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

• Fixes “The parameter is incorrect.” error when launching Legacy Update from the Start menu or Control Panel on Windows 2000 and XP 32-bit.

• Fixes the Legacy Update proxy server not being configured correctly, causing connection errors (error 80072EFE) when checking for updates on Windows 2000, XP, and Vista. Fix contributed by @renodr - thanks!

• Legacy Update now configures .NET Framework to use the Windows SSL configuration. This ensures programs built on .NET can access the same websites you can access in Internet Explorer.

• When running on a processor that doesn't support later Windows Embedded POSReady 2009 updates (Intel processors prior to Pentium 4/Pentium M, and AMD processors before Athlon 64), Legacy Update will now disallow enabling POSReady updates. See #89 for more information.

• When downloading Internet Explorer 6 SP1 for Windows 2000, Legacy Update now downloads the installer for your language directly from Microsoft. Previously, this would download an English-only copy of the IE6 installer hosted by Legacy Update. Huge thanks to @stdin82 for finding live IE6 download links on the Windows Update server.

  This change was also able to be backported to earlier versions of Legacy Update. A separate “Internet Explorer 6 Downloader” helper will be launched when running from these versions.

• Fixes the Legacy Update proxy server not being removed on uninstall on Windows Vista, and Windows Update shortcuts not being restored on uninstall on Windows XP x64/Server 2003. Fix contributed by @stdin82 - thanks!

• General code cleanup: Rebuilt Windows version checking logic from scratch to avoid annoying edge cases in the NSIS WinVer.nsh library Legacy Update was previously using, and consolidated repetitive code for patches.

Yesterday, January 10, 2023, was the end of support for Windows 8.1. Legacy Update 1.5 adds support for getting Windows 8 and 8.1 up to date. As a side effect, Windows Server 2012 and 2012 R2 are also supported starting with this release, despite that these remain officially supported by Microsoft until October.

Other changes in this release:

• While updating root certificates, Legacy Update will now also enable the TLS v1.1 and v1.2 protocols, which are present but disabled by default in Windows 7 and 8, as well as in Windows XP with a POSReady 2009 update. This is an additional fix for websites not loading in Internet Explorer and other apps that use the Windows built-in networking functionality.
• Fixes crash on launch when opening Legacy Update setup on Windows XP SP3.
• Fixes Legacy Update setup not detecting the prerequisite updates required for Windows Server 2008 and 2008 R2.
• Fixes the Legacy Update shortcut incorrectly launching 64-bit Internet Explorer rather than 32-bit in some cases on Windows XP x64 Edition. Thanks to @stdin82 for helping to point out the fix for this.

• Works around a bug with the Windows Update Agent 7.6.7600.256 installer on Windows XP Home Edition, resulting in it failing with error code 82, and potentially rendering the system unable to boot (“NTLDR is missing” error). Version 7.6.7600.244 is now installed instead on Home Edition.
• Fixes the setup not automatically continuing after a restart, and not deleting the LegacyUpdateTemp user after it’s completed.

Huge thanks to those who reported and helped me to find the root cause of the Home Edition issue.

• When a restart is required during Legacy Update setup, a temporary administrator user will be created so the restarts are fully automated (i.e. you won’t be prompted to log in). This is similar to the “Automatic reboot and recall” feature of WSUS Offline.
• Adds an optional feature to enable receiving Windows Embedded POSReady 2009 updates on Windows XP SP3.
• Fixes Windows XP x64 Edition incorrectly offering to install Windows XP 32-bit Service Pack 3.