Windows XP is an operating system used to run programs on a computer. It uses the desktop as its standard interface.
XP is