Windows XP Security Updates - registry hack for a five year extension until 2019

[c627627]

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\WPA\PosReady]

"Installed"=dword:00000001


Pasting this ↑ into Notepad and saving it as a .reg file then double-clicking on it > Yes allows the updates to continue until 2019. The updates are meant to be for point-of-sale (POS) Windows XP based systems and will be supported until 2019.

It's Patch Tuesday in an hour or two, maybe I can test easily because of the organized way I do imaging. Let's get to the concerns now. Microsoft warned against editing the Windows XP registry in a statement:

"The security updates that could be installed are intended for Windows Embedded and Windows Server 2003 customers and do not fully protect Windows XP customers. Windows XP customers also run a significant risk of functionality issues with their machines if they install these updates, as they are not tested against Windows XP.... The best way for Windows XP customers to protect their systems is to upgrade to a more modern operating system, like Windows 7 or Windows 8.1."


OK so dissecting that:

"...do not fully protect" - well of course but if it's 'nothing' VS. 'not fully protect'. Which should we choose?

"...significant risk of functionality issues" - there's the most troubling part, I'd like to ask someone knowledgeable about the the nature of that statement.

Is it connected to what follows: "...as they are not tested against Windows XP..." In other words, significant risk because extensive testing was not done (in which case, well of course they can't *guarantee* anything) or... is there any evidence that these updates will actually mess up the system?


Before any major update like this I commit my Windows XP OS partition images to DVDs. I'll do so this time and go on from there...

P.S. This is about 32-Bit Windows XP of course.
64-Bit Windows XP is based on Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1, not Windows XP as we know it. So updates are different for 64-bit but just for the record, here's how you re-enable those:

Spoiler:

[c627627]

It appears to be working.
See Before & After screenshots below.
Onward to 2019...

[Johan45]

Nice find!

[Silver_Pharaoh]

Aww YEAH!!

[QuickFast]

Man on a mission always finds a way

[Audioaficionado]

It works folks

[Silver_Pharaoh]

It works folks

Can confirm.
Classmate tried it on his machine and VM's, works like a charm!

I'll have to do this ASAP on the families rig


to you c627627!

[orion456]

Most entertaining!! I hope it works for a long time....

[c627627]

Well, if Microsoft messes with this, it will also affect *all* Point of Sale machines for which these updates are made for... therefore I think it's a done deal until 2019

I hope it works for a long time....

[TransformedBG]

Sweet now i can turn my pc into a POS

[orion456]

Sweet now i can turn my pc into a POS

As I understand it, the only real difference between retail and POS is the latter doesn't have games, movie maker, and won't work with other MS products like office. Basically a bunch of stuff is left out of POS to make it cheaper. But the files that are present are identical. I guess that means no more movie maker upgrades.

[Silver_Pharaoh]

As I understand it, the only real difference between retail and POS is the latter doesn't have games, movie maker, and won't work with other MS products like office. Basically a bunch of stuff is left out of POS to make it cheaper. But the files that are present are identical. I guess that means no more movie maker upgrades.

Crap.

[Audioaficionado]

As long as that .reg hack doesn't disable all the XPpro features I like. Security updates are good. I was still getting one or two updates a month after EOL regarding malicious software removal tools before the hack. Now I'm getting several at once.

[orion456]

I keep getting updates so this baby is working great. So far no glitches on the updates either.

[c627627]

I had some symptoms develop where the hour glass was taking unusually long upon booting in.

Was able to reimage multiple times to look for the culprit.
It appears that after I install OS updates without .NET updates, then reboot and apply .NET updates separately later, that fixes the problem. May be unique to my system.

[RJARRRPCGP]

I had some symptoms develop where the hour glass was taking unusually long upon booting in.

Was able to reimage multiple times to look for the culprit.
It appears that after I install OS updates without .NET updates, then reboot and apply .NET updates separately later, that fixes the problem. May be unique to my system.

It usually means it's time to have XP rebuild the prefetch. You do this by emptying the \Windows\Prefetch folder and then rebooting. You have to let it sit then reboot again to see new prefetch data generated.

[orion456]

It usually means it's time to have XP rebuild the prefetch. You do this by emptying the \Windows\Prefetch folder and then rebooting. You have to let it sit then reboot again to see new prefetch data generated.

I have this feeling that prefetch should be emptied often - XP sometimes gets confuserated and I'm sure prefetch is part of that.

[DeathAngelLST]

It didn't work for me. It said it's not a registry script.

[c627627]

You need to save it as a .reg extension and only have this in the file:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\WPA\PosReady]

"Installed"=dword:00000001

[Audioaficionado]

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\WPA\PosReady]

"Installed"=dword:00000001


Pasting this ↑ into Notepad and saving it as a .reg file then double-clicking on it > Yes allows the updates to continue until 2019. The updates are meant to be for point-of-sale (POS) Windows XP based systems and will be supported until 2019.