Support for Windows Vista

[adang1345]

... On the subject of CPython and Vista compatibility, may I be so cheeky 😄 as to ask whether you'd consider backporting support down to NT 6.0 (Vista, WS2008R1) in your PythonWin7 offerings?

You have provided (and continue to provide 👍 ) an invaluable service 🥇 to the retrocomputing communities, namely the Win7 one, with your Win7-compatible py3.9+ builds; these are already being put into good use by compiling Win7-compatible yt-dlp (both x86 and x64) builds for Win7 users, because the yt-dlp team are adamant on ceasing support for any CPython version not officially supported by the PSF themselves; thus, py3.8 was dropped last year and now py3.9 will be imminently dropped...

However, the NT6.0 crowd 😉 has been left without something concrete 😢 ; FTR, a member of the MSFN forums has come up with source-patched and self-recompiled versions of py3.8.13, py3.9.13, py3.10.18 and py3.11.4 (nothing newer as I write this), but these "assemblies" have non-standard configuration and mainly target WinXP SP3 32-bit hosts, with legacy CPUs only supporting the SSE instruction set...

I have taken a closer look at your PythonWindows py3.8.x builds and your PythonWin7 py3.9.x, py3.10.x, py3.11.x, py3.12.x, py3.13.xbuilds; the installers have been extracted with UniExtract2 and/or the embed-win32 packages have been extracted.

The one file that presents the incompatibilities with Vista SP2 is always the python3x.dll one: in more detail:

python38.dll (PythonWindows), python39.dll (PythonWin7) and python310.dll (PythonWin7), all three have ONLY ONE Win7+ kernel32.dll function:

GetActiveProcessorCount

python311.dll (PythonWin7), python312.dll (PythonWin7) and python313.dll (PythonWin7), all three have ONLY TWO Win7+ kernel32.dll functions:

GetActiveProcessorCount (case of python[38,39,310].dll)

SetWaitableTimerEx

If I HexEdit GetActiveProcessorCount to GetLastError (for lack of a better one) in the first group of DLLs, I can make py3.8.x/py3.9.x/py3.10.x launch on this Vista SP2 32-bit machine; likewise, if I HexEdit GetActiveProcessorCount to GetLastError and SetWaitableTimerEx to SetWaitableTimer in the second group of DLLs , I can make py3.11.x/py3.12.x/py3.13.x launch, too, on the Vista SP2 32-bit machine; but this is hacking binary files, there's no telling how the actual Python code will behave on a remote scenario... FWIW, I can run recent yt-dlp versions with these bin-hacked CPython mods quite fine (no issue I could detect myself...).

Optimally, the Vista-incompatible Python code should be excised from source and then the source recompiled, with compiler targeting at minimum NT 6.0; hopefully, Vista-compatible builds would be produced...

Thanks for your precious time reading this ❤️ ; any personal thoughts on achieving NT 6.0 support in your py3.8+ builds would be welcome/highly appreciated 😄 ...

Thanks for all that you already do 👍 , kindest regards from a Vista die-hard 😉 ...

Originally posted by @Vangelis66 in #23

[adang1345]

@Vangelis66 I moved your request here. If what you described are the only incompatibilities with Windows Vista, then it shouldn't be too hard to support it. I'll give it a try.

[vladimir-andreevich]

Not only. There are also minor additional issues with the installer that have already been taken care of.

[Vangelis66]

If what you described are the only incompatibilities with Windows Vista

... Yes, I think I was explicit 😜 ; below some more proof:

In your python-3.8.20-embed-win32 "PythonWindows" package, file python38.dll was HexEdited (GetActiveProcessorCount to GetSystemInfo), result being:

The same stands true for your python-3.9.23-embed-win32 and python-3.10.18-embed-win32 "PythonWin7" packages; below a screengrab for py3.10 (file python310.dll was HexEdited):

GetActiveProcessorCount not being available on NT 6.0 is addressed here by Vladimir 👍 , though, TBH, I wasn't able to spot the actual fix inside a humongous commit that modifies ca. 13k source files 😉 ...

For CPython 3.11-3.14, I had to HexEdit file python3xx.dll in two locations,

GetActiveProcessorCount -> GetSystemInfo
SetWaitableTimerEx -> SetWaitableTimer

Below the outcome from your python-3.14.0rc2-embed-win32 "PythonWin7" package:

So, even the forthcoming (Oct 7th 2025) py3.14 seems doable...

FWIW, if a "PythonVista" project of yours comes into fruition (fingers crossed 😸 ), there's no immediate need for you to compile every Python version released by the PSF; only the last/latest security-fix release (e.g. py3.8.20, py3.9.23, py3.10.18, py3.11.13, py3.12.11) or latest bug-fix release (e.g. py3.13.7) of a branch would suffice...

I'll give it a try.

Many thanks already for even considering doing this ❤️ ; I'm not a coder myself 😊 , but, by the looks of it, Vladimir's work here should be a source of many hints towards your goal (and his work is already based on yours, so this is really nice 😄 ) ...

Kindest regards.

[Vangelis66]

@vladimir-andreevich

Greetings 😄 ; I wasn't even aware of your cpython-windows-vista-and-7 repo, which appears to have existed since May 2024? ... I frequent the retrocomputing (XP, Vista, 7, 8) sections of the MSFN and MDL forums and I don't remember 😞 hearing there about your Vista-compatible CPython releases; or, perhaps, I somehow missed it or forgot about it; this needs to be made more widely known to Vista users, that's for sure...

You're a true legend and hero! 🥇 ; as a Vista user, I always felt bitter how the OS was mistreated by major app vendors and, despite belonging to the NT 6.x family of Windows OSes, was most often grouped, where support was concerned, with WinXP (NT 5.x) rather than Win7 (NT 6.1); this was a trend first started by most evil Google 😡 , then aped by Mozilla, etc.

I'm a frequent user of the yt-dlp Python script/app, ever since its devs dropped support for py3.7 (in Nov 2023), Vista users had to rely on py3.8+ "implementations" mainly targeting WinXP, which happened to also launch under Vista; the latest py3.10/3.11 such implementations use DLL wrappers compatible with XP only, so Vista-specific CPython variants had to be additionally crafted to cater to the (fewer) Vista yt-dlp users (and all this puts an extra burden on the shoulders of the most brave person 👍 who offers yt-dlp binaries for Win < 8.1) ; since now Vista has its "own" CPython variant (not the WinXP one), why not one derived from its closer descendant, Win7? This was the thinking behind my original request (in first post here) to adang1345...

You have done a splendid job 🥇 , building on the existing work of adang1345 (who is duly credited, of course 😄 ); hopefully, you can both join forces, so that

1. Even security-fix versions be made Vista-compatible and released (you appear to only offer the last bugfix release of each branch, i.e. py3.9.13, py3.10.11, py3.11.9 and py3.12.10)
2. Extend Vista support to even newer CPython versions, i.e. py3.13+ ...

