Windows XP is considered by many to be the best Microsoft operating system ever made. It still holds significant market share and continues to be used by doctors, military personnel and even police forces to this day.
Make sure your computer has enough hard disk space to install XP. Also, make sure the partition is formatted using NTFS.
Features
XP was the first version of Windows that used the NT kernel and was explicitly intended for the consumer market. It was more stable than the previous MS-DOS-based versions and included features like a firewall, a product activation feature to prevent software piracy and support for Intel’s Hyper-Threading technology.
It also introduced a more customizable desktop and introduced icons to represent different programs and applications on the taskbar and menu bar. For example, a blue rectangular icon appears on the screen when a program is running that can be clicked to display the program’s window.
Other new features include a system restore that can roll back your computer to a previous state. It is also a “plug and play” operating system, meaning that it automatically detects hardware devices connected to the computer and installs their drivers. It has a built-in firewall and supports many programming languages. It includes the Microsoft Media Center, a set of media tools that allows you to view digital video and music files.
Compatibility
The main editions of windows xp are home, professional, and media center. These editions are designed for different types of hardware devices. For example, the media center edition is designed to blend a computer with television and entertainment systems. This edition requires a lot of disk space and processing power.
Windows XP was a major advance over previous Windows operating systems in terms of stability and efficiency. It was the first NT-based version of Windows to implement product activation, a system that prevents software piracy. It also includes a number of new features such as Hyper-Threading and support for Intel’s 64-bit Itanium processors.
Many users have programs that only run on XP. While modern computers can run XP using a virtual machine, this is expensive and doesn’t resolve hardware incompatibilities. Some government agencies still use XP for mission-critical applications that are incompatible with newer versions of Microsoft’s operating systems. This has led to a demand for products that are compatible with XP.
Installation
The first thing to remember is that this is a clean install of XP so any information that is on the computer will be wiped away. If you have anything that you want to keep on the machine then make sure you back it up.
To start the install process you will need to put the XP CD into your computer and then turn on the computer. During this time you will be prompted to press a key in order to boot from the CD, so watch for it.
When the XP setup screen appears select install windows by hitting enter. The next page will ask if you want to register with Microsoft, which is optional.
Then it will create a new partition and format it. It is important to choose a size that is big enough since this will be your C: drive where most of the software and data will reside. Then a few more screens will appear that will set the region and language settings.
Security
When Microsoft stopped security updates for XP in April of 2014, many computer gurus assumed malware hackers would exploit the situation to take control of XP machines. So far, that has not happened.
However, using a 12-year-old OS without any regular updates presents risks that should be considered carefully by organisations still working with Windows XP. If they continue to use the operating system, it’s important to put in place best practices that will reduce these risks.
For example, organisations should keep XP systems up to date with software distribution clients and antivirus systems, and use tools like EMET to backport some of the more sophisticated security features of later versions of Windows. Also, it is recommended to disable USB ports and CD/DVD drives to remove another path for the introduction of arbitrary executable code.
In addition, IT managers should ensure users log in to standard, non-administrator accounts to cut the risk of malware attacks. This can be done with privilege management software, or a network or host-based intrusion protection system.