How to Remove McAfee Products From a PC Running Windows (Document ID: TS101331) just in case you have any orphaned files or registry entries hidden on your system. McAfee products wiped by that removal tool are listed at the bottom of that article.

Now that you have SP2 installed I'd still recommend installing the "speed up" patches mentioned in post # 8 to ensure Windows Update is able to patch your OS up to the end of extended support on 11-Apr-2017 (~ 200 critical / important security updates). Until you're system is fully patched and your hardware drivers are updated you're likely have ongoing problems and will expose your system to potential risks when browsing on the internet. Post back and let us know what you decide - I can provide instructions for running a quick diagnostic so we have some idea of the current state of your hardware and software but getting your OS patched should be your top priority.
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32-bit Vista Home Premium SP2 * Firefox ESR v52.7.3 * Norton Security v22.14.0.54 * MS Office 2003 Professional

 

[mich]

Imacri, I have not been able to get IE to work at all so am using FF. If I try IE all I get is:

 

[lmacri]

Imacri, I have not been able to get IE to work at all so am using FF...

Hi mich:

I'm not overly concerned about whether you can get IE working - it's an old, unsupported browser and it isn't safe to use anyway. It's much better to use FF ESR v52, which is currently the only major browser that is fully supported for Vista (at least until Mozilla ends support for XP and Vista in June 2018) and can connect to secure https:// web sites using newer and safer Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocols like TLS 1.1 and TLS 1.2. See my comments in the Norton community in the thread Installing on a Win Vista Laptop about these "Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage" errors.

I only keep mentioning IE because if you have upgraded from IE7 to IE9 and plan to install the Windows Update "speed up" patches as I suggested in post # 8 then it is essential that you manually install KB4014661 (Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer 9: April 11, 2017 ) along with KB3205638 / KB4012583 / KB4015195 / KB4015380 to prevent Windows Update from hanging at "Checking for updates...".
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32-bit Vista Home Premium SP2 * Firefox ESR v52.7.3 * Norton Security v22.14.0.54 * MS Office 2003 Professional

 

[mich]

Imacri, I have d/l 234729x86, 234729x86, 975517x86

so I now have to d/l
KB4014661 (Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer 9: April 11, 2017 ) along with KB3205638 / KB4012583 / KB4015195 / KB4015380

then install the lot? sorry if I am a bit thick

 

[Volume Z]

No. KB4014661 is one of the updates that need to be disallowed to apply before using Windows Update.

You can have KB4014661 not apply by not having IE 9 installed, which is fine by Windows Update.

Regards, VZ

 

[lmacri]

I have d/l 234729x86, 234729x86, 975517x86

so I now have to d/l KB4014661 (Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer 9: April 11, 2017 ) along with KB3205638 / KB4012583 / KB4015195 / KB4015380

Hi mich:

No worries. Please see my comments in post # 8 of this thread. Have you tried following the step-by-step instructions posted on page 1 of m#l's thread Updates not working, it has been searching for updates for hours in the MS Answers forum?

The there are four required "speed up" patches listed in STEP # 2 of the instructions in m#l's thread (KB3205638 / KB4012583/ KB4015195 / KB4015380) plus one optional "speed up" patch (KB4014661) if Internet Explorer 9 is installed. Open your IE browser and go to Help | About Internet Explorer. If you currently have IE7 or IE8 then you don't need KB401466; if you have IE9 then you must install KB4014661 along with the other four "speed up" patches.

As I noted in post # 8, the earlier updates you downloaded (KB975517 / KB2347290 / KB4012598) are not listed in the instructions in m#l's thread and you do not need to install these updates to help fix the Windows Update "Checking for updates..." hangs.
_______________________

ASIDE: There is currently a known issue in the MS Answers forum where pages may not display correctly with Firefox v59 or Firefox ESR v52 if an ad blocker like Adblock Plus, uBlock Origin etc. is installed. If you have any problem using the downloads links in the instructions in m#l's thread try disabling your ad blocker extension.
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32-bit Vista Home Premium SP2 * Firefox ESR v52.7.3 * Norton Security v22.14.0.54 * MS Office 2003 Professional

 

[mich]

I will see if I can make sense of it, having got the b??@&y thing kind of working I just dont want to stuff it up again.

 

[mich]

Have d/l all up dates as per instructions and installed, 2 errors were reported, Code 8020002E and Code 643. Are they important?
IE still not displaying web page, when the install IE9 page appeared it asked to use std settings I unticked that box as I wanted to know what it intended to do perhaps that is the problem.
Is it best to keep updates set to manual only?

 

[lmacri]

Have d/l all up dates as per instructions and installed, 2 errors were reported, Code 8020002E and Code 643. Are they important?...Is it best to keep updates set to manual only?