Thanks immensely once again 🫶 , your one comment on this issue has been a real eye-opener for me ㊗️ ...

Off-topic (kind of...)

Thanks to some very intelligent and talented coders, the Vista OS has received a fresh breath of life in the past couple of years; this is mainly because recent-engine browsers have been made available there (Supermium, Chromium-based, r3dfox, Firefox-based, and recent Chrome+Firefox forks offered by the Chinese dev e3kskoy7wqk 🥇 ); having recent Python available to the mix is an added bonus 🎉 ; literally many thousands of older, but still reliably working, machines (whose OS can't be further updated, for a variety of reasons) are saved from the dumpster through the efforts of those talented coders - God bless them!

[Dnyarri]

Off-topic (kind of...)

Sorry to interfere, but I'm unlikely to see so many retro Python users again, so I can't miss a chance to ask: is there some sort of Python > 3.4 for Windows XP repo, with ready to use binaries?

[vladimir-andreevich]

@Dnyarri There is currently no repository with fully functional Python > 3.4 for Windows XP, and it is unlikely that it will appear. The core issue is architectural: while Windows Vista/7/8/8.1 share the same base kernel NT 6.x, Windows XP is a completely different ecosystem with a different kernel NT 5.1. Many primitives that modern Python and its dependencies expect — such as contemporary synchronization mechanisms, timers, and I/O facilities — either do not exist on XP or have an incompatible implementation. This requires adding a complete compatibility layer that is costly to maintain.

The toolkit that is used for building Python presents complications. Universal CRT (VS 2015+) is released for Vista SP2 and later [1]. To target XP from Visual Studio, you need a special XP-toolset that effectively injects this compatibility layer [2]; otherwise, linking pulls up functions that XP does not have. This toolset is already broken in Visual Studio 2019 later than version 16.7 [3]. XP has historically had problems with SHA2 signatures and certificates [4], which need to be properly addressed.

Instead of attempting to build and maintain a custom XP compatibility layer for newer Python, which is expensive, a far more pragmatic path is to deploy One-Core-API (source, binaries) with the existing installers for Vista/7. This is the approach I DO recommend.

It is beneficial to take a look at these experimental XP-friendly builds of Python 3.8.

[vladimir-andreevich]

@Vangelis66 Thank you for your kind words, I am very pleased 😊.

as a Vista user, I always felt bitter how the OS was mistreated by major app vendors and, despite belonging to the NT 6.x family of Windows OSes, was most often grouped, where support was concerned, with WinXP (NT 5.x) rather than Win7 (NT 6.1); this was a trend first started by most evil Google 😡 , then aped by Mozilla, etc.

Windows Vista was significantly ahead of its time in several areas. It introduced a revamped graphics driver model WDDM [1], security features such as BitLocker [2], more aggressive caching (SuperFetch/ReadyBoost) [3], address space layout randomization [4] that the industry and hardware manufacturers were not ready for. These shifts required major driver work from hardware vendors, especially for GPUs: early third-party drivers were immature, causing instability [5] (I am silent about performance issues). This created the impression "Vista eats all the resources". It was meant to be an acceleration, not a memory-hungry feature. When the ecosystem got stronger, Windows 7 already came out. Windows 7 inherited the Vista base and was designed to run on the same hardware and with the same drivers — as a result, 7 won laurels, not Vista.

On modern hardware, Vista can feel smooth if proper drivers exist, but in practice many newer platforms lack Vista drivers and the OS is out of support.

NT family ≠ vendor support.

The major reason vendors dropped Vista is that the Visual C++ Redistributable 2015-2022 — the runtime behind thousands of apps — supports Windows 7 and newer [6], making developers to declare "XP/Vista are unsupported".

XP and Vista also lack robust, built-in TLS 1.1/1.2 support [7]; while workarounds via Server 2008 SP2 updates exist [8], they are outside mainstream support. Therefore, major browser vendors, like Google and Mozilla, ended releases for XP and Vista at the same time.

Vista froze on WDDM 1.0, whereas with Windows 7 introduced WDDM 1.1 with many new features which were already focused on 7+ [9], creating another compatibility watershed.

I'm a frequent user of the yt-dlp Python script/app, ever since its devs dropped support for py3.7 (in Nov 2023), Vista users had to rely on py3.8+ "implementations" mainly targeting WinXP, which happened to also launch under Vista; the latest py3.10/3.11 such implementations use DLL wrappers compatible with XP only, so Vista-specific CPython variants had to be additionally crafted to cater to the (fewer) Vista yt-dlp users (and all this puts an extra burden on the shoulders of the most brave person 👍 who offers yt-dlp binaries for Win < 8.1) ; since now Vista has its "own" CPython variant (not the WinXP one), why not one derived from its closer descendant, Win7? This was the thinking behind my original request (in first post here) to adang1345...

I made some exploration regarding this, and I can answer: we can derive yt-dlp for Windows Vista, but there are additional challenges to consider.

1. yt-dlp requires ffmpeg for post-production. Existing builds honestly write that at least Windows 7 is required [10] [11]. I tried to run this release on my Windows Vista inside VM, and it failed: I got "K32GetProcessMemoryInfo not found in KERNELE32.dll". This requires a rebuild without K32* imports, as described here, but I should notice that we do not replace system DLLs. But this is just the visible top of the incompatibility iceberg.

2. Some of Vista's root certificates might be outdated, so CERTIFICATE_VERIFY_FAILED is possible. yt-dlp embeds Mozilla's root certificate bundle [12], which is why SSL_CERT_FILE/REQUESTS_CA_BUNDLE variables are ignored until --compat-options no-certifi is specified. After that, you can insert a fresh cacert.pem (from certifi) via SSL_CERT_FILE.

3. TLS 1.2 must be explicitly enabled in the registry (SCHANNEL\Protocols) to be usable by applications [8]. Without these yt-dlp and ffmpeg will typically fail with handshake errors when connecting to YouTube and CDNs, since most servers have disabled TLS 1.0. Ensuring that TLS 1.2 is properly enabled should therefore be a mandatory prerequisite for any stable use of yt-dlp on Windows Vista, and this check should be integrated into the application's environment validation to prevent such failures.

4. On vanilla Windows Vista SP2, the launch of applications signed with SHA-256 may fail, but there is an official update for Vista/Server 2008 SP2 that fixes the problems of validating SHA-256 signatures [13].

You have done a splendid job 🥇 , building on the existing work of adang1345 (who is duly credited, of course 😄 ); hopefully, you can both join forces, so that

1. Even security-fix versions be made Vista-compatible and released (you appear to only offer the last bugfix release of each branch, i.e. py3.9.13, py3.10.11, py3.11.9 and py3.12.10)
2. Extend Vista support to even newer CPython versions, i.e. py3.13+ ...

If Aohan expresses a wish to do this.

[nicolaasjan]

I just tested the Python 3.12.10 32bit build for Vista from @vladimir-andreevich .
It installed fine and I was able to build yt-dlp with it.

