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Can I still get Windows XP updates ...
fortytwo
Posts: 1,298
Forum Member
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... especially Service Pack 3.
I've just restored my old Dell pc using the factory restore feature and decided my first task should be to install some anti virus program, and then I was going to update xp. Unfortunately when I tried to install Bitdefender it apparently required a later version of Net Framework and when I connected to the internet to try to update xp the screen kept freezing. In fact none of the Microsoft pages related to updating Windows xp seemed to work properly very slow in operation before eventually freezing.
I know xp isn't going to be supported soon but I thought it was still a fully supported operating system at the moment.
Can anyone offer any help with this?
Thanks.
I've just restored my old Dell pc using the factory restore feature and decided my first task should be to install some anti virus program, and then I was going to update xp. Unfortunately when I tried to install Bitdefender it apparently required a later version of Net Framework and when I connected to the internet to try to update xp the screen kept freezing. In fact none of the Microsoft pages related to updating Windows xp seemed to work properly very slow in operation before eventually freezing.
I know xp isn't going to be supported soon but I thought it was still a fully supported operating system at the moment.
Can anyone offer any help with this?
Thanks.
0
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http://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/download/details.aspx?id=24
.NET 4 can be found here
http://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/download/details.aspx?id=17718
.NET 3.5 can be found here
http://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/download/details.aspx?id=25150
Its worth installing both versions as some older apps don't always recognise 4.0
Here is IE8:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/download/internet-explorer-8-details.aspx
and Windows Media Player 11
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/windows-media-player-details.aspx
If after that you still cant get on the windows update page you can try the Fixit tool here
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/971058
Much appreciated,
I'll try again tomorrow.
Thanks
No rush, still over 4 months left for security updates, maybe longer.
Take s2k's advice and install SP3 and then all the updates since.
I'm on Xp and have NET Framework 2, 3 and 3.5 installed.
Avira or Avast may work better than Bit Defender.
I used to run W7 on it and it worked fine but, alas, I found myself working with some industrial software designed for XP and which flat-out refuses to work with Vista or W7 so I need an XP based computer around for the foreseeable future.
On the other hand if it's an old machine and just used for those old programs then maybe it isn't needed for web surfing so no real security issues. I still have a Windows 98 machine that I use.
http://www.howtohaven.com/system/slipstream-xp-service-pack-3.shtml
Then you've everything up to SP3 right from the off.
I just wish that someone would come up with a slipstreamed version with SP3 and all the updates since!
http://www.nliteos.com/index.html
Must say, I've never seen any PC perform worse with W7 than it did with XP, given that you disable the Aero video effects.
IIRC, the minimum spec for XP was 512mb RAM whereas the minimum spec for W7 is 1gb RAM so you do need a higher spec to begin with but W7 doesn't put much more load on a PC than XP did.
Said before, I installed W7 on a bunch of old P2 corporate laptops as part of the W7 beta-testing a few years ago and they all worked better under W7 than they did under XP.
My Dell X1 is a P3 (mobile) laptop running at 1ghz and with 1.25gb of RAM and it used to nip along quite happily under W7.
The two reasons why I moved back to XP were 1) because I needed a PC to run XP-based work software and 2) because several of the W7 drivers were only available as internet updates and I didn't want to risk being in a position where I couldn't restore the laptop to a working state without an internet connection.
A sensible minimum for Win7 is 2GB. Anything less and it wont be particularly pleasant.
What is worth bearing in mind is there are a huge number of PCs out there running XP that were downgraded from Windows Vista or in some cases even 7. These are obviously going to be fine but anything that was actually designed for XP probably isn't going to be worthwhile upgrading now since you are looking at single core CPUs and expensive old RAM with limited expansion, potential driver issues etc.
Until you actually want to do anything of course
When you come to do this you should note that there's currently a bug that prevents fresh installs of XP from updating. It's been around for at least a month and who knows if Microsoft will bother to fix it before support ends.
My uncle asked me to wipe and clean install XP on his old clunker of a desktop (P4 with 1Gb RAM) and i've been trying to pass this snag since yesterday.
Lots of solutions on line, but none of them worked until i just manually installed IE8 and the latest cumulative IE8 update. It now seems to be updating correctly (previously it just sat there on the updates page checking for updates continuously with no response).
So, if you hit the same bug, install IE8 and its updates manually right after installing XP.
My top tip is to always install the latest version of IE to any fresh installation of Windows. It cuts down the number of Windows Updates for all the older versions.
This applies whether you are planning to use IE or not.
I already started a thread on this, but I found installing IE8 with the updates took hours, so I unchecked the updates (after advice on here) and I'm getting varying time results from 5 minutes to 30 minutes on different machines.
But the updates is still sitting there endlessly, that's after installing WGA, which took an hour and the 4.5 installer manually.
Wonder if like you have mentioned MS will ever fix it?
It never used to be this slow and I suspect that it may have something to do with end of life extended support, and maybe something to do with the new exploit in Adobe PDF for XP SP3
From a clean install of XP it took around 15 minutes to manually install IE8 and probably another 10 for the cumulative update.
Here are the files i downloaded from Microsoft:
IE8
Cumulative Security Update
After installing and rebooting i could open the Microsoft Update page and download and install an initial 112 updates without problem. Subsequent update checks also worked without problem and everything's patched now.
It used to be painless for me like that. I'm going to give your suggestion a try, any suggestions are helpful I have a ton of XP machines to shift.