Posted on 08/06/2016 2:48:30 PM PDT by ducttape45
your obviously a knowledgeable guy, tech-savvy.
I would think someone of your caliber wouldnt bother with FR, I certainly hope you have crossposted this to more than a few tech forums.
As to your solution, Vista is old, even if patched up it is vulnerable, turn off the updates , polish it up and send it back to your friend.
Install Linux Mint. Install Virtual Box. Install Vista in a VirtualBox. Live happily ever after....
oh you cant turn updates off, got it!, never mind
Are you thinking Widows 10 might get installed? The last I heard, Vista was not eligible for a FREE upgrade, so unless you would pay-— no you would not.
I actually don’t subscribe to many tech forums. Perhaps I should. I was hoping maybe someone here on FR might know where I can look for answers, but with ShadowAce out of the game while he rehabilitates from his accident answers are few and far between.
Windows Vista went end-of-support 4 years ago.
Either install Windows 7. And update it via:
http://download.wsusoffline.net/
Or, as others have suggested, simply install Linux Mint. . .
Oh no, Vista can’t get the Windows 10 upgrade, and I’m not worried about that. I’m just trying to it fully updated with all Windows updates before I return it. It’s actually for a lady I work with who is not very techsavy so I want to ensure it’s as up-to-date as possible.
Vista was a sorry system when it was new. If I couldn’t take it to either XP or 7, I’d probably just opt for a suitable Linux distribution to end up with a usable box.
Rule of thumb - starting with 3 (bad), 3.1 (good), 95 (bad), 98 (good), ME (bad), XP (good), Vista (bad), 7 (good), 8/8.1 (bad), 9 (would have been good; not released), 10 (bad).
Looks like a great website. Too bad that won’t work for Vista and XP.
Okay. I have Vista still. Works fine for me. I have purchased several safety programs, so I have no problems.
You seem pretty tech savvy. Have you checked if Background Intelligent Services was turned on? I ran in to that once, where it was turned off and couldn’t get updates. I’m not sure why it wasn’t but turning it on eventually got the updates going again.
As far as the time it takes for updates to happen, it seems like even Windows 7 updates can take forever these days. I just let them run and eventually it happens. I can only imagine what Vista would be like now. Good luck.
CGato
As I mentioned in another reply, the lady to which this laptop belongs is not techsavy, she just wants the laptop back to it's original setting, which in this case is Vista.
My Brother-in-Law gave me his old HP laptop which also has Vista.
It must have had a thousand viruses on it. I am not very computer savvy but eventually got it to do a complete reinstall which did clear all the virus.
It will not update so I have just been using it as is, but basically it just sits there for weeks at a time.
What I've resorted to doing is letting Windows Update run while I download more updates. If, after downloading 30-40 updates, Windows Update is still running I restart the laptop, install what I downloaded, and start the process again. It's time consuming, to be sure, but eventually, hopefully, I'll get it updated.
Dump Windows and use Linux.
Yeah, I reinstalled Vista on a desktop about a year ago and the updates did take a long time. I just let it run til they were done. I’ve done a couple of Windows 7 machines since then and it was just as bad. It sucks you have to jump through hoops now to get Windows Updates on the older OS’s. That’s probably by design though.
CGato
I thought Vista End of Life is next year? Microsoft still puts out updates for it.
One thing I’m doing as I reprogram this machine is I’m keeping the downloaded files. In case I have to do this again I’ll have them on hand. I did the same thing with Windows 2000 and XP a few years back.
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