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

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.