You can install Windows XP on your computer not only “from scratch” (i.e., full installation), but also on top of the old operating system. This type of installation is called Windows update.
Unlike a full installation, an update allows you to keep your documents, programs and settings in working order. When an update is performed, Windows is installed in the same folder as the current OS (thus updating it). Whatever installation option you choose, you must have a boot disk with the required version of Windows.
There is an opinion that all problems in the operation of the OS can be solved by updating it. In fact, this is not always the case. When reinstalling “over”, there is a possibility that errors in the system registry accumulated by the old OS during its “life” may transfer to the new operating system.
In addition, it is impossible to say with one hundred percent certainty that after the update absolutely all programs will work as before. It is possible that problems will arise with some program.
Updating (reinstalling) Windows is a last resort solution for troubleshooting. After it - only a full installation (with formatting the hard drive). Therefore, if malfunctions occur in the operation of your system, do not rush to solve them with such a radical method. There are other options for restoring the health of your Windows.
Before updating the system, I would strongly advise you to create a backup copy of your important data on another local drive or external media (for example, if you have the 1C accounting program installed, be sure to copy the directories with the database). The best option would be to make an image of the entire system partition using the program Acronis True Image.
So, I warned you about the possible consequences of reinstallation; Now let's proceed directly to updating Windows. This installation can be launched directly from the operating system.
1. Turn on your computer and wait for the OS to load.
2. Disable your installed antivirus.
3. Insert the Windows XP installation disc into your computer's DVD drive. If after this the welcome window does not appear on the screen, then open the disk and run the file setup.exe.
4. In the window that appears, you must select “ Installing Windows XP”.
5. In the next window, select the installation type “ Update (recommended)” and click the “Next” button. 
If we chose the installation type “ New installation”, then a full installation would be launched, and then our programs and settings would not be saved. They may remain in the Program Files folder (if we refuse to format the disk during the installation process), but will not work on the new system.
6. Then we accept the license agreement and click “Next”. 
7. In the next window, enter the license key. 
8. In the “Dynamic update” window, you can put a marker next to “ Download updated installation files” if our computer is connected to the Internet. Otherwise, select “ Skip this step and continue installing Windows" Click “Next”. 
9. In the next window we will see on the left an indicator for copying installation files. If no unexpected problems arise, the computer will reboot itself. And we can only calmly watch the further update process. By the way, it is much faster than installing from scratch. 
10. Finally, our PC will reboot one last time and the updated Windows XP will start. If the Internet and local network settings go wrong, configure them again.
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Above I described the installation process as it should ideally be. But sometimes during installation some problems may arise. For example, when following step 9 of our instructions, the “ Error when copying files”:
It is impossible to unequivocally answer why it appeared. Below are possible causes of this problem and some solutions:
1. Anti-virus software was not disabled before installation.
2. The Windows XP installation disc is scratched.
3. Your CD or DVD drive is faulty.
4. There is a virus on the computer. Before starting installation, conduct a full system scan with an antivirus (for example, DrWebCurelt).
5. Malfunction of RAM or hard drive.
6. There is incompatibility of any program or device. To check this, insert the installation disk with Windows XP into the drive - select “System compatibility check” - “Automatic system check”.
7. Try copying the entire contents of the installation CD to a folder on your local hard drive and run the installation from there (via the setup.exe file).
8. At the beginning of the installation process, in the “Dynamic Update” window, select “Download updated installation files” (if, of course, you have Internet access on your computer).
As you can see, there can be quite a lot of options and getting to the bottom of it is not so easy. For this (and not only) reason, I believe that The optimal reinstallation of Windows is a complete installation from scratch with formatting of the system partition. Naturally, you must first copy all the files that are important to you, as well as settings and drivers.
In April 2014, official support and updates for the well-proven Windows XP operating system ended. This prompted many users to upgrade to the more modern Windows 7.
But, despite the fact that Windows 7 turned out to be quite successful, the new operating system is more demanding on the computer’s hardware. Computers that ran on Windows 7 with Windows XP may have already slowed down a little. In addition, the new system brought inconvenience to those who were already accustomed to and had studied Windows XP quite well, since everything in the interface had moved to other places and they needed to be relearned.
But the main problem was the lack of drivers for old equipment. Many people still have old printers, scanners and other devices that still work well that they could not get to work on Windows 7.
Thus, users who, for one reason or another, remain on XP have to put up with the lack of updates and, as a result, reduced protection from new malicious technologies that exploit vulnerabilities in the operating system.
But it turned out that all was not lost. Recently, a German hacker came up with a very simple way to extend the receipt of updates on Windows XP. The fact is that Microsoft continues to support the Windows POSReady 2009 operating system for payment terminals and ATMs, which is built on the Windows XP kernel. The updates for these operating systems are absolutely identical.
This support includes the release of security updates and will last until April 2019. All that remains is to convince the Microsoft update server that you do not have Windows XP installed on your computer, but Windows POSReady 2009. A German hacker found a very simple solution on how to do this.
You need to add the following branch to the Windows XP registry:
And create only one DWORD key in it:
"Installed" with value "1"
This is easy to do using the Registry Editor. But if you don’t know how to use it, then in order not to ruin the system, it’s better to download a file that will do everything itself. Just double-click on it and agree to make changes to the registry.
With security updates, your Windows XP will be protected for a long time. You can download the file for making changes to the registry from the link below.
