The era of windows xp is coming to an end, which means you won’t get any more security updates for it and it will have difficulty running modern applications. This makes it even more important to backup your files regularly.
During installation, you will have to read the Licensing Agreement and accept your responsibilities as a Microsoft Windows XP user. You will also be asked to select your language and region settings.
Features
Windows XP is the version of Microsoft’s operating system that superseded Windows 2000 and was succeeded by Windows Vista. It provides advanced features that support digital photography, instant messaging and wireless networking. It also functions as both client and server (see Windows File Sharing) and includes a personal firewall.
Many of these features can be accessed through the Start menu. Icons on the desktop represent applications, files and other aspects of the OS. A click on an icon opens the corresponding program or folder.
Other Windows XP features include Logical Prefetcher, which helps improve system performance by tracing frequently accessed pages and loading them into memory before they are needed at boot time. It replaces the need for an asynchronous reboot process and allows large asynchronous I/O requests to overlap with device detection and initialization, reducing startup times. The Windows Task Manager can display process names up to 15 characters in length, an improvement over the truncation limit on the 2000 edition.
Installation
After a few minutes Windows XP will begin to load. This can take several minutes depending on your computer and the speed of the CD-ROM drive.
During the setup process it will ask you to provide the names of the users that will use the computer. This will allow XP to create their individual accounts and configure the system settings accordingly. You can add more users later after the installation is complete.
Next, a window will be displayed asking you to choose your regional settings. This will affect things like the language, date and time formats and currency settings for your system.
Lastly, you will be asked if you would like to help protect your PC by activating Automatic Update Now. This will ensure that your system is protected against certain problems and will receive updates as soon as they are available. If you do not want to activate this feature, select the No, not now option.
Troubleshooting
If your windows xp workstation fails to boot, it’s often because of a device driver. Faulty drivers, software incompatibilities and corrupt system files can cause a wide range of start-up problems, from a single hardware device not working to the entire system being rendered unbootable.
Fortunately, Microsoft designed windows xp with many troubleshooting features. The BSOD screen and its associated log file provide valuable information for diagnosing the problem. By studying the error message, the Recommended User Action and the Driver Information sections of the BSOD, you can usually gain a good idea of what caused the problem.
If your system isn’t able to boot, the partition boot sector may have become corrupted. In that case, you can use the Recovery Console to write a new partition boot sector. However, this is a dangerous operation and can damage your hard drive or system applications. Therefore, if you’re attempting to repair a corrupt partition boot sector, back up your system before using the Recovery Console.
Security
Now that Microsoft no longer provides security updates for Windows XP, malware writers are expected to target the OS more aggressively. Even so, a number of tools exist to help protect XP machines. One example is the free EMET tool from Microsoft, which allows users to backport some of the security features in later versions of Windows to XP.
Another is to ensure that all users are using a limited account, which limits what malware can do. According to a study from Avecto, 92% of the critical vulnerabilities reported by Microsoft can be mitigated simply by ensuring that all accounts do not have administrative rights.
If you must use a Windows XP machine in an environment where you can’t migrate to a new version of the operating system, try installing dual-boot software to run Linux on a separate partition. This is a cumbersome solution, but it offers a good level of protection against most types of malware.