However, I had to pin PyInstaller to 5.13.2.
PyInstaller 6.16.0 resulted in yt-dlp.exe throwing:
The procedure entry point K32EnumProcessModules could not be located in the dynamic link library KERNEL32.dll:

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/29208637/entry-point-not-found-error-in-vista-os

Built with PyInstaller 5.13.2:

yt-dlp -v
[debug] Command-line config: ['-v']
[debug] User config "C:\Users\nico\AppData\Roaming\yt-dlp\config.txt": ['--console-title', '--rm-cache-dir', '--list-formats-as-table', '-i', '-o', '~/Desktop/%(title)s.%(ext)s', '-S', 'res:720,vcodec:vp9,acodec:opus', '--embed-thumbnail', '--convert-thumbnails', 'jpg', '--ppa', 'ffmpeg:-metadata synopsis=""', '--add-metadata', '--embed-thumbnail', '--force-ipv4', '--sponsorblock-remove', 'all', '-N', '6']
[debug] Encodings: locale cp1252, fs utf-8, pref cp1252, out cp1252 (No VT), error cp1252 (No VT), screen cp1252 (No VT)
[debug] yt-dlp version nicolaasjan/yt-dlp@2025.09.17.084413 (win_x86_exe)
[debug] Python 3.12.10 (CPython AMD64 32bit) - Windows-Vista-6.0.6003-SP2 (OpenSSL 3.0.16 11 Feb 2025)
[debug] exe versions: ffmpeg N-116828-g6aafe61-Reino (fdk,setts), ffprobe N-116828-g6aafe61-Reino, phantomjs 2.5.0
[debug] Optional libraries: Cryptodome-3.23.0, brotli-1.1.0, certifi-2025.08.03, mutagen-1.47.0, requests-2.32.5, sqlite3-3.49.1, urllib3-2.5.0, websockets-15.0.1
[debug] Proxy map: {}
[debug] Request Handlers: urllib, requests, websockets
[debug] Plugin directories: none
[debug] Loaded 1833 extractors
Removing cache dir C:\Users\nico/.cache\yt-dlp ..

FFmpeg from here:
https://rwijnsma.home.xs4all.nl/files/ffmpeg/?C=M;O=D

yt-dlp_Py3.12-32_Vista.7z

[Vangelis66]

I had to pin PyInstaller to 5.13.2. PyInstaller 6.16.0 resulted in yt-dlp.exe throwing:

The procedure entry point K32EnumProcessModules could not be located in the dynamic link library KERNEL32.dll

... Yes, these K32* Win7+ kernel32.dll functions on Vista SP2 are found on the psapi.dll system file (minus the K32 string), as detailed in the SO question you linked to 👍 ; it would appear that Microsoft 😞 relocated them to kernel32.dll in Win7+ just for the sake of breaking Vista support in newer compilers... But what do I know? ...

PyInstaller-5.13.2 is the LAST one of the 5 branch; perhaps not coincidentally 😉 , it's the last version to support py3.7, as the 6 branch requires at least py3.8 ; since py3.8 requires at least Win7 SP1 to launch, it may well be that the PyInstaller authors had removed Win < 7 support in their Python module (or this was an inadvertent change via the use of newer compilers, as the module contains some binary EXE files in .\PyInstaller\bootloader\Windows-32-intel\) ...

In any case, on the module's PyPI main page it states:

Requirements and Tested Platforms
(redacted)
Windows (32bit/64bit/ARM64):
PyInstaller should work on Windows 7 or newer, but we only officially support Windows 8+.

So, I guess, contacting them about restoring Vista SP2 support in the 6 branch would be, realistically speaking, rather futile 😢 ...

Another ominous fact is that the last working version, 5.13.2, isn't compatible with py3.13+ thus, even if adang1345 (or someone else) comes up with a Vista-compatible py3.13+ implementation, PyInstaller-5.13.2 can't be used to package yt-dlp into a Windows standalone EXE 😭 ; or, perhaps, a custom PyInstaller-6.x.x mod must be compiled (from patched source) by the retrocomputing community to achieve that feat...

Built with PyInstaller-5.13.2

[debug] Python 3.12.10 (CPython AMD64 32bit) - Windows-Vista-6.0.6003-SP2 (OpenSSL 3.0.16 11 Feb 2025)

Was that a Python-3.12.10-win32 installed on a Vista SP2 x64 host? 😉

[debug] Optional libraries: Cryptodome-3.23.0, brotli-1.1.0, certifi-2025.08.03, mutagen-1.47.0, requests-2.32.5, sqlite3-3.49.1, urllib3-2.5.0, websockets-15.0.1
...
[debug] Request Handlers: urllib, requests, websockets

And I'm really sorry 😢 I have to report this, but the linked yt-dlp_Py3.12-32_Vista binary has some serious [web]socket issues that render it unusable, at least when launched on my Vista SP2 32-bit machine (fully updated till EoL):

yt-dlp -vF "O5TS2CbBhKo"