Hard drive A-Data Ultimate SU650 120GB
Hard drive Transcend StoreJet 25M3 1 TB
Transcend JetFlash 790 8Gb
A Windows Service Pack is a large collection of patches and tools to improve the reliability of the operating system. In the case of Windows, there are 3 versions: sp1, sp2 and sp3. It is strongly recommended to use the latest one - it is the most stable and secure, supporting many even modern applications. If you still have sp2 or sp1, you can download all the necessary updates for Windows XP to get the sp3 version.
How to find out the current version
First, users need to find out which version of the Windows XP operating system is currently installed. This can be done using the computer properties panel:
If sp2 or sp1 is installed, follow the further instructions.
Windows XP Update
The easiest way is automatic updating. The computer will automatically download all the necessary packages and install them in the background without interfering with your work. If auto-update were active, Windows XP would have already installed sp3. If this does not happen, you need to enable this function (at least temporarily):
Now you just have to wait until all the necessary packages are downloaded from the Microsoft server and installed on your PC. In case you encounter any problems and nothing works, try the alternative option described below.
Download the update package
- https://yadi.sk/d/84Fc1c7p3FfqWy
After these steps, the sp3 package will be downloaded to your personal computer.
Installing the update
Open the downloaded file. 
Download and install .NET Framework 3.5 SP 1
- Go to the download page at https://yadi.sk/d/9CSy-TKy3Ffs4i
- At the top of the page on the right you need to click “Download”.
- Launch dotnetf x35setup.exe and follow the instructions on the screen.
Any product released on the modern software market, one way or another, contains unprotected areas called holes. Over time, these “holes” are improved and to eliminate them, the manufacturer releases “patches” that 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 modified version of the purchased product. This article will tell you how to XP and become the owner of the most advanced version of this operating system.
Every 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. Developers most often agree with this, trying to make life as easy as possible for the owners of existing software. Nowadays, almost every PC owner knows how to update Windows XP while maintaining all the programs and files installed on the computer. But this information is worth repeating for novice users and those who have previously interacted with a computer firsthand.
How to update Windows XP while maintaining the usual OS settings, programs, games and other files installed on the computer? To do this, it will be enough to enable the system function. For this purpose, Microsoft, which is the creator of the Windows family of operating systems, has created a whole series of programs called Update Center. This service is available to owners of all computers running Windows OS of various versions. The only mandatory condition for receiving updates through this service is to connect your computer to the Internet. If the PC has constant access to the Internet, then the user just needs to enable it in the update settings. This is done using the “Start” menu, from which the “System” section is launched from the “Properties” item, in which you need to select the option to download the latest packages from “Windows Update”.
If your computer does not have constant access to the Internet or downloading the latest updates is impossible for a number of other reasons (slow or unstable Internet channel, high traffic costs, etc.), then install the latest updates, or, more simply put, install all Windows XP updates, you can in manual mode. There are two ways to do this.
For the first, you need to look at its version in the properties of the installed operating system and download all the missing software products from the official website (microsoft.com). For example, if your PC has Windows XP with a second service pack, then you need to download the third update package and start installing it by running the setup.exe file. Next, the operating system will be updated without the user’s help, but we should not forget that all data saved on the desktop and drive C may be lost. Therefore, before updating Windows XP, you need to save all the necessary user data from the desktop 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 CD-rom of your computer. After this, you should restart the PC or run the installation manually from the disk. How to update Windows XP from a specific one is usually described in detail in the instructions that come with it. If you don’t have such instructions in printed form at hand, most likely it can be found in electronic form on the media itself - most often the file describing the installation is called “readme”.
We should not forget that at the moment the latest updates for Windows XP are contained in a package called Service Pack 3. If the technical characteristics of the computer allow this, then you can upgrade this operating system to the newer Windows Vista, but the performance of the PC may be noticeably affected. decrease.
Microsoft ended support for Windows XP on April 8th. Computers running this OS no longer receive automatic updates and security patches. Thus, the system becomes vulnerable to attacks if critical vulnerabilities are discovered.
However, Windows XP users can still receive updates despite the end of official support.
An interesting trick was published on a German forum. The fact is that Windows XP can be configured in such a way that the Windows Update service will detect it as Windows Embedded POSReady 2009. By performing a simple manipulation, XP users can seriously improve the security of their computers.
The differences between Windows XP and Windows Embedded POSReady 2009 are small, so even if you install POSReady updates on XP, your computer will still be protected.
Let's quote an excerpt from a Microsoft document describing the difference between the two systems:
Windows Embedded POSReady 2009 contains the following features:
File Write Protection Filter (FBWF), which helps protect the system partition from being write-protected by redirecting all write requests to protected volumes to the overlay cache;
USB Boot, which allows installation from USB devices;
Office applications are not licensed to run in POSReady. POSReady does not contain help files. Both systems use the same management software.
There is another important difference. While support for Windows XP ended on April 8, 2014, support for Windows Embedded POSReady 2009 will continue until April 9, 2019. Thus, XP users will be able to receive updates for 5 years, unless, of course, Windows blocks this opportunity.
Let's describe the steps that need to be taken to ensure that Windows Update treats XP as an Embedded version.
Call the context menu and create a new text document. Name the document whatever you like and change the extension to .reg. Select the file, right-click and select the "edit" option.
Copy and paste the following code in Notepad and then save the file:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
"Installed"=dword:00000001
Double-click on the file and apply the changes. Restart your computer and check for updates again. Several new updates should already be available for download.
Keep in mind that Microsoft can block this feature in a variety of ways, but it's still worth a try if your system isn't currently updated at all.
Translation . Based on materials from the Internet portal Softpedia
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