[JodyThornton]

Here's my concern: I am aware that extended phase support for Windows XP x64 Edition goes down the drain with 32-bit Windows XP on April 8, 2014. But Windows Server 2003 is in extended phase support until July 2015. And Windows XP x64 Edition shares more in common with Windows Server 2003.

So for an extra year, will I be able to manually download Windows Server 2003 updates and use them to patch my system running Windows XP x64 Edition? I enjoy using 64-bit Windows XP and my system is pretty snappy with it. So the longer I can run the OS, the happier I am.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Cheers,
Jody Thornton
(Hamilton, Ontario)

[tomasz86]

Yes but you can't do it directly. You need to extract the update, edit update.inf and "patch" update.exe. Unfortunately I don't know how to patch the update.exe for x64 :/

[5eraph]

A file comparison showing how it can be patched has been posted on RyanVM.net, tomasz86. Editing the INF should not be necessary.

This post has been edited by 5eraph: 13 February 2012 - 07:22 PM

[tomasz86]

Right I thought that there are differences in [Version] between 2K3 and XP x64. That's why I talked about editing the update.inf.

[JodyThornton]

Darn! I was hoping for a more drag and drop solution. but you did answer my questions, and that was very helpful.

Now it means I have to decide on an alternate lightweight OS that can run select Win32 apps, and yet not be a pig like Windows Vista or Windows 7.

Cheers,
Jody

[5eraph]

A three line script can make it drag and drop once you have the patched file. It only needs to do the following:

• Extract the update package.
  
• Copy the patched update.exe into the extraction directory.
  
• Run the patched update.exe

"%~1" /u /x:"%~dp0%~n1"
copy /y "%~dp0update.exe" "%~dp0%~n1\update\"
"%~dp0%~n1\update\update.exe"

This post has been edited by 5eraph: 13 February 2012 - 10:27 PM

[JodyThornton]

Well I've bookmarked Ryan's board and this thread to revisit later.

Of course, no one knows if as of May 2014, Microsoft will change other parts of the updates to make sure XP x64 is blocked out.

Thanks,
Jody