Is there a “Final Service-Pack / Rollup” for Discontinued Windows?
It's unlikely. For Windows 2000, Microsoft released Update Rollup 1 Version 2 for SP4 on September 13, 2005. They ceased security updates on July 13, 2010, almost five years later.
There is little point to rolling up newer updates anyway because as soon as a hacker finds another vulnerability, Microsoft would not patch it, and the system would remain vulnerable, e.g. have the shortcut (.lnk file) buffer overflow exploited by Stuxnet to spread to systems having AutoRun disabled.
Synetech
Sadly, I’ve become soured by the SE network. It started great, but went downhill. Some mods are too aggressive/bias, policies are arbitrarily/capriciously/selectively applied, and some users treat the sites as MMOGs, “rep-whoring”, copying others’ work, and posting random guesses to game the system by abusing and exploiting auto-bounty assignment. I care(d) about the integrity of the site, so I feel anywhere that allows such disreputable behavior isn’t somewhere worth staying. My OCD not withstanding, I won’t be contributing much here anymore and will find somewhere else to help people. I apologize to all of the people I would have helped here in the future. Press the chemise key to continue… 😈 Images As a visual-learner, I often add images to my posts to make them more effective. Sometimes I take photos, sometimes I create them with software, sometimes I find them through Google Images or Wikipedia. Mod I’ve been asked hey bro, y u no b mod? get u POWR! impr0ve site (or some other variation). I had considered it and was even tempted to run a few times, but I just have too much to do already, so I can’t take on that kind of commitment when I know I won’t be able to do as good a job as I’d like, or as Sweet Brown would say, ain’t nobody got time fo’ dat. Besides, as the behavior of the other mods became more and more apparent, I realized that it would be pointless.
Updated on September 18, 2022Comments
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Synetech almost 2 years
Does anyone know if Microsoft releases a final service-pack or rollup when it finally pulls the plug on a version of Windows (or for that matter, Visual Studio or Office)?
For example, currently, if you install XP with SP3, there are still plenty (100+) of critical updates listed in Windows Update. When Microsoft discontinues releasing updates for XP altogether, will they release SP4 or some other rollup that includes all of these updates so that a user can download it, then install the OS and apply the last update (without needing to go online), and be fully updated such that Windows Update indicates no updates available?
I recall that the last service-pack for NT was 6.0a, but does that mean that installing 6.0a and going to Windows Update shows that there’s nothing left to update? If so, will they do the same thing for XP; if not, how is a user supposed to be completely up-to-date without going to Windows Update?
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Admin almost 5 yearsSadly it seems that Microsoft doesn't care enough to make a final roll-up of all remaining updates for discontinued versions of Windows. Considering how hard they've been pushing people to switch to Windows ̶A̶d̶s̶ 10, and how they've been reducing support for Windows 7 already, it's highly unlikely they'll bother to do anything in a few months. That said, as a few people have mentioned, there have been some valiant efforts by others to pick up Microsoft's slack and provide unofficial third-party service-packs. Plus, there's always WSUS Offline Update. Good luck.
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Thalys about 13 yearsI disagree with the latter point - its better to have SOME protection, than NO protection at all.
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Synetech about 12 yearsI recently installed XP SP3 in a VM (XPMode is the same) and there were dozens of updates available (in fact, the more updates I installed, the more became available). This amounted to hundreds of megabytes that needed to be downloaded and installed. Needless to say, it was incredibly frustrating, especially when there was a problem and I had to delete the VM and start over.
>:-(Once extended support ends, they really should pack the remaining updates into a final service pack as a final bit of support. -
RudyB almost 5 yearsI agree that the safest method would be running "air gapped" (or in a VM without an internet connection), but if you are doing that then there is no reason to attempt to use Windows Update, as that requires an internet connection, nor any reason to manually install any updates unless they are to fix a specific issue relevant to the specific software one needs to run.
