Windows 7

GREYFOX · Post by **GREYFOX** » Mon Feb 03, 2014 8:55 am

Hello.

This is too all who currently maintain update packs for XP. What I want to ask is if you will be stopping development as MS will stop fixing in a sense Windows XP and move onto Windows 7? Or will you stop altogether and pass the torch onto others?

ricktendo64 · Post by **ricktendo64** » Mon Feb 03, 2014 10:01 am

XP updatepack devs will go quiet. As for Win7/8.1 updates there are already a couple solutions (WUD, WHD, KUC)

Post by **5eraph** » Mon Feb 03, 2014 11:24 am

XPx64 has 17 months yet. I plan to add Win2003 updates until its end of life in July 2015. After that, who knows what will happen?

GREYFOX · Post by **GREYFOX** » Mon Feb 03, 2014 6:06 pm

ricktendo64 wrote:XP updatepack devs will go quiet. As for Win7/8.1 updates there are already a couple solutions (WUD, WHD, KUC)

I did not know about those solutions but what I was actually asking was that will anyone create update packs for Windows 7 like for XP? This is what I am asking. If not then I guess it will be Windows Update from now on.

bphlpt · Post by **bphlpt** » Mon Feb 03, 2014 10:32 pm

There aren't "update packs" for Vista and later because how updates are added to the OS has been changed so they are no longer appropriate. Now instead, there are various tools available, such as Win Toolkit and the ones that Rick listed above, that can help you add updates, addons and tweaks, to your offline images just like RVMi and nLite do. Some of the tools, such as KUC, can also act on installed live OS as well. WPI and similar tools can be used of course for switchless installers or you can use portable apps. So you will not have to just use MU / WU unless you just want to.

Cheers and Regards

GREYFOX · Post by **GREYFOX** » Tue Feb 04, 2014 4:19 am

bphlpt wrote:There aren't "update packs" for Vista and later because how updates are added to the OS has been changed so they are no longer appropriate. Now instead, there are various tools available, such as Win Toolkit and the ones that Rick listed above, that can help you add updates, addons and tweaks, to your offline images just like RVMi and nLite do. Some of the tools, such as KUC, can also act on installed live OS as well. WPI and similar tools can be used of course for switchless installers or you can use portable apps. So you will not have to just use MU / WU unless you just want to.

Cheers and Regards

OK. Thank you for the info, I might try that once support for XP has vanished.

adric · Post by **adric** » Tue Feb 04, 2014 5:06 am

5eraph wrote:XPx64 has 17 months yet. I plan to add Win2003 updates until its end of life in July 2015. After that, who knows what will happen?

5eraph, everything I have seen so far is talking about XP support ending in April. I see not distinction between x64 and x86. If what you say is the case, I guess upgrading to x64 would be an alternative for any diehards no?

The only thing I've seen is that "Microsoft extends XP anti-malware support until July 2015".

Al

Post by **5eraph** » Tue Feb 04, 2014 8:36 am

XP x64 RTM was created from the Win2003 x64 SP1 codebase. They share the same Service Pack 2 package.

Microsoft wrote:System Requirements

Supported Operating System

Windows Server 2003 R2 x64 editions, Windows Server 2003 x64 editions, Windows XP Professional x64 Edition

They also share high priority update packages, as the file naming convention suggests:

WindowsServer2003.WindowsXP-KB914961-SP2-x64-ENU.exe
WindowsServer2003.WindowsXP-KB2914368-x64-ENU.exe

There's little reason to believe that packages released after XP's end of life will be any different. The only hiccup Microsoft introduced with many of Win2003's less critical updates in 2009 was to add a few lines of INF code to arbitrarily prevent them from installing on XP x64--great stress on the word "arbitrarily," since most if not all of these fixes apply to XP x64 as well as Win2003 x64. There's a workaround that functions quite well.

Updates for Win2003 will be added to my update pack until it reaches its end of life on 2015/07/14.

adric wrote:I guess upgrading to x64 would be an alternative for any diehards no?

JorgeA linked a couple articles on MSFN that help to answer that question better than I can. Moving to XP x64 provides easier access to high priority updates past XP's EoL. But that shouldn't be the user's only consideration when choosing an operating system.