Registry Hack Enables Continued Updates For Windows XP

DroidJason1 (3589319) writes "A registry workaround, which tricks Windows Update into thinking you are running Windows Embedded POSReady 2009, allows you to get free security updates until 2019. All you need is a simple 32bit or 64bit registry entry in order to make this work. POSReady 2009 is slated to receive security updates for another five years. Microsoft ended support for Windows XP on April 8th of 2014."

Re:Will those patches actually WORK?

[Anonymous Coward]

Windows POSReady 2009 is actually Windows XP though, just stripped down and a lot of stuff removed. The same system files exist in the same versions and thus they have the same exploits and can be patched with the same code.

POSReady 2009 is basically a different "distro" of Windows XP that Microsoft is supporting until 2009. By changing that one registry entry, you get Windows Update to realize you're running that special distro, and you get patches.

Re:are the people still running XP

[dargaud]

I develop on Linux, and for when I need Windows I use XP in a virtual machine. Plenty good enough for only runnign an IDE. Today I had to touch Win7 for the first time because one of my apps wouldn't install. It felt like being raped by Fisher Price.

Yeah not quite...

[craznar]

As someone who works with POS Ready 2009 a lot (I write Point of Sale Software), the catch with this idea is that many (a great many) of the components in normal XP just don't exist in POSReady.

SO you may, or may not get updates for some parts of your OS - because Microsoft will not be writing updates for the rest.

Re:Excellent

[Zocalo]

Even the older Slashdotters have a blinkered view of culture it seems. The original reference is from George Orwell's "1984", only it was fingers and not lights.

Re:are the people still running XP

[YrWrstNtmr]

It felt like being raped by Fisher Price.

Comparisons to Fisher Price was one of the main initial complaints about XP.

Re:Are you kidding me?

[future assassin]

Yes they are pretty expensive my current one ACE Retail was around $1400 for one computer. I looked at oithers and the prices were insane if you wanted anything not DOS looking like. I did go with ACE as this is what I was use to for the previous 4 years but its amazing how the same bugs have been in the system for the last 6 years and old bugs just pop up out of the blue even though they were suppose to be fixed.

I now have found a Linux based POS http://linuxcanada.com/ [linuxcanada.com] that seems quite good and will be testing it out shortly

Re:Windows Server 2003?

[Billly Gates]

I installed Windows Server 2003 to VMWare Player just yesterday. The activation server won't work anymore, so I had to make the dreaded call. The Pakistani sounding guy named "Phillip" was helpful but it would have been easier with Internet activation. He was very curious as to WHY I wanted to install Windows Server 2003.

Windows Update wouldn't work until I downloaded SP2 and installed it. Then I was able to "enjoy" several hours of downloading and installing updates via Windows Update

What I wonder about is, when I accepted an update and rebooted there were several patches to the updates. Why doesn't MS build the patches into the update?

That is because the certificates were replaced. Remember back in 2011 about one of the root CA servers being compromised. It was only one of the keys used to sign and not the full master but still MS updated its certificates to be safe.

You can download an update (forgot which KB) for both XP & Server 2003. Even XP out of the box wont run updates either without the fix. There is a fixit too that will change them for you.

Re:Are you kidding me?

[mysidia]

That still counts as "on-the-internet" (unless you somehow have a dedicate line going from the POS to the server), so you're plenty vulnerable to spoofing and man-in-the-middle attacks.

There's this thing called a VLAN [wikipedia.org].

You can use a dedicated Layer 3 switch for your POS network. Setup a Private VLAN (PVLAN) to carry your POS network.
Setup a private promiscuous VLAN for your switch to perform L3 routing on.
Setup a private Isolated VLAN (PVLAN Isolated) for your POS terminals, and enable local Proxy-Arp on your isolated PVLANs.
Place your server on a Server VLAN.

Enable 802.1x wired port security for your POS ports.

Configure routing between your POS Subnet and your POS server's dedicated Subnet. Set it up with Route-maps or ACLs such that; every POS can talk to the server, and the server can talk to any POS terminal, but no two POS can speak to each other, and no other IP address can speak to a POS or the server.

No default route in the routing table of this Layer 3 switch.

No internet connectivity necessary.