[debug] Command-line config: ['--ffmpeg-location', '..\\FFmpeg', '--downloader-args', 'ffmpeg:-v 8 -stats', '-vF', 'O5TS2CbBhKo']
[debug] Encodings: locale cp1253, fs utf-8, pref cp1253, out utf-8 (No VT), error utf-8 (No VT), screen utf-8 (No VT)
[debug] yt-dlp version nicolaasjan/yt-dlp@2025.09.17.084413 (win_x86_exe)
[debug] Python 3.12.10 (CPython AMD64 32bit) - Windows-Vista-6.0.6003-SP2 (OpenSSL 3.0.16 11 Feb 2025)
[debug] exe versions: ffmpeg n6.1-dev-2615-N-112499-ga76b409 (setts), ffprobe n6.1-dev-2615-N-112499-ga76b409, phantomjs 2.1.1, rtmpdump 2.4
[debug] Optional libraries: Cryptodome-3.23.0, brotli-1.1.0, certifi-2025.08.03, mutagen-1.47.0, requests-2.32.5, sqlite3-3.49.1, urllib3-2.5.0, websockets-15.1
[debug] Proxy map: {}
[debug] Request Handlers: urllib, requests, websockets
[debug] Extractor Plugins: AGB+NSIG (YoutubeIE)
[debug] Plugin directories: <redacted>\YTAgeGateBypass.zip\yt_dlp_plugins, <redacted>\YTNSigProxy.zip\yt_dlp_plugins
[debug] Loaded 1833 extractors
[debug] [youtube+AGB+NSIG] [pot] PO Token Providers: none
[debug] [youtube+AGB+NSIG] [pot] PO Token Cache Providers: memory
[debug] [youtube+AGB+NSIG] [pot] PO Token Cache Spec Providers: webpo
[youtube+AGB+NSIG] Extracting URL: O5TS2CbBhKo
[youtube+AGB+NSIG] O5TS2CbBhKo: Downloading webpage
WARNING: [youtube+AGB+NSIG] <urllib3.connection.HTTPSConnection object at 0x0484D9D8>: Failed to establish a new connection: [WinError 10041] A protocol was specified in the socket function call that does not support the semantics of the socket type requested. Retrying (1/3)...
[youtube+AGB+NSIG] O5TS2CbBhKo: Downloading webpage
WARNING: [youtube+AGB+NSIG] <urllib3.connection.HTTPSConnection object at 0x0484DE88>: Failed to establish a new connection: [WinError 10041] A protocol was specified in the socket function call that does not support the semantics of the socket type requested. Retrying (2/3)...
[youtube+AGB+NSIG] O5TS2CbBhKo: Downloading webpage
WARNING: [youtube+AGB+NSIG] <urllib3.connection.HTTPSConnection object at 0x0484D4C8>: Failed to establish a new connection: [WinError 10041] A protocol was specified in the socket function call that does not support the semantics of the socket type requested. Retrying (3/3)...
[youtube+AGB+NSIG] O5TS2CbBhKo: Downloading webpage
WARNING: [youtube+AGB+NSIG] Unable to download webpage: <urllib3.connection.HTTPSConnection object at 0x045E5930>: Failed to establish a new connection: [WinError 10041] A protocol was specified in the socket function call that does not support the semantics of the socket type requested (caused by TransportError('<urllib3.connection.HTTPSConnection object at 0x045E5930>: Failed to establish a new connection: [WinError 10041] A protocol was specified in the socket function call that does not support the semantics of the socket type requested')). Giving up after 3 retries
[youtube+AGB+NSIG] O5TS2CbBhKo: Downloading initial data API JSON
WARNING: [youtube+AGB+NSIG] <urllib3.connection.HTTPSConnection object at 0x0484DFC0>: Failed to establish a new connection: [WinError 10041] A protocol was specified in the socket function call that does not support the semantics of the socket type requested. Retrying (1/3)...
[youtube+AGB+NSIG] O5TS2CbBhKo: Downloading initial data API JSON
WARNING: [youtube+AGB+NSIG] <urllib3.connection.HTTPSConnection object at 0x045DA8E8>: Failed to establish a new connection: [WinError 10041] A protocol was specified in the socket function call that does not support the semantics of the socket type requested. Retrying (2/3)...
[youtube+AGB+NSIG] O5TS2CbBhKo: Downloading initial data API JSON
WARNING: [youtube+AGB+NSIG] <urllib3.connection.HTTPSConnection object at 0x0484F6D8>: Failed to establish a new connection: [WinError 10041] A protocol was specified in the socket function call that does not support the semantics of the socket type requested. Retrying (3/3)...
[youtube+AGB+NSIG] O5TS2CbBhKo: Downloading initial data API JSON
ERROR: [youtube+AGB+NSIG] O5TS2CbBhKo: Unable to download API page: <urllib3.connection.HTTPSConnection object at 0x045DA510>: Failed to establish a new connection: [WinError 10041] A protocol was specified in the socket function call that does not support the semantics of the socket type requested (caused by TransportError('<urllib3.connection.HTTPSConnection object at 0x045DA510>: Failed to establish a new connection: [WinError 10041] A protocol was specified in the socket function call that does not support the semantics of the socket type requested'))
  File "yt_dlp\extractor\common.py", line 762, in extract
  File "yt_dlp\extractor\youtube\_video.py", line 3844, in _real_extract
  File "yt_dlp\extractor\youtube\_video.py", line 3824, in _initial_extract
  File "yt_dlp\extractor\youtube\_video.py", line 3802, in _download_initial_data
  File "yt_dlp\extractor\youtube\_base.py", line 1229, in _extract_response
  File "yt_dlp\utils\_utils.py", line 5259, in __iter__
  File "yt_dlp\extractor\common.py", line 4059, in _error_or_warning
  File "yt_dlp\utils\_utils.py", line 5267, in report_retry
  File "yt_dlp\extractor\youtube\_base.py", line 1219, in _extract_response
  File "yt_dlp\extractor\youtube\_base.py", line 797, in _call_api
  File "yt_dlp\extractor\common.py", line 1150, in download_content
  File "yt_dlp\extractor\common.py", line 1108, in download_handle
  File "yt_dlp\extractor\common.py", line 973, in _download_webpage_handle
  File "yt_dlp\extractor\youtube\_base.py", line 775, in _request_webpage
  File "yt_dlp\extractor\common.py", line 922, in _request_webpage

  File "urllib3\connection.py", line 198, in _new_conn
  File "urllib3\util\connection.py", line 85, in create_connection
  File "urllib3\util\connection.py", line 64, in create_connection
  File "socket.py", line 233, in __init__
OSError: [WinError 10041] A protocol was specified in the socket function call that does not support the semantics of the socket type requested

The above exception was the direct cause of the following exception:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "yt_dlp\networking\_requests.py", line 320, in _send
  File "requests\sessions.py", line 589, in request
  File "requests\sessions.py", line 703, in send
  File "requests\adapters.py", line 644, in send
  File "urllib3\connectionpool.py", line 841, in urlopen
  File "urllib3\util\retry.py", line 449, in increment
  File "urllib3\util\util.py", line 39, in reraise
  File "urllib3\connectionpool.py", line 787, in urlopen
  File "urllib3\connectionpool.py", line 488, in _make_request
  File "urllib3\connectionpool.py", line 464, in _make_request
  File "urllib3\connectionpool.py", line 1093, in _validate_conn
  File "urllib3\connection.py", line 753, in connect
  File "urllib3\connection.py", line 213, in _new_conn
urllib3.exceptions.NewConnectionError: <urllib3.connection.HTTPSConnection object at 0x045DA510>: Failed to establish a new connection: [WinError 10041] A protocol was specified in the socket function call that does not support the semantics of the socket type requested

The above exception was the direct cause of the following exception:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "yt_dlp\extractor\common.py", line 909, in _request_webpage
  File "yt_dlp\YoutubeDL.py", line 4235, in urlopen
  File "yt_dlp\networking\common.py", line 117, in send
  File "yt_dlp\networking\_helper.py", line 194, in wrapper
  File "yt_dlp\networking\common.py", line 359, in send
  File "yt_dlp\networking\_requests.py", line 348, in _send
yt_dlp.networking.exceptions.TransportError: <urllib3.connection.HTTPSConnection object at 0x045DA510>: Failed to establish a new connection: [WinError 10041] A protocol was specified in the socket function call that does not support the semantics of the socket type requested

So, nothing to rejoice about, yet 😞 ; but thanks for the efforts, your zeal heavily appreciated ❤️ !

[nicolaasjan]

Was that a Python-3.12.10-win32 installed on a Vista SP2 x64 host? 😉

Yes, I figured it would be more appropriate to build 32bit yt-dlp, since most retro Vista PC's are 32bit (and to please you, of course).

