[Virtualacorn-list] End of Microsoft support for Windows XP

[T.O.M.S.]

Thu Jul 10 10:41:44 BST 2014, T.O.M.S. admin at toms12.plus.com 
sayeth:

> We were especially interested in Aaron's notion about fooling
> our 'consumer' version of Windows XP into thinking it's a
> 'non consumer' version, as used by larger organisations such
> as British banks. The beauty of this being that support for
> Windows XP will continue for a further 5 years, including
> (presumably) security updates.

> This involves tweaking the Windows Registry, as described
> in the article - but to date we haven't got it to work...


OK, problem resolved - sheer incompetence on my part.   :-[

When cutting & pasting the Registry key covered in the Support 
article, it's important to include the "Windows Registry Editor 
Version 5.00" header before the HKEY detail. If you don't, it don't 
work. Stupid boy. Drat.

We've now got it working on a couple of our Windows XP machines (the 
others to follow) *and* installed the 'non consumer' updates, 
evidently with no knock-on problems. So FWIW, here's our recommended 
procedure - all At Your Own Risk...


a.  Using System Restore, make a just-in-case Restore Point.  (The 
procedure is on pp72-73 in the 'VirtualRPC In Use' booklet on 
http://www.virtualacorn.co.uk/support/vrpcinuse/index.htm)

b.  Prepare the Registry key tweak as covered in the Support article 
in http://www.virtualacorn.co.uk/support/articles/147/index.htm
*ensuring you include the "Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00" 
header before the HKEY detail* and giving the file a name with the 
Windows  extension .reg to ensure it works.

c.  Double-click on the <filename>.reg file to install the Registry 
tweak.

d.  Restart the computer to ensure all is well so far.

e.  If you wish (rather than wait for Windows to do its thing and 
identify available updates), go to the Microsoft Updates page on 
http://www.update.microsoft.com/microsoftupdate/v6/default.aspx?ln=en-us 
click on the <Custom> button and wait for available updates to appear.

In our case, the 2 machines both turned up 8 updates ready for 
installation, of which 6 had "... Security Update for ... WEPOS and 
POSready 2009" in their titles, so evidently these refer to the 'Non 
consumer' version of Windows XP. (The other 2 were .NET framework 
updates.) So it does look like the Registry key tweak is working OK on 
both machines.

f.  If e. all looks OK, install the updates. On completion, the system 
will very likely call for a computer restart.

g.  If you hit problems, you always have the option to use System 
Restore to roll back to the previous condition.


With many thanks to Aaron for posting what looks like being an 
invaluable extension to Windows XP's security. Nice one.

Alex Hamilton
pp T.O.M.S.






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