Legacy Update: Get back online, activate, and install updates on your legacy Windows PC

This release fixes some issues from Legacy Update 1.12. Refer to that release for the list of major changes in 1.12.

• Fixes SSL connection errors on Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003.
• Fixes the website not detecting when a restart is required on Windows 2000.
• Fixes setup not correctly resuming after restarting the system.
• Fixes “Permission to access the Windows Update service was denied.” errors after clicking Yes on the User Account Control prompt.
• Fixes a Windows bug causing the wallpaper from setup mode to persist into the user’s desktop.

Our code signing certificate expires less than a week from now. We are looking at free options, but may need to purchase the same certificate again for $369 USD. Your support is appreciated to help us reach this goal and continue working on Legacy Update for another 2 years.

Legacy Update 1.12 features a significant rewrite of our ActiveX control, and a handful of other bug fixes.

The rewrite allows us to more easily work on the project, and ensures we can continue providing stable releases for the foreseeable future, despite Microsoft recently breaking the Windows XP-compatible compiler included with Visual Studio 2022.

A note about Windows 10: Support for Windows 10 ends on 14 October 2025. We currently don’t expect issues with any version of Windows 10 that will require us to add specific features for it. If you intend to continue using Windows 10, consider enrolling in the free Extended Security Updates (ESU) program to receive another year of security fixes.

• Legacy Update’s ActiveX control has been rewritten to be built with the latest open-source MinGW compiler, rather than Microsoft’s Visual Studio. This brings 17 years of compiler improvements, and halves the (already small) installation size of Legacy Update.
• Adds a partial workaround for very slow installation of .NET Framework updates on Windows 2000, XP, Vista, and 7. Rather than the global assembly cache (GAC) being rebuilt by each individual .NET Framework update, it will now be deferred until after the Installing Updates window is closed. This works for most, but not all, .NET Framework updates. (This issue was fixed in Windows 8.)
• Adds a countdown timer before Legacy Update setup automatically restarts the computer. This also allows you to restart later.
• Adds compatibility warning messages when One-Core-API is installed, or NNN Changer for NT 5.x (NNN4NT5) is active.
• If you run into issues with Legacy Update setup during the Windows setup mode stage, you can now enter Safe Mode to break out of the process.
• Windows 2000:
  • Fixes setup not correctly offering Service Pack 4 when running on Service Pack 3.
• Windows XP and Windows Server 2003:
  • Fixes incorrect download being used for Windows XP SP1a for Chinese (Hong Kong).
  • Fixes setup redownloading the Windows Update Agent after upgrading Windows XP to SP3 or Windows Server 2003 to SP2.
  • Fixes incorrect OS names being displayed for some editions.
• Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008:
  • Fixes setup incorrectly downloading Service Pack 1 for Windows Server 2008, which is already Service Pack 1.
  • Known issue: When installing Windows Vista Service Pack 1, Legacy Update will remain stuck at “Configuring updates…” forever. If this happens, wait for all hard drive activity to stop, then force restart your computer. You can run Legacy Update again to resume where it left off.
• Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012:
  • Adds support for enabling receiving additional updates from Microsoft Update.
• Windows 10 and Windows 11:
  • Fixes an unnecessary system restart when running setup while Windows has updates pending to be installed.
• General fixes:
  • Fixes the ActiveX control not being updated when the Legacy Update website is open in 32-bit Internet Explorer on a 64-bit system.
    This particularly affects Internet Explorer 11, which runs as 32-bit by default.
  • Better handles “Unable to write to LegacyUpdate.dll” errors when the Legacy Update website is open in Internet Explorer.
  • Better handles detection of Internet Explorer being uninstalled, particularly on Windows XP, 10, and 11.
  • Fixes “Open File - Security Warning” dialog at the final stage of setup.
  • Fixes multiple Windows Update settings dialogs appearing when clicking “Settings” or “Pick a time to install updates” on the website.
  • Fixes the Notepad window being invisible when clicking “View Log File” on the website.
  • Updates NSIS to version 3.11, which addresses a privilege escalation vulnerability (CVE-2025-43715).

Our code signing certificate expires less than 2 weeks from now. We are looking at free options, but may need to purchase the same certificate again for $369 USD. Your support is appreciated to help us reach this goal and continue working on Legacy Update for another 2 years.

Legacy Update 1.11 makes some quality-of-life improvements, and comes with numerous fixes for issues users have run into.

