RagedMeteor1837: I just checked, and the URL link in step #29 of my guide no longer works. Thanks for bringing that to our attention.
This will do the same work and covers both Vista and WS2008. Also on this message I have included the dotnetfx_ESU_Bypass.
Yg#1n1wP: I did 2 separate clean installs of Windows Vista Business SP2 64-bit on March 18th and 19th. The entire procedure in step #17 of the guide worked fine for me.
My bad. I´d been using an earlier batch file. With the new one - bingo! I haven´t bothered with 22 recommended and 6 optional updates as they don´t appear necessary and/or are intended for Server 2008. Are any strictly needed? All the important updates installed without problem. Thanks again!
The platform update is also optional but without it you won't be able to install IE9 for example. The Power Shell 2.0 Update is also optional. The optional and recommended updates generally add features while the Security Updates fix security holes. In my opinion if something is obsolete by now is the Security Updates (assuming that you run this on VM or you have other ways to secure yourself since vista is generally obsolete anyway.)
I install all of the important updates first, then I install all of the recommended and optional updates afterwards. This prevents too many updates from being installed at the same time and having Windows Update freeze up. The only updates that I hide are the few outdated or unneeded drivers that appear.
Thanks for all the tips, guys! I installed all the optional/recommended updates without any problem. I know you are all striving to make Vista a functioning modern browser (which is commendable) but I am more interested in creating a time capsule* of each OS in its heyday: XP (2004), XP x64 (2006), Vista (early 2009). 7 and 8.1 will be joining them soon but at the moment they are still in full swing. *I have kept all the necessary exe files going back to 1998.
There is no new Servicing Stack Update(SSU) or IE9 update for April 2022 "patch Tuesday", so steps #16 and #17 of the guide will remain the same. There is a new Security Monthly Quality Rollup(SMQR) for April 2022 "patch Tuesday", so step #31 will be changed soon to reflect that. On a side note, there is a new update for NET Framework 2.0 through 4.6.2.
Somehow, a person from MSFN managed to install the ESU LPP and get the latest SMQR in WU. I wonder how he did it.
xrononautis: Can you explain more clearly as to where in the update process of Windows Vista 64-bit you are renaming the SoftwareDistribution folder? And are you still having to make use of the July 2020 KB4575904 ESU LPP update?
KB4575904 ESU LPP is installed in all of those VMs. The Software Distribution folder is not being renamed as part of the update process. I just renamed it after a successful scan in order to scan again with a fresh Software Distribution folder to see if it would be able to detect updates again, and it failed. After that I restored the original Software Distribution folder that had succeeded originally and voila the updates were detected again. (Or the whole update state was saved in the Datastore maybe.) Anyway. The way I understand it, it is like there is a server side filter (or however you want to call it) that blocks certain installations from reaching Windows Update while allowing others. To my understanding so far current x64 installations can detect the updates while a clean install will fail (I had no problem in x86 versions of Vista in march with clean installations). It happened to you as well some time ago if I remember correctly. After August while you could still detect updates while the rest of us were failing and then you did a fresh install and you couldn't detect them any more.
Thanks for your easy-to-understand explanation. It doesn't appear there'll be a new ESU LPP update for Windows Server 2008 64-bit, so I'll continue for now to use the current steps with clean installs.