Hi mich:

Did the errors occur while you were manually installing the .msu standalone installers for the "speed up" patches (STEP # 5 of the instructions in Updates not working, it has been searching for updates for hours) or when you ran your manual Windows Update to install your remaining updates (STEP # 6)?

If you aren't sure if all your required "speed up" patches installed correctly, search your installed updates at Control Panel | Programs and Features | View Installed Updates to see if any of those patches are still missing. When searching, enter the full KB number in the search box (e.g., "KB3205638" and not a partial string like "3205638").



If your error codes appeared after running Windows Update (STEP # 6), did Windows Update successfully install any updates (check at Windows Update | View Update History and look for the KB numbers of any failed updates) or did the entire Windows Update session fail to run? If only a few updates failed try running another manual Windows Update and see if the errors re-occur.

Yes, please leave your automatic Windows Updates disabled (i.e., set to Never Check for Updates). And note that if you now have IE9 installed you must ensure that the KB4014661 "speed up" patch (Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer 9: April 11, 2017) is installed or Windows Update will start getting stuck on "Checking for updates..." again.
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32-bit Vista Home Premium SP2 * Firefox ESR v52.7.3 * Norton Security v22.14.0.54 * MS Office 2003 Professional

 

[mich]

Yes all 4 speed up patches were installed OK, when installing the 179 updates it said 2 were not installed; I assume this is what the errors referred to. To day there were a further 2 important updates, could be the 2 that failed yesterday + 25 others. So gradually getting there. IE9 is installed and I have installed the update that you mentioned but it will not display pages, I thought of removing it but it does not show as an installed item (in remove program list) FF working perfectly thank goodness.
An unexpected win is that I can now install "Samsung Smart View"

 

[lmacri]

... IE9 is installed and I have installed the update that you mentioned but it will not display pages, I thought of removing it but it does not show as an installed item (in remove program list) FF working perfectly thank goodness...

Hi mich:

Glad to hear you've made good progress getting your Vista SP2 OS patched to April 2017. Once your manual Windows Updates report that there are no further updates available for your Vista SP2 machine, take a break for a few days to catch your breath and then go ahead and install the five emergency out-of-band security updates that were released for Vista SP2 in June 2017 to patch vulnerabilities for the NSA-leaked exploits EnglishmanDentist, EsteemAudit and ExplodingCan (see More Shadow Brokers Exploits Patched June 2017 for Win XP and Vista ). These out-of-band updates were not delivered to Vista SP2 home users via Windows Update after extended support ended on 11-Apr-2017 so standalone .msu installers must be downloaded and installed manually.

Regarding your Internet Explorer issue, go to Tools | Internet Options | Advanced tab and make sure Use TLS 1.0 is enabled. Note that I've manually disabled older, unsafe protocols like SSL 2.0 and SSL 3.0 as a safety precaution in IE9 even though I use Firefox ESR as my default browser.



If TLS 1.0 is already enabled and Help | About Internet Explorer confirms that the standalone .msu installer for KB4014661 installed successfully [Update Versions will be 9.0.60 (KB4014661) as shown below] then clicking the Restore Advanced Settings and/or Reset button on the Advanced tab might get IE9 working again. Be warned that a full Reset should reset IE9 back to its original default state and will likely remove cookies, browser add-ons, etc., but it should not delete your bookmarked Favorites. As a precaution, you can export your Favorites from File | Import and Export... | Export to a File before resetting your browser just in case you have a problem importing your stored Favorites in your C:\Users\<username>\Favorites folder after the reset.



As I noted in post # 25, I wouldn't be overly concerned if IE9 isn't working as long as you can use your Firefox ESR v52 browser. If you browse to the Qualys SSL Labs test page at Qualys SSL Labs - Projects / SSL Client Test with IE9 you will see warnings confirming that your IE9 browser does not support newer, safer Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocols like TLS 1.1 and TLS 1.2 that are now required for connecting to many secure (https) web sites. Browsing to that same site with Firefox ESR will show that these newer connection protocols are supported.

EDIT:

I forgot to mention that the Internet Explorer browser is built in to the Vista SP2 OS. It's normal not to see Internet Explorer listed in Control Panel | Programs | Programs and Features because it's tightly integrated into the operating system and can't be easily uninstalled like other optional Microsoft products like the MS .NET Framework.
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32-bit Vista Home Premium SP2 * Firefox ESR v52.7.3 * Norton Security v22.14.0.54 * MS Office 2003 Professional

 

[mich]

Thanks Imacri you are being most helpful I will try your suggestions over the next few days.

