Important
If nothing happens when you open Legacy Update setup on Windows XP, follow these steps to work around a Windows bug.
This release improves handling of numerous edge cases you might run into while using Legacy Update.
- Adds integrity verification of files downloaded by Legacy Update setup. This ensures downloaded files are not corrupt, blocked by a firewall, or tampered with.
- Adds detection for a currently running Windows update, to ensure Legacy Update setup doesn’t try to start a conflicting update installation.
- Legacy Update now detects when Windows has been upgraded (such as from Windows XP to Windows Vista), so it can display a message that it needs to be reinstalled to function correctly.
- Installation of root certificates is now skipped if it has already been done in the past 30 days. Updates to the root certificate store are infrequent, typically only occurring a few times per year.
- Adds logging that can help to diagnose issues in Legacy Update.
- Windows 2000:
- Fixes “Access is denied” errors when installing Legacy Update on Windows 2000.
- Windows XP:
- When upgrading Windows XP Media Center Edition or Tablet PC Edition from RTM or SP1, Legacy Update now installs Service Pack 2 in between, rather than Service Pack 1a. This upgrades Media Center Edition to 2004, and Tablet PC Edition to 2005.
- When enabling Windows Embedded 2009 updates on Windows XP, Legacy Update now hides the notoriously broken KB2686509 update.
- When Windows Embedded 2009 updates have already been enabled on hardware that will run into compatibility issues, Legacy Update setup will show a warning.
- Windows Vista and Server 2008:
- Installing the Windows Server 2008 servicing stack is now split out into a separate “Prepare for Extended Security Updates” checkbox.
We’re reverting to using the latest general public servicing stack for Windows Vista, released in 2012. While there are some security and performance benefits to using the Windows Server 2008 servicing stack from 2019, it also brings some compatibility issues, so we now let you decide if you want this. This only applies to new installations of Legacy Update, and won’t change existing ones. - Adds a prerequisite update to Hyper-V, KB950050, required for Windows Server 2008 SP1 with Hyper-V to be correctly upgraded to SP2. (Contributed by @Goldfish64 - thanks!)
- Fixes installation of Windows Vista Service Pack 1 getting stuck at “Configuring updates…”.
- Works around bugs in the Windows Vista Service Pack 1 and 2 installers causing it to not check if the system has sufficient disk space available, and to fail for languages other than English, French, Spanish, German, and Japanese.
- Fixes a Windows bug causing the wallpaper from setup mode to persist into the user’s desktop on some editions of Windows Server 2008.
- Fixes a crash when clicking “Install Updates” on the website.
- Installing the Windows Server 2008 servicing stack is now split out into a separate “Prepare for Extended Security Updates” checkbox.
- Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2:
- Adds an option to install the Windows 7 Convenience Update Rollup on new installations of Windows 7. This is a bundle of 66 updates released prior to April 2016.
While this rollup helps you to get up-to-date faster, it contains updates that introduce telemetry features that some users find undesirable. As such, this option is not selected by default. - Adds support for installing Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 on Itanium systems.
- Adds an option to install the Windows 7 Convenience Update Rollup on new installations of Windows 7. This is a bundle of 66 updates released prior to April 2016.
- Windows 10 and 11:
- Fixes some updates not being staged for installation when restarting the system via the Legacy Update website.
- General fixes:
- Fixes crashing on 486 processors. (Contributed by @renodr - thanks!)
- Fixes
/norestartflag not working. - When running on Windows Server Core, Legacy Update setup now skips features that are not applicable - particularly, Windows Server Core lacks Internet Explorer, so the ActiveX control is skipped. (Contributed by @Goldfish64 - thanks!)
- Adds support for running Legacy Update setup in Windows audit mode, which is used to prepare an installation of Windows in advance of it being given to an end user.
- Adds detection for Terminal Services Execute mode on Windows Server. Legacy Update setup must be run in Install mode. We now provide an option to switch to Install mode automatically.
A huge thank you to everyone who contributed towards our fundraiser for a renewed code signing certificate, which we’re now using for this release, and another thanks to those who helped make our new Microsoft Download Center Archive a big success!