And I'm really sorry 😢 I have to report this, but the linked yt-dlp_Py3.12-32_Vista binary has some serious [web]socket issues that render it unusable, at least when launched on my Vista SP2 32-bit machine (fully updated till EoL):

I have a 64bit Vista VM, fully updated till now with Server 2008 (security only) updates (instructions on forums.mydigitallife.net). 😉
Your video example downloaded fine here:

yt-dlp -v

[debug] Command-line config: ['-v', 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5TS2CbBhKo']
[debug] User config "C:\Users\nico\AppData\Roaming\yt-dlp\config.txt": ['--console-title', '--rm-cache-dir', '--list-formats-as-table', '-i', '-o', '~/Desktop/%(title)s.%(ext)s', '-S', 'res:720,vcodec:vp9,acodec:opus', '--embed-thumbnail', '--convert-thumbnails', 'jpg', '--ppa', 'ffmpeg:-metadata synopsis=""', '--add-metadata', '--embed-thumbnail', '--force-ipv4', '--sponsorblock-remove', 'all', '-N', '6']
[debug] Encodings: locale cp1252, fs utf-8, pref cp1252, out cp1252 (No VT), error cp1252 (No VT), screen cp1252 (No VT)
[debug] yt-dlp version nicolaasjan/yt-dlp@2025.09.17.084413 (win_x86_exe)
[debug] Python 3.12.10 (CPython AMD64 32bit) - Windows-Vista-6.0.6003-SP2 (OpenSSL 3.0.16 11 Feb 2025)
[debug] exe versions: ffmpeg N-116828-g6aafe61-Reino (fdk,setts), ffprobe N-116828-g6aafe61-Reino, phantomjs 2.5.0
[debug] Optional libraries: Cryptodome-3.23.0, brotli-1.1.0, certifi-2025.08.03, mutagen-1.47.0, requests-2.32.5, sqlite3-3.49.1, urllib3-2.5.0, websockets-15.0.1
[debug] Proxy map: {}
[debug] Request Handlers: urllib, requests, websockets
[debug] Plugin directories: none
[debug] Loaded 1833 extractors
Removing cache dir C:\Users\nico/.cache\yt-dlp ...
[debug] [youtube] [pot] PO Token Providers: none
[debug] [youtube] [pot] PO Token Cache Providers: memory
[debug] [youtube] [pot] PO Token Cache Spec Providers: webpo
[youtube] Extracting URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5TS2CbBhKo
[youtube] O5TS2CbBhKo: Downloading webpage
[youtube] O5TS2CbBhKo: Downloading tv simply player API JSON
[youtube] O5TS2CbBhKo: Downloading tv client config
[youtube] O5TS2CbBhKo: Downloading player 0e6689e2-main
[debug] Saving youtube-sts.0e6689e2-main to cache
[youtube] O5TS2CbBhKo: Downloading tv player API JSON
[debug] [youtube] Extracting signature function 0e6689e2-main-115
[debug] Saving youtube-sigfuncs.0e6689e2-main-115 to cache
[debug] [youtube] Decrypted nsig DTFvXqp9CyI16kUdP => AMjRpBPkGeQVpA
[debug] Saving youtube-nsig.0e6689e2-main to cache
[debug] [youtube] Decrypted nsig gkSRNR8A7oeii2sf2 => VYqll-FcA-RE3g
[debug] [youtube] Extracting signature function 0e6689e2-main-111
[debug] Saving youtube-sigfuncs.0e6689e2-main-111 to cache
[debug] Sort order given by user: res:720, vcodec:vp9, acodec:opus
[debug] Sort order given by extractor: quality, res, fps, hdr:12, source, vcodec, channels, acodec, lang, proto
[debug] Formats sorted by: hasvid, ie_pref, res:720(720.0), vcodec:vp9(9), acodec:opus(12), quality, fps, hdr:12(7), source, channels, lang, proto, size, br, asr, vext, aext, hasaud, id
[SponsorBlock] Fetching SponsorBlock segments
[debug] SponsorBlock query: https://sponsor.ajay.app/api/skipSegments/be59?service=YouTube&categories=%5B%22sponsor%22%2C+%22preview%22%2C+%22music_offtopic%22%2C+%22outro%22%2C+%22intro%22%2C+%22filler%22%2C+%22interaction%22%2C+%22selfpromo%22%5D&actionTypes=%5B%22skip%22%2C+%22poi%22%2C+%22chapter%22%5D
[SponsorBlock] No matching segments were found in the SponsorBlock database
[debug] Default format spec: bestvideo*+bestaudio/best
[info] O5TS2CbBhKo: Downloading 1 format(s): 247+251
[info] Downloading video thumbnail 48 ...
[info] Writing video thumbnail 48 to: C:\Users\nico\Desktop\Love and Money - Halleluiah Man (HQ Audio).webp
[ThumbnailsConvertor] Converting thumbnail "C:\Users\nico\Desktop\Love and Money - Halleluiah Man (HQ Audio).webp" to jpg
[debug] ffmpeg command line: ffmpeg -y -loglevel repeat+info -f image2 -pattern_type none -i "file:C:\Users\nico\Desktop\Love and Money - Halleluiah Man (HQ Audio).webp" -update 1 -qmin 1 -q:v 1 -bsf:v mjpeg2jpeg -movflags +faststart -metadata "synopsis=" "file:C:\Users\nico\Desktop\Love and Money - Halleluiah Man (HQ Audio).jpg"
Deleting original file C:\Users\nico\Desktop\Love and Money - Halleluiah Man (HQ Audio).webp (pass -k to keep)
WARNING: webm doesn't support embedding a thumbnail, mkv will be used
[debug] Invoking http downloader on "https://rr5---sn-5hnednss.googlevideo.com/videoplayback?expire=1758283453&ei=XfLMaMnkOrWkzPsP8qH02Ag&ip=<REDACTED>&id=o-AIlGsvXdjb5rPmE5GtdRVyrVQjtDwxtkVWTfOvvdbLwV&itag=247&aitags=133%2C134%2C135%2C136%2C137%2C160%2C242%2C243%2C244%2C247%2C248%2C278&source=youtube&requiressl=yes&xpc=EgVo2aDSNQ%3D%3D&met=1758261853%2C&mh=yJ&mm=31%2C26&mn=sn-5hnednss%2Csn-4g5edn6k&ms=au%2Conr&mv=m&mvi=5&pl=16&rms=au%2Cau&initcwndbps=3895000&bui=ATw7iSW7fq6p_YgrAK8IZWYrd8sB0EgpE3eX_zLxG52lyCOLX5pPZ9_xzZm3adaH5-D7qWyHFKUSjtk9&spc=hcYD5XPRJhc8&vprv=1&svpuc=1&mime=video%2Fwebm&ns=QrOJvcUcDYnLGYvc7tv5GvoQ&rqh=1&gir=yes&clen=19838610&dur=240.833&lmt=1746948968357664&mt=1758261433&fvip=4&keepalive=yes&fexp=51552689%2C51565115%2C51565682%2C51580968&c=TVHTML5_SIMPLY&sefc=1&txp=531F224&n=VYqll-FcA-RE3g&sparams=expire%2Cei%2Cip%2Cid%2Caitags%2Csource%2Crequiressl%2Cxpc%2Cbui%2Cspc%2Cvprv%2Csvpuc%2Cmime%2Cns%2Crqh%2Cgir%2Cclen%2Cdur%2Clmt&lsparams=met%2Cmh%2Cmm%2Cmn%2Cms%2Cmv%2Cmvi%2Cpl%2Crms%2Cinitcwndbps&lsig=APaTxxMwRgIhAIMO9Gc-xGgCwpVTBf8B0QiAnn1gOW7KnP8k1z_9-PVcAiEA9YeaODSch4cuTWoWvYcEs2E8REmT8oSec0omhfuXGiA%3D&sig=AJfQdSswRQIhALq-YM3syfc1AkfE9GTAZtDxXUp6nHUD3PAE8kGb44RtAiBs70pEtcB4k3Gr0RpoXoEt0PvviaZE0Q6KysqjV8VLsQ%3D%3D"
[download] Sleeping 2.00 seconds as required by the site...
[debug] File locking is not supported. Proceeding without locking
[download] Destination: C:\Users\nico\Desktop\Love and Money - Halleluiah Man (HQ Audio).f247.webm