• Features:
  • Reduces reboots required when installing updates from Legacy Update Setup.
  • Installation of root certificates has been rewritten with our own faster implementation, rather than using Microsoft’s.
  • Adds /v flag that makes the details log slightly more verbose.
• Windows 2000:
  • Legacy Update Setup now installs Update Rollup 1 for Windows 2000 Service Pack 4, which includes all updates released for SP4 until April 2005.
  • Fixes the system freezing after Legacy Update restarts Windows into setup mode.
  • Works around “explorer.exe has generated errors and will be closed” errors after installing Internet Explorer 6. To continue Legacy Update Setup, you may need to manually log in after Windows restarts.
  • Better handles being used on Windows 2000 Datacenter Server. This edition is not officially supported by the Windows Update Agent, and installing it always fails. We’re looking into supporting it in future, but for now, Legacy Update can only help you to install Service Pack 4 on Datacenter Server.
  • Fixes the tooltip on the Legacy Update Start menu shortcut displaying incorrectly on Windows 2000.
• Windows XP:
  • Adds support for displaying the correct operating system name in later variants of Windows XP and Server 2003. (Partly contributed by @Goldfish64 - thanks!)
• Windows Vista:
  • Fixes “Not Found (404)” when downloading KB4490628 on Itanium Windows Server 2008 R2.
• Windows 7:
  • Fixes infinite reboot loop when installing the initial set of updates on French, Portugese (Brazilian), Russian, and likely other language copies of Windows 7 SP1.
  • Fixes a “Forbidden (403)” when installing on Windows Embedded 7 and 8.
• General fixes:
  • Fixes your selections not being saved when Legacy Update Setup needs to restart the system.
  • Fixes “Copy failed” warnings in the setup details log. These were harmless, but still confusing.
  • Fixes the uninstaller not being installed. (Contributed by @Mystyle-48 - thanks!)
  • Fixes incorrect detection of activation status on Windows Vista and later, and Windows XP Professional x64 Edition. (Contributed by @renodr and @Goldfish64 - thanks!)
  • Fixes “Restart” button on the website not working in some cases.
  • Fixes Legacy Update icon not appearing in the User Account Control dialog.
  • Fixes excessive “This website would like to run Legacy Update” and “A website wants to open web content using this program on your computer” prompts in Internet Explorer 11.
  • Fixes the system becoming locked out when running Legacy Update from Sysprep/Audit Mode.
  • Adds extra protection against DLL hijacking attacks.

Thanks for using Legacy Update! I’m currently looking at acquiring PowerPC, Windows Phone, Surface, and maybe even Windows Mixed Reality hardware to review what Legacy Update can do to improve these discontinued products, so your support is always appreciated.

Happy 10th release! 🎉

Legacy Update 1.10 comes packed with numerous improvements to celebrate our 10th major version.

• Setup is faster than ever: Many improvements have been made to the initial Legacy Update setup tool.
  • If a restart is required to install Service Packs, Servicing Stacks, and other updates, your system will enter “setup mode”. You’ll see Legacy Update reappear immediately after the Windows splash screen. This makes the process go by faster, and fixes issues with the previous method we used, such as the computer automatically locking itself while logged into the LegacyUpdateTemp user.
  • Installing updates on Windows Vista and later better avoid Windows Update’s high CPU usage issues.
  • Installation of Windows XP Service Pack 3 on top of RTM is now faster, using the smaller SP1a rather than SP2, and avoiding an additional restart.
• Windows 2000:
  • Internet Explorer 6 setup now downloads all of its required files before restarting your computer. This can help when internet isn’t connected immediately on startup (e.g. with Wi-Fi or dial-up).
  • Possibly fixes “No mapping between account names and security IDs was done.” error when running Legacy Update on the first boot after installing Service Pack 4.
• Windows 7:
  • Fixes some required updates being skipped on Windows 7 installations that have already been partially updated.
  • Fixes a required update failing to install on Windows 7.
• Windows 8:
  • As Microsoft removed the Windows 8.1 download from their website in June 2024, the feature to upgrade Windows 8 to 8.1 has been removed. You’ll need to perform this upgrade manually.
• Windows 10 and 11:
  • When clicking the Restart button on the website, Legacy Update now ensures the system is aware that you’re requesting to “update and restart”. Previously, this may have triggered a regular restart without installing updates.
  • Windows 10 changes the way Windows Update logs work, requiring a PowerShell cmdlet to be executed to convert event logs to a text file. When clicking “View Log File” on the website, the log will be automatically generated and opened for you.
• New:
  • Adds a nicer Windows Aero-style look in Legacy Update setup under Windows Vista and later.
  • Legacy Update setup now looks for unsupported configurations, such as running on a beta release of Windows, or using Compatibility Mode on the setup executable. Updates tend to not work correctly in these cases, and could damage your Windows installation.
  • Legacy Update now has a “launcher” executable. This should bring no noticeable difference for the majority of users, but it may be more convenient to those using custom shortcuts/scripts to launch Legacy Update. The rundll32 method is now deprecated, but will continue to work.
  • Adds a /passive flag to the setup, skipping all user input and automatically installing with the default options.
• Fixes:
  • Fixes setup failing to run on 486, Pentium, and Cyrix systems (CPUs lacking SSE instructions).
  • Fixes Windows Update’s installation progress dialog appearing blurry on systems using display scaling, and appearing behind the Internet Explorer window.
  • General cleanup, some file size reduction, and other small improvements.

A big thanks to @renodr for his awesome contributions to this release, including fixing some bugs, and helping to set up continuous integration (CI) tests on GitHub Actions, which allows us to provide nightly builds.

Thanks for using Legacy Update! I’m currently looking at acquiring Windows Phone, Surface, and maybe even Windows Mixed Reality hardware to review what Legacy Update can do to improve these discontinued products, so your support is always appreciated.