I just ran the last batch of updates dated April 11 for my Vista system. After rebooting, I'm getting the "System could not connect to the System Event Notification service. See your administrator." Anyone ever get this error? At one point, I installed some earlier updates which I must have missed; could that Have anything to do with this error? I think it's OK to install updates that are a couple years old, right?
Make sure the System Event Notification Service is set to "Automatic" in the Services configuration applet: Start >> Run
Type services.msc
Press <Enter>
It's usually OK to select old updates - if they have been superseded Windows just ignores them. Try this which at odd times has unstuck things:
Turn of computer and unplug power cord. Remove battery if it is a laptop. Hold the Power Off/On button for at least 20 seconds to discharge the motherboard components.If that doesn't help tap F8 while booting up and let us know if you can get to the startup menu. If so try Safe Mode. If you can get to either Safe Mode or Command Prompt there are ways forward.
Always pop back and let us know the outcome - thanks
Support has ended. It's time to dump Vista & replace it with Win7 or Linux.
We still have forums for DOS and Windows 3.1 so presumably there are folk who wish to continue using them. Similarly there are vintage and veteran car enthusiasts. Always pop back and let us know the outcome - thanks
Vista is not a good OS & never was. It currently holds 0.72% of the worldwide market share. That's roughly 1/2 of what it was a year ago. If it's being used for nostalgia purposes, so be it. But if it's being used regularly for online purposes, it's not a smart choice.
I did a restore before the updates and I'm back up. Going back to see if the updates were not in the list got hung up and so did Windows defender; it said Defender was shut down, i guess by the updates. Anyway, I had to force shut down. Before the restore I was able to get into safe mode and I think I still would be able to. What are your recommendations from safe mode? Thanks!
I had assumed you couldn't boot up so my idea was to use Safe Mode to get to System Restore (via Command Prompt if necessary) and back to a date before the updates. If I'm reading you right you've done that anyhow. Hard to say what to suggest other than making a manual System Restore point then updating again. Maybe this time it will work out, if not you should at least be able to restore again.
Always pop back and let us know the outcome - thanks
I restored the system back to before the updates. Then I manually downloaded the rest of the updates and made another restore point just in case. The manual updates went OK. I haven't done all of them yet. I think that the update app may not be communicating with the System Event Notification Service. I started out with the latest round of updates by manually downloading a few updates which prompted the Update app to populate with the rest of the updates. When I made the app do the updates, that's when the errors came up. So, I may continue with the manual way for the rest of the updates.
Yep, that might well jigger it into shape. If not you could go to "Control Panel > Troubleshooting > View All > Windows Update" and see if that fixes it. The only downside of this is it sets the Windows Update service to "Automatic" but the correct default for Windows 10 is "Manual". I recommend setting it back again if possible.
Always pop back and let us know the outcome - thanks
If the system is currently working OK, then I suggest you fore go any additional updates. Once end of life has come and gone, Microsoft no longer provides any updates, critical or otherwise. So, IMO there is no advantage to updating Vista any longer. I have a Vista system which I need to keep running in order to run an old CAD program that only runs on 32 bit systems. No 64 bit drivers for the dongle. I do not connect that computer to the internet.
Just to add that when XP support finished I still received the odd updates to various MS things, including Office and Windows Defender (MS). The latter only stopped recently (this year) but before that it could, if you wished, be updated from it's own Window without any other MS updates. Always pop back and let us know the outcome - thanks
Defender is not being fed to Vista computers any longer. I received a notice about a month ago.
Yep. On XP it was also stopped way back but if you had it onboard it still kept updating (despite what MS said). I was amazed it lasted to 2017. Always pop back and let us know the outcome - thanks
You may not get automatic updates for Defender for Vista any more but you can still download them manually. Go this site: https://www.microsoft.com/security/... Once downloaded, just hit enter and Defender is updated! There is no pop up telling you it's done; just wait a couple seconds, open Defender and you'll see the version number has been updated.
Re #14
Just to say that in the case of XP when they finally stopped auto updates, applying manual updates from a download did not update the data base. I accept that the situation with Vista might be quite different.Always pop back and let us know the outcome - thanks
Anyone familiar with Vista update 4014793? It is an update to correct a vulnerability in Office and Word Pad. I'm confused because there's two files listed with this update. Are you supposed to run both files? One before the other or doesn't make a difference. Here's two links to the update:
Do you mean the two that appear in Catalog? If so one is for 32 bit machines and the other for 64 bit. You are pretty safe with updates because if you attempt to install one which is wrong it will not be accepted by the system. If it installs without query then it was valid.
Always pop back and let us know the outcome - thanks
No I don't mean the two that appear in the catalog. I mean when you look at the 64 bit download and even the 32 bit download, there are two files listed. I've only ever seen one file for an update, not two! I found the culprit to the whole issue with the updates. Do not install 4017018. I did and I got the same System Notification error. I had to do a restore. It is supposed to supercede 4012583 which I have on my system already but there is definitely something wrong with 4017018. It is a graphics component update.
I must be having a real bad day. I can't find 4014793 in your first link at all and when I download from the catalog I only get one file (an exe). Like I said though it is safe to try an update because the system will reject it if necessary. Always pop back and let us know the outcome - thanks
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