Since Windows XP was discontinued in 2014, followed by Windows 7 in 2020, Microsoft’s support for their earlier OSes has significantly dwindled. As XP and earlier don’t officially support modern security improvements, such as the SHA256 hash algorithm required by modern SSL and Authenticode certificates [as of 2019](https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/2019-sha-2-code-signing-support-requirement-for-windows-and-wsus-64d1c82d-31ee-c273-3930-69a4cde8e64f), much of the internet has become inaccessible to these devices. Adding insult to injury, Microsoft [actively removed](https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/windows-it-pro-blog/sha-1-windows-content-to-be-retired-august-3-2020/ba-p/1544373) many downloads for XP and earlier versions in 2020. In effect, working with these OSes is now incredibly difficult.
To address this, [**Legacy Update**](https://legacyupdate.net/) hosts a patched instance of the Windows Update website. This works because the original Windows Update website simply accesses an ActiveX control that connects to the Windows Update service running on your computer.
> *If this website helped you to update your old PCs, please consider [leaving a tip](https://github.com/sponsors/kirb) to help me pay for the server costs. Thank you!*
This repo hosts LegacyUpdateOCX, an ActiveX control used as a replica of the original one developed by Microsoft for the official Windows Update website. The original version of Legacy Update required using a proxy autoconfiguration file (.pac) and some additional configuration of IE security settings to intercept requests to the **update.microsoft.com** site, because the Microsoft Wuweb.dll control validates that it is being used on the official update.microsoft.com domain. With the custom LegacyUpdateOCX ActiveX control, proxying is no longer required, because we have full control over the validation logic. This also allows adding additional convenient features not possible with JavaScript alone.
The project can be built on any version of Windows from XP to 11, though if you run a later OS you’ll ideally want to set up an XP VM for testing.
You will need to install:
* [Visual Studio](https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/vs/) - select the following individual components:
* C++ Windows XP Support for VS 2017 (v141) tools
* C++ ATL for v141 build tools (x86 & x64)
* C++ MFC for v141 build tools (x86 & x64)
If building on XP, you will need to install [Visual Studio 2010](https://my.visualstudio.com/Downloads?q=Visual%20Studio%202010&pgroup=).
* [Visual Studio 2008](https://my.visualstudio.com/Downloads?q=Visual%20Studio%20Express%202008%20with%20Service%20Pack%201&pgroup=) for compiling a build that works on XP RTM and 2000 SP4 - not required if you only want to build for XP SP2 and later
* [NSIS](https://nsis.sourceforge.io/)
In `activex/build/` you will need to download the following additional files:
* A copy of updroots.exe, which you can extract from [this update](http://download.windowsupdate.com/d/msdownload/update/software/secu/2015/03/rvkroots_3f2ce4676450c06f109b5b4e68bec252873ccc21.exe) using 7-Zip or extract.exe.
For debugging, if running on XP with IE8, install [Utilu IE Collection](https://www.utilu.com/iecollection/). IE6/IE7 is much more useful for debugging the native code, because of its simplistic single-process model. Visual Studio is able to launch it and directly attach to the relevant process in question.
The existence of this project shouldn’t be taken as an endorsement to continue using unsupported OSes. You should stick to a supported OS such as Windows 10 or 11 (or, try Linux?!). However, this service exists anyway in recognition that using these OSes is sometimes necessary to run legacy hardware/software, or just interesting to play around with.
This project is not affiliated with or endorsed by Microsoft. This software is provided “as is”, without warranty of any kind. We don’t believe anything should go wrong, but please ensure you have backups of any important data anyway.
## License
Licensed under the Apache License, version 2.0. Refer to [LICENSE.md](https://github.com/kirb/LegacyUpdate/blob/main/LICENSE.md).
