Any product released on the modern software market, one way or another, contains unprotected zones called holes. Over time, these “holes” are being finalized and to eliminate them, the manufacturer releases “patches”, which are combined into updates called service packs. Then, the developers recommend that users install the latest service packs so that the user receives the most secure and updated version of the purchased product. This article will tell you how to update Windows XP and become the owner of the most advanced version of this operating system.
Each advanced user is inclined to believe that it is much easier to update an already installed program than to completely remove it and reinstall it again. Most often, developers who try to make life as easy as possible for owners of existing software also agree with this. Nowadays, almost every PC owner knows how to update Windows XP, while retaining all the programs and files installed on the computer. But this information is worth repeating for novice users and those who previously communicated with the computer on you.
How to update the Windows XP system, while maintaining the familiar OS settings, programs, games and other files installed on the computer? To do this, just turn on the automatic system update feature. To do this, the company Microsoft, which is the creator of the family of Windows operating systems, has created a series of programs called Update Center. This service is available to owners of all computers running Windows of various versions. The only prerequisite for receiving updates through this service is to connect your computer to the Internet. If the PC has constant access to the Internet, then its user just needs to enable the update function in the settings of the operating system . This is done using the "Start" menu, from which the "System" section from the "Properties" item is launched, in which you must choose the option to download the latest packages from the "Windows Update".
If the computer does not have constant access to the Internet, or downloading the latest updates is not possible for several other reasons (slow or unstable Internet channel, high cost of traffic, etc.), then you can install the latest updates, or, more simply, install all Windows XP updates, you can in manual mode. There are two ways to do this.
For the first, you need to look in the properties of the installed operating system its version and download from the official site (microsoft.com) all the missing software products. For example, if Windows XP is installed on the PC with a second service pack, then you need to download the third service pack and start installing it by running setup.exe. Further, the "operating system" will be updated without the help of the user, but we should not forget that all data stored on the desktop and drive C may be lost. Therefore, before updating Windows XP, it is necessary to save from the desktop all the necessary user data to removable media or any other hard drive.
The second installation method is that you need to purchase a bootable CD with the latest version of the operating system and place it in the computer’s CD-rom. After that, restart the PC or start the installation from the disk manually. How to update Windows XP from a specific optical drive is usually described in detail in the instructions that come with it. If such an instruction in printed form was not at hand, most likely it can be found electronically on the media itself - most often the file with the installation description is called “readme”.
Do not forget that at the moment the latest versions of updates for Windows XP are contained in a package called Service Pack 3. If the technical specifications of the computer allow this, then you can upgrade this operating system to a newer Windows Vista, but the performance of the PC can be noticeably decrease.