What's new in Legacy Update 1.8
Oct 4, 2023
- Legacy Update is now signed, so you won’t see any more scary warnings about “program from an unknown publisher” or similar.
- Code signing certificates are expensive - this cost me $340 USD. I was only able to do this thanks to those who generously support the project on GitHub Sponsors and Patreon.
- Legacy Update can now be directly accessed from a regular, non-administrator instance of Internet Explorer on Windows Vista and later. This also means you can use Legacy Update via Internet Explorer Mode in Microsoft Edge.
- Provides better messaging when Internet Explorer has been uninstalled (such as in “E” editions of Windows).
- Fixes Legacy Update setup unnecessarily redownloading updates that are already installed.
- Fixes an error when attempting to uninstall Legacy Update from the Control Panel.
- Hopefully fixes the “Enable Microsoft Update” option in Legacy Update setup not working on Windows 7.
New in Legacy Update 1.7.1 (Aug 21, 2023)
- Fixes error 80072EFE reappearing on Windows 7. The installation of the 2016-03 Servicing Stack Update was unintentionally removed in Legacy Update 1.7, which is the update that contains the fix for this error.
- Fixes an issue where “Preparing your desktop…” could appear indefinitely after Legacy Update restarts the system, due to an “Open File - Security Warning” dialog hiding behind the message.
- Fixes the setup process failing at the root certificates store update step due to an “Open SrcStore failed => 0x2 (2)” error message.
New in Legacy Update 1.7 (Aug 16, 2023)
- By popular demand, the Legacy Update ActiveX control can now be installed on any version of Windows, from 2000 up to 11. This allows you to use the classic Windows Update website, in addition to the built-in control panel.
- Legacy Update now downloads all required components prior to restarting the computer, which solves issues with downloads failing on Wi-Fi and dial-up (!) after the restart.
- On 64-bit editions of Windows, Legacy Update now installs a native 64-bit version of its ActiveX control. This means you can use the Legacy Update website in both 32-bit and 64-bit Internet Explorer.
- Adds an option to enable Microsoft Update (updates for Microsoft products such as Office) on Windows 7, as the link to do so from Windows 7’s control panel no longer works. (Contributed by @renodr - thanks!)
- On Windows Vista, Legacy Update now installs a 2019 Windows Servicing Stack update from Windows Server 2008, which resolves an issue where installing Office 2007 or 2010 would cause Windows Update to stay “Checking for updates” forever.
- On Windows 7, Legacy Update now installs the SHA-2 Code Signing Support update, which solves some errors and saves time in installing updates after Legacy Update setup completes.
- On Windows 8, Legacy Update now installs a 2021 Windows Servicing Stack update from Windows Server 2012, which is more future-proof, and resolves the Servicing Stack Update failing to install in some cases.
- Fixes an issue where Legacy Update could unnecessarily reinstall Windows 8.1 Update 1. (Contributed by @renodr - thanks!)
- Fixes the LegacyUpdateTemp user sometimes not logging off correctly after the setup completes. (Contributed by @renodr - thanks!)
- Fixes the downloader failing on original Pentium systems. (Contributed by @renodr - thanks!)
New in Legacy Update 1.6.2 (Feb 4, 2023)
- This release will feel very minor on the surface, but I put a bunch of work into improving the codebase.
- Switches the file downloader library to one that seems to be a lot more stable, and reliable in every condition - slow internet, insufficient RAM, internet faster than your RAM/hard drive can keep up with, etc. It is also able to reconnect and continue if your connection drops during a download.
- Refactors the ActiveX control from the hefty Microsoft MFC framework to the lighter-weight ATL framework. This brings down the file size of the DLL.
- Uses more efficient compression on the installer (LZMA rather than Gzip), bringing the download size down even further.
- Improves error handling in the ActiveX control, so that in the unlikely case of the Legacy Update ActiveX control itself failing to do something, more useful error information will be displayed.
- Fixes installing Service Packs on Windows Vista/7 again - this was supposed to be fixed in 1.6.1 but I created another bug in the process.
- Fixes the LegacyUpdateTemp user lacking administrator permission on non-English installs of Windows, causing a "log on as an administrator" error after Legacy Update setup automatic restarts.