How to upgrade Windows XP? Tips for novice users

Any product produced in the modern software market, anyway, contains unprotected zones, called holes. Over time, these "holes" are being finalized and to eliminate them the manufacturer issues "patches" that are combined into updates, called service packs. Then the developers recommend that users install the latest service packs, so that the user gets the most secure and modified version of the purchased product. This article will tell you how to upgrade Windows XP and become the owner of the most advanced version of this operating system.

Every advanced user is inclined to think that it is much easier to update an already installed program, rather than completely remove it and reinstall it again. Most often, developers agree with this, trying to make life easier for the owners of existing software. In our time, almost every PC owner knows how to update Windows XP, while saving all the programs and files installed on the computer. But this information should be repeated for beginners and those who previously communicated with the computer to you.

How can I upgrade my Windows XP system while keeping the usual OS settings, programs, games and other files installed on my computer? To do this, it will be enough to enable the automatic system update function. To this end, the company "Microsoft", which is the creator of the family of Windows operating systems, has created a series of programs called the "Update Center". This service is available to owners of all computers running Windows operating systems of different versions. The only prerequisite for receiving updates through this service is to connect the computer to the Internet. If the PC has a permanent access to the Internet, its user is sufficient to enable the update function in the operating system settings. This is done using the "Start" menu, from which the "System" section starts from the "Properties" item, in which it is necessary to select the ability to download the latest packages from the "Windows Update Center".

If the computer does not have constant access to the Internet or downloading the latest updates is not possible for a number of other reasons (slow or unstable Internet channel, high traffic costs, etc.), then to install the latest updates, or, simply put, all updates to Windows XP, you can and in manual mode. There are two ways to do this.

For the first one, you need to look in the properties of the installed operating system of its version and download all the missing software from the official site (microsoft.com). For example, if you installed Windows XP with the second service pack on your PC, you must download the third service pack and start installing it by running the setup.exe file. Next, the "operation" will be updated without the help of the user, but do not forget that all data stored on the desktop and drive C may be lost. Therefore, before you upgrade Windows XP, you must save all necessary user data on the removable media or any other hard drive from the desktop.

The second method of installation is that you need to purchase a bootable CD with the latest version of the operating system and put it in the CD-rom of the computer. After that, restart the PC or run the installation manually from the disk. How to update Windows XP from a specific optical disk is usually described in detail in the instructions that accompany it. If such an instruction was not readily available at hand, it is likely that it can be found in the electronic version on the media itself - most often the file describing the installation 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 can do this, then you can update this operating system to a newer version of Windows Vista, but the performance of the PC can be noticeable To decrease.