[download]   0.0% of   18.92MiB at  613.56KiB/s ETA 00:31
[download]   0.0% of   18.92MiB at    1.80MiB/s ETA 00:10
[download]   0.0% of   18.92MiB at    4.19MiB/s ETA 00:04
[download]   0.1% of   18.92MiB at    8.99MiB/s ETA 00:02
[download]   0.2% of   18.92MiB at    7.43MiB/s ETA 00:02
[download]   0.3% of   18.92MiB at    5.39MiB/s ETA 00:03
[download]   0.7% of   18.92MiB at    4.61MiB/s ETA 00:04
[download]   1.3% of   18.92MiB at    6.11MiB/s ETA 00:03
[download]   2.6% of   18.92MiB at    8.62MiB/s ETA 00:02
[download]   5.3% of   18.92MiB at   11.14MiB/s ETA 00:01
[download]  10.6% of   18.92MiB at   13.26MiB/s ETA 00:01
[download]  21.1% of   18.92MiB at   14.78MiB/s ETA 00:01
[download]  42.3% of   18.92MiB at   15.55MiB/s ETA 00:00
[download]  50.9% of   18.92MiB at   15.72MiB/s ETA 00:00
[download]  50.9% of   18.92MiB at  Unknown B/s ETA Unknown
[download]  50.9% of   18.92MiB at  Unknown B/s ETA Unknown
[download]  50.9% of   18.92MiB at    4.19MiB/s ETA 00:02  
[download]  50.9% of   18.92MiB at    5.99MiB/s ETA 00:01
[download]  51.0% of   18.92MiB at    9.29MiB/s ETA 00:00
[download]  51.2% of   18.92MiB at   12.58MiB/s ETA 00:00
[download]  51.5% of   18.92MiB at   19.02MiB/s ETA 00:00
[download]  52.2% of   18.92MiB at   17.97MiB/s ETA 00:00
[download]  53.5% of   18.92MiB at   16.11MiB/s ETA 00:00
[download]  56.1% of   18.92MiB at   16.34MiB/s ETA 00:00
[download]  61.4% of   18.92MiB at   16.35MiB/s ETA 00:00
[download]  72.0% of   18.92MiB at   16.41MiB/s ETA 00:00
[download]  93.1% of   18.92MiB at   16.44MiB/s ETA 00:00
[download] 100.0% of   18.92MiB at   14.95MiB/s ETA 00:00
[download] 100% of   18.92MiB in 00:00:01 at 13.12MiB/s  
[debug] Invoking http downloader on "https://rr5---sn-5hnednss.googlevideo.com/videoplayback?expire=1758283453&ei=XfLMaMnkOrWkzPsP8qH02Ag&ip=<REDACTED>&id=o-AIlGsvXdjb5rPmE5GtdRVyrVQjtDwxtkVWTfOvvdbLwV&itag=251&source=youtube&requiressl=yes&xpc=EgVo2aDSNQ%3D%3D&met=1758261853%2C&mh=yJ&mm=31%2C26&mn=sn-5hnednss%2Csn-4g5edn6k&ms=au%2Conr&mv=m&mvi=5&pl=16&rms=au%2Cau&initcwndbps=3895000&bui=ATw7iSW7fq6p_YgrAK8IZWYrd8sB0EgpE3eX_zLxG52lyCOLX5pPZ9_xzZm3adaH5-D7qWyHFKUSjtk9&spc=hcYD5XPRJhc8&vprv=1&svpuc=1&mime=audio%2Fwebm&ns=QrOJvcUcDYnLGYvc7tv5GvoQ&rqh=1&gir=yes&clen=3940101&dur=240.861&lmt=1746948978698610&mt=1758261433&fvip=4&keepalive=yes&fexp=51552689%2C51565115%2C51565682%2C51580968&c=TVHTML5_SIMPLY&sefc=1&txp=5318224&n=VYqll-FcA-RE3g&sparams=expire%2Cei%2Cip%2Cid%2Citag%2Csource%2Crequiressl%2Cxpc%2Cbui%2Cspc%2Cvprv%2Csvpuc%2Cmime%2Cns%2Crqh%2Cgir%2Cclen%2Cdur%2Clmt&lsparams=met%2Cmh%2Cmm%2Cmn%2Cms%2Cmv%2Cmvi%2Cpl%2Crms%2Cinitcwndbps&lsig=APaTxxMwRgIhAIMO9Gc-xGgCwpVTBf8B0QiAnn1gOW7KnP8k1z_9-PVcAiEA9YeaODSch4cuTWoWvYcEs2E8REmT8oSec0omhfuXGiA%3D&sig=AJfQdSswRgIhAOJXGHhdZp1q-LGBdBLx2evTt5P-L1Zndx9pDt-V4Q_cAiEAooiSa2kBd3I2CGZBNf4zRbfH9TXOPYYbBIjUTwyz5OA%3D"
[download] Destination: C:\Users\nico\Desktop\Love and Money - Halleluiah Man (HQ Audio).f251.webm

