Instead, now you have to search for any hotfixes, software updates, drivers etc., using these keywords and descriptions for these items. Now you cannot just visit the web site and let it detect all the updates that your operating system needs.
In fact, the new Windows Update Catalog site does not even use the ActiveX technology anymore (even if you access it using Internet Explorer).īut Microsoft has made some changes to this Microsoft Update Catalog web site. Unlike before when it would show a message that this site can only be accessed using Internet Explorer 6.0 or newer, now it does not whine about the Internet Explorer requirements. Had it not been for the Edge browser, they would not have touched the update catalog web site even now.īut thanks to recent changes made by Microsoft, now you can access the Microsoft Update Catalog web site using any recent version of any popular web browser like Chrome, Firefox, Opera, Edge and others. But at Microsoft they seem to work in this saying very religiously – they kept using the same ActiveX based Microsoft Update Catalog web interface that worked only in Internet Explorer for many decades until it stopped working in the new Edge web browser. Run the DL'ed exe, and now WU should work on your 2K installation again.There is a very popular saying – “if it ain’t broken, then don’t try to fix it”, and it actually works in many places and avoids some of the unpleasant situations when you end up damaging something that was working very good. Here's the link for where I got the one I used: Worse, I couldn't find it when rooting through the Windows Update Catalog catacombs! So, I had to resort to doing a Google search for "Windows 2000 Root Certificate Updates". Of course this has to get validated as well, but the problem now is that WU doesn't give you the opportunity to ram the certificate down Windows throat like it did for the ActiveX control.ĥ.) Now for the part you're REALLY going to love! If you recall, the Root Certificate updates for 2K were (and still are) classified as "optional" ones. The first thing the scanner does is DL a cabinet file which contains information WU needs to figure out what updates you require.
So.Ģ.) Click on the Microsoft Software Publisher link at the bottom of the dialog, and force IE to install the certificate.ģ.) At this point the web control should work and WU will start the scanning process.Ĥ.) However, there's another gotcha. It will fail (as we have seen), however if you look closely at the popup dialog box, it's telling you it can't validate the ActiveX control in addition to asking if you want to install and run it. Unfortunately, neither the standalone SP4 or the Rollup Update for SP4 has the required certificate update either.ġ.) After you do the clean install, go to WU.
The issue is a clean install from CD of any version of 2K has antique Root Certificates, which can no longer be used to validate the code signing of the current WU components. In a nut shell, the problem is not with the latest WU agent or any of it's components. I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for one to come out though!īack to the current problem. In fact, when I explored all the links in the error dialog box while trying to update a clean install of 2K Server, the supported OS list implied that under extremely extraordinary circumstances MS might consider a new security update for 2KSP4. It DOES NOT mean that WU has been cut off for it. Yes, there is a solution to this problem.įirst off, let's make it clear that even though 2K is EOL, that only means that MS does not develop or deploy new Security and other updates to the general public for it.