Root Access

3:17 PM

Hi. If anyone knows, is this official Microsoft site page? I'm not sure about the domain.

https://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com/Search.aspx?q=windows+7+updates

3:42 PM

@Vikas hm, why are you even there - its meant for manually downloading hotfixes and patches

and is a bit of a historical artifact of pre-automatic updates

also - click on the lock symbol and inspect the certifcate for yourself.

I have a very old desktop. It has Windows 7 and I need to install an update manually. I don't use it but I want to keep it "alive" as a past memory.

There were many sources to download the updates (SP1 basically) but they are not legal. So I was looking something official.

I don't want to do a fresh install.

@JourneymanGeek Hmm. Certificate says issued by Microsoft Azure!

\O/

So it should be official.

Yup

I sometimes doubt a domain when it is like www.x.y.z.ANY_WELL_KNOWN_COMPANY.com

3:48 PM

@gparyani well, see this answer that mentions for three different versions really covering all bases. superuser.com/questions/1722106/…

Learn to check it yourself :D

I feel it could be a fake domain to look like legal site.

@gparyani there's nothing wrong with a question being general.. sometimes an answer can be even better by covering the different bases.

tbh, if you're still running 7, you have lots of potential security issues...

Does any AV even still support that?

most security hazards are websites and web browsers update themselves

3:49 PM

Web browser updates for 7 will get dropped gradually as it was for XP ....

@JourneymanGeek I understand. But I'm not going to use it for any work or even any small tasks. It would be like a park where I can go when I want to travel to past memories XD It's just a past memory. Probably the first desktop we got at home.

ah ok

I suggest keeping a copy of whatever updates you download then!

I don't think web beowser updates would be any different depending on OS would they?

like don't they use the same chrome versions, it's all NT based OSs

naw

@JourneymanGeek Yeah. I remember 1 year ago I tried to play Netflix on Windows XP (virtual box) in - lol it failed badly. No solution.

It kept me saying download this download that now download this now that

I gave up.

3:59 PM

I used to keep offline updates (there used to be a good script that scraped it from MS's page) for old OSes

so just ran and kept the last version that supported XP

download.wsusoffline.net last version still has 7 support... :D

if it works, its gonna be a lot less painful getting it fully patched

Good. I'm not sure the last version will work for Windows 7. Microsoft have officially removed links to download Windows 7 updates (except that catalog link).

\o/ I THINK it uses that but I don't remember

2 hours later…

MiG

6:08 PM

so to recap... on the one hand utterly unable to tell if sites like the MS catalog (!) are legit, on the other hand keeping a Win7 PC "to travel to past memories" o_O