[download]   0.0% of    3.76MiB at  613.47KiB/s ETA 00:06
[download]   0.1% of    3.76MiB at    1.20MiB/s ETA 00:03
[download]   0.2% of    3.76MiB at    2.80MiB/s ETA 00:01
[download]   0.4% of    3.76MiB at    5.99MiB/s ETA 00:00
[download]   0.8% of    3.76MiB at    6.19MiB/s ETA 00:00
[download]   1.6% of    3.76MiB at    9.44MiB/s ETA 00:00
[download]   3.3% of    3.76MiB at   11.71MiB/s ETA 00:00
[download]   6.6% of    3.76MiB at   13.89MiB/s ETA 00:00
[download]  13.3% of    3.76MiB at   15.31MiB/s ETA 00:00
[download]  26.6% of    3.76MiB at   16.13MiB/s ETA 00:00
[download]  53.2% of    3.76MiB at   16.35MiB/s ETA 00:00
[download] 100.0% of    3.76MiB at   16.29MiB/s ETA 00:00
[download] 100% of    3.76MiB in 00:00:00 at 14.23MiB/s  
[Merger] Merging formats into "C:\Users\nico\Desktop\Love and Money - Halleluiah Man (HQ Audio).mkv"
[debug] ffmpeg command line: ffmpeg -y -loglevel repeat+info -i "file:C:\Users\nico\Desktop\Love and Money - Halleluiah Man (HQ Audio).f247.webm" -i "file:C:\Users\nico\Desktop\Love and Money - Halleluiah Man (HQ Audio).f251.webm" -c copy -map 0:v:0 -map 1:a:0 -movflags +faststart -metadata "synopsis=" "file:C:\Users\nico\Desktop\Love and Money - Halleluiah Man (HQ Audio).temp.mkv"
Deleting original file C:\Users\nico\Desktop\Love and Money - Halleluiah Man (HQ Audio).f251.webm (pass -k to keep)
Deleting original file C:\Users\nico\Desktop\Love and Money - Halleluiah Man (HQ Audio).f247.webm (pass -k to keep)
[ModifyChapters] SponsorBlock information is unavailable
[Metadata] Adding metadata to "C:\Users\nico\Desktop\Love and Money - Halleluiah Man (HQ Audio).mkv"
[debug] ffmpeg command line: ffmpeg -y -loglevel repeat+info -i "file:C:\Users\nico\Desktop\Love and Money - Halleluiah Man (HQ Audio).mkv" -map 0 -dn -ignore_unknown -c copy -write_id3v1 1 -metadata "title=Love and Money - Halleluiah Man (HQ Audio)" -metadata "date=20170506" -metadata "description=Written-By � James Grant. Producer � Gary Katz.  © 1988 Phonogram Ltd. (London) Marketed By � PolyGram Records, Inc.
Phonographic Copyright (p) � Phonogram Ltd. (London)
Copyright (c) � Phonogram Ltd. (London)
Matriz/zona muerta (Runout area side A): 870 596 7 S1=1  1988 670 04
Matriz/zona muerta (Runout area side B): 870 596 7 S2=2  1988 670 04
Matriz/zona muerta (Label side A): 870 596-7.1
Matriz/zona muerta (Label side B): 870 596-7.2
Código de Barras (Text): 0 42287 05967 8
Código del sello: LC 0211
Código de precio: PG 102
Entidad de gestión colectiva: B.I.E.M.|STEMRA
Matriz/zona muerta: CDP41 01@ A MADE IN USA BY PDO
Otro: DDD
Otro (Code in bottom right of back cover): 0704
Barcode (scanned): 0 42287 05961 6
Barcode (Printed): 0 42287 05961 6
Matrix / Runout (Runout stamped/etched side A): 870 596 - 1A
Matrix / Runout (Runout stamped/etched side B): 870 596 - 1B
Barcode (Text): 0 42287 05962 3
Barcode (String): 042287059623
Label Code: LC 0268
Rights Society: BIEM / STEMRA
Other (France Price/Distribution Code): PG 40
Matrix / Runout: MONCD5 130581 01 % MADE IN U.K. BY PDO
Barcode: 042287 202715" -metadata "synopsis=Written-By � James Grant. Producer � Gary Katz.  © 1988 Phonogram Ltd. (London) Marketed By � PolyGram Records, Inc.
Phonographic Copyright (p) � Phonogram Ltd. (London)
Copyright (c) � Phonogram Ltd. (London)
Matriz/zona muerta (Runout area side A): 870 596 7 S1=1  1988 670 04
Matriz/zona muerta (Runout area side B): 870 596 7 S2=2  1988 670 04
Matriz/zona muerta (Label side A): 870 596-7.1
Matriz/zona muerta (Label side B): 870 596-7.2
Código de Barras (Text): 0 42287 05967 8
Código del sello: LC 0211
Código de precio: PG 102
Entidad de gestión colectiva: B.I.E.M.|STEMRA
Matriz/zona muerta: CDP41 01@ A MADE IN USA BY PDO
Otro: DDD
Otro (Code in bottom right of back cover): 0704
Barcode (scanned): 0 42287 05961 6
Barcode (Printed): 0 42287 05961 6
Matrix / Runout (Runout stamped/etched side A): 870 596 - 1A
Matrix / Runout (Runout stamped/etched side B): 870 596 - 1B
Barcode (Text): 0 42287 05962 3
Barcode (String): 042287059623
Label Code: LC 0268
Rights Society: BIEM / STEMRA
Other (France Price/Distribution Code): PG 40
Matrix / Runout: MONCD5 130581 01 % MADE IN U.K. BY PDO
Barcode: 042287 202715" -metadata "purl=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5TS2CbBhKo" -metadata "comment=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5TS2CbBhKo" -metadata "artist=A.M.V." -movflags +faststart -metadata "synopsis=" "file:C:\Users\nico\Desktop\Love and Money - Halleluiah Man (HQ Audio).temp.mkv"
[debug] ffprobe command line: ffprobe -hide_banner -show_format -show_streams -print_format json "file:C:\Users\nico\Desktop\Love and Money - Halleluiah Man (HQ Audio).mkv"
[EmbedThumbnail] ffmpeg: Adding thumbnail to "C:\Users\nico\Desktop\Love and Money - Halleluiah Man (HQ Audio).mkv"
[debug] ffmpeg command line: ffmpeg -y -loglevel repeat+info -i "file:C:\Users\nico\Desktop\Love and Money - Halleluiah Man (HQ Audio).mkv" -map 0 -dn -ignore_unknown -c copy -attach "file:C:\Users\nico\Desktop\Love and Money - Halleluiah Man (HQ Audio).jpg" -metadata:s:2 "mimetype=image/jpeg" -metadata:s:2 "filename=cover.jpg" -movflags +faststart -metadata "synopsis=" "file:C:\Users\nico\Desktop\Love and Money - Halleluiah Man (HQ Audio).temp.mkv"

What happens when you try without the plugins?
And try: --force-ipv4.
?

[Vangelis66]

(and to please you, of course)

... Yes, thanks a bunch 👍 😄 ...

What happens when you try without the plugins?
And try: --force-ipv4.