 

[mich]

Every thing seems to be OK, not getting any more important updates, FF working well and can install my programmes, have decide to forget about IE.
It has done wonders for my confidence so thanks chaps.

 

[lmacri]

Hi mich:

Thanks for the feedback and glad to hear you're up and running again. Be sure to post back if you run into further problems.

It's just unfortunate that the only known solution for fixing Windows Update on Vista SP2 computers (along with the associated high CPU consumption and poor system performance) is this time-consuming process of manually installing multiple "speed up" patches as described in the FAQ <here>.

What's really frustrates me is that Microsoft knew about these "Checking for updates..." hangs and slow Windows Updates almost two years before extended support for Vista SP2 ended on 11-Apr-2017 and did nothing to fix the problem. Many Win 7 SP1 and Win 8.x users were affected by the same issue and Microsoft released fixes for these newer OSs, including a newer version of the Windows Update Agent (wuaueng32.dll) that works better on older machines with slower CPUs and limited amounts of RAM - see post # 497 of ScousaJAY's thread windows update just seems to hang while checking. No such luck for Vista SP2 users, so shame on Microsoft.
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32-bit Vista Home Premium SP2 * Firefox ESR v52.7.3 * Norton Security v22.14.0.54 * MS Office 2003 Professional

 

[mich]

You won’t believe this but ½ hr after #35 post, the “FF could not display the web page” notice came up , tried IE the same result, so a quick MS restore back 24hrs but still the same, checked router and no internet light on so a reboot of router but no luck, tried to phone Vodafone but land line was out so used cell phone after a wait etc got onto techy who said the bit that I was on was down but he flaged it and it was sorted in under an hour, now as I type FF has updated to 52.7.4 from 52.7.3.
Who is in control eh.

 

[erpster4]

Hi mich:

No worries. Please see my comments in post # 8 of this thread. Have you tried following the step-by-step instructions posted on page 1 of m#l's thread Updates not working, it has been searching for updates for hours in the MS Answers forum?

The there are four required "speed up" patches listed in STEP # 2 of the instructions in m#l's thread (KB3205638 / KB4012583/ KB4015195 / KB4015380) plus one optional "speed up" patch (KB4014661) if Internet Explorer 9 is installed. Open your IE browser and go to Help | About Internet Explorer. If you currently have IE7 or IE8 then you don't need KB401466; if you have IE9 then you must install KB4014661 along with the other four "speed up" patches.

KB4015195 is no longer needed - get KB4019204 instead, which has newer win32k.sys file and fully supersedes KB4015195

Hi mich:

Thanks for the feedback and glad to hear you're up and running again. Be sure to post back if you run into further problems.

It's just unfortunate that the only known solution for fixing Windows Update on Vista SP2 computers (along with the associated high CPU consumption and poor system performance) is this time-consuming process of manually installing multiple "speed up" patches as described in the FAQ <here>.

What's really frustrates me is that Microsoft knew about these "Checking for updates..." hangs and slow Windows Updates almost two years before extended support for Vista SP2 ended on 11-Apr-2017 and did nothing to fix the problem. Many Win 7 SP1 and Win 8.x users were affected by the same issue and Microsoft released fixes for these newer OSs, including a newer version of the Windows Update Agent (wuaueng32.dll) that works better on older machines with slower CPUs and limited amounts of RAM - see post # 497 of ScousaJAY's thread windows update just seems to hang while checking. No such luck for Vista SP2 users, so shame on Microsoft.
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32-bit Vista Home Premium SP2 * Firefox ESR v52.7.3 * Norton Security v22.14.0.54 * MS Office 2003 Professional

I agree. a newer WU Agent app would have been a permanent fix for Vista but MS simply just want to give Vista the cold shoulder when they released new fixes only for Win7 & 8.1.

 

[lmacri]

KB4015195 is no longer needed - get KB4019204 instead, which has newer win32k.sys file and fully supersedes KB4015195.

Hi erpster4:

Please see post # 33. KB4019204 is one of the the five emergency out-of-band security updates released for Vista SP2 in June 2017 to patch vulnerabilities for the NSA-leaked exploits EnglishmanDentist, EsteemAudit and ExplodingCan, so if mich followed the instructions in More Shadow Brokers Exploits Patched June 2017 for Win XP and Vista after patching their Vista SP2 OS to April 2017 then KB4019204 should already be installed.
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32-bit Vista Home Premium SP2 * Firefox ESR v52.8.0 * Norton Security v22.14.0.54 * MS Office 2003 Professional

 

[mich]

My system has been going great since my last post BUT a couple of days ago the first time that I needed to use Media Player it would not load, it will not un-install, I tried to d/l 32bit version which said it was OK for my system but computer would not allow it to install. ??