Continued updates for Windows XP

[shred]

It looks like a simple XP registry mod to make XP "think" it is "Windows Embedded Industry" version is all you need to be able to download current Windows updates. It doesn't even need a reboot. I think I'll be testing this on a VM before trying it on a real XP machine:

[lsemmens]

Thanks for that. Let us how you go.

[mtv]

Hmmm..... are they saying MS is still writing XP updates?

It would be a tad difficult to download and install updates if they have not been written.

[shred]

The updates are still being written, but only made available (at least officially) to a handful of enterprise customers who are paying a motza for the privilege.

[shred]

Well I'll be buggered. It appears to work. I backed up my Win XP sand box VM, made sure it was up to date, applied the registry mod and ran Windows Update without rebooting. It found two new updates:

Security Update for WEPOS and POSReady 2009 (KB2926765)
Security Update for Internet Explorer 8 for WEPOS or POSReady 2009 (KB2953522)

The update to nag about XP being out of date, which I deliberately hadn't installed also disappeared. I looked up the KB articles for the two above updates and Windows XP is not listed in the "Applies to" section of the document.

Installed them and restarted. Everything seems fine. No alarm bells or "Windows needs activation" messages. I'm not sure that I'd be applying the mod to a machine that's actually being used for real work - it's an academic curiosity to me. I wonder how long it will be before Microsoft slam that little back door closed! (3, 2, 1...).

[lsemmens]

Might just try that on one of my XP boxes.