Most unfortunately 😢 , this doesn't appear to be a plugins issue, nor an IPv4 one:

yt-dlp_x86 -vU --force-ipv4

[debug] Command-line config: ['-vU', '--force-ipv4']
[debug] Encodings: locale cp1253, fs utf-8, pref cp1253, out utf-8 (No VT), error utf-8 (No VT), screen utf-8 (No VT)
[debug] yt-dlp version nicolaasjan/yt-dlp@2025.09.17.084413 (win_x86_exe)
[debug] Python 3.12.10 (CPython AMD64 32bit) - Windows-Vista-6.0.6003-SP2 (OpenSSL 3.0.16 11 Feb 2025)
[debug] exe versions: none
[debug] Optional libraries: Cryptodome-3.23.0, brotli-1.1.0, certifi-2025.08.03, mutagen-1.47.0, requests-2.32.5, sqlite3-3.49.1, urllib3-2.5.0, websockets-15.0.1
[debug] Proxy map: {}
[debug] Request Handlers: urllib, requests, websockets
[debug] Plugin directories: none
[debug] Loaded 1833 extractors
[debug] Fetching release info: https://api.github.com/repos/nicolaasjan/yt-dlp/releases/latest
ERROR: Unable to obtain version info (<urllib3.connection.HTTPSConnection object at 0x038BA168>: Failed to establish a new connection: [WinError 10041] A protocol was specified in the socket function call that does not support the semantics of the socket type requested); Please try again later or visit  https://github.com/nicolaasjan/yt-dlp/releases/latest

Your py3.12_x86 yt-dlp compile seems totally unable to establish ANY connection here (be it plain HTTP or HTTPS), and I don't have the slightest clue as to the why... This leaves me in a very serious predicament here...

FTR, the py3.11.4 (by cmalex) binary behaves as expected on this very same machine:

yt-dlp_x86 -vU --force-ipv4

[debug] Command-line config: ['-vU', '--force-ipv4']
[debug] Encodings: locale cp1253, fs utf-8, pref cp1253, out utf-8 (No VT), error utf-8 (No VT), screen utf-8 (No VT)
[debug] yt-dlp version nicolaasjan/yt-dlp@2025.09.17.084413 (win_x86_exe)
[debug] Python 3.11.4 (CPython x86 32bit) - Windows-Vista-6.0.6003-SP2 (OpenSSL 3.5.2 5 Aug 2025)
[debug] exe versions: none
[debug] Optional libraries: Cryptodome-3.23.0, brotli-1.1.0, certifi-2025.08.03, mutagen-1.47.0, requests-2.32.5, sqlite3-3.50.4, urllib3-2.5.0, websockets-15.0.1
[debug] Proxy map: {}
[debug] Request Handlers: urllib, requests, websockets
[debug] Plugin directories: none
[debug] Loaded 1833 extractors
[debug] Fetching release info: https://api.github.com/repos/nicolaasjan/yt-dlp/releases/latest
Latest version: nicolaasjan/yt-dlp@2025.09.17.084413
yt-dlp is up to date (nicolaasjan/yt-dlp@2025.09.17.084413)

with Server 2008 (security only) updates

... Well, I have ALL Vista updates up to its EoL (i.e. Extended Support), plus a (small) number of WS2008 updates manually installed; apologies, but I'm not going to install any further WS2008 updates, everything else on this physical machine works fine, except for this py3.12 yt-dlp binary; FWIW, I highly doubt this is MS-update related; (see below) besides, I don't have the means to install and operate Vista VMs here, to test whether the binary works on a plain Vista SP2+EoL updates... Unless this is troubleshot by a Python savvy person, please continue using the cmalex distribution (or try the py3.11 one by Vladimir, preferably on a 32-bit host? 😉 ) ...

I realise this yt-dlp discussion is OT for this issue tracker 😉 ; apologies to adang1345; further discussion should be probably continued in the MSFN forums, instead 😄 ...

[adang1345]

I have an idea for why you're seeing socket issues. I'm still working on the support for Vista and I did a more thorough search for any incompatibilities other than those that have already been mentioned. I found that Python 3.12 has the following change, which removed the handling for systems that don't support the WSA_FLAG_NO_HANDLE_INHERIT flag to WSASocketW(). Surely enough, WSA_FLAG_NO_HANDLE_INHERIT requires Windows 7 SP1 or higher.

Since this incompatibility requires some digging to find, my guess is that the Python build you're using did not account for this. When I build my installers, I'll make sure to handle this issue.

[nicolaasjan]

Hmm...
That leaves me wondering why that Python 3.12 build actually worked on my FrankenVista. 🤓

Anyhow, @Vangelis66 can now test my Python 3.11.9 build of yt-dlp:
yt-dlp_Py3.11.9_x86_Vista.7z.

[vladimir-andreevich]

@adang1345 Thank you for pointing that out, Aohan! Perhaps, I figured out the problem.

@Vangelis66 I have made Python 3.12 that builds the operational version of yt-dlp on Windows Vista. Follow these steps.

1. Download the file I attached.
2. Download the _legacy variant from ffmpeg from here, as @nicolaasjan suggested.
3. Add ffmpeg to the PATH via the "Environment variables" section in Control Panel.
4. Update Trusted Root Certification Authorities. Follow the instructions from here.

I implemented two experimental ways to download media files. For me, both options work; however, one of the options might not work for you. If this is the case, please do provide the log because I have inserted additional temporary instrumentation on various layers of networking.

5. Open the command line, and before calling yt-dlp_x86, paste:
   Method 1. set PY_WSASOCKET_BYPASS_LSP=false
   Method 2. set PY_WSASOCKET_BYPASS_LSP=true
   This is the flag I added that selects which method to use.
6. Use yt-dlp_x86 as usual.

Please let me know whether this works for you. If everything is fine, I will polish this patch and publish it.

yt-dlp_Py3.12.10_x86.zip

[Vangelis66]

@adang1345 wrote:

I found that Python 3.12 has the following change, which removed the handling for systems that don't support the WSA_FLAG_NO_HANDLE_INHERIT flag to WSASocketW().
Surely enough, WSA_FLAG_NO_HANDLE_INHERIT requires Windows 7 SP1 or higher.

Many thanks for looking into this ❤️ ; python/cpython@938e36f has kind of a misleading title, "Remove code specifically for handling Windows 7", does it refer to Win7 without SP1 ?
Following links here, I ended up on
https://github.com/adang1345/PythonWin7/blob/master@%7B2023-06-22T15:04:33.000Z%7D/patches/restore-win7-handling.patch
I won't pretend I fully understand that code, but did you not revert the 938e36f change in your PythonWin7 py3.12 builds? Furthermore, this patch appears to have been removed (or relocated?) at a later time (???) ...

I honestly hope you're on to something here, because I have to echo @nicolaasjan's concern:

That leaves me wondering why that Python 3.12 build actually worked on my FrankenVista

making me believe (at least before reading Vladimir's latest comment) that it's something particular to my system that's to blame (???) ...

More searching led me to this:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/an-application-may-stop-responding-when-the-application-closes-a-socket-connection-or-shuts-down-41321a1f-d80c-6975-98df-ae499d63133c

Is it indeed the issue I'm facing? The article makes mention of a "hotfix" for Windows Vista Service Pack 2, which, ofc 👎, isn't currently available for download from MS...

@nicolaasjan, is it at all plausible that when updating your Vista SP2 x64 VM with Server 2008 (security only) updates till now, that hotfix (or a later re-incarnation as an ESU KB) was installed?

Thanks to all parties involved 👍 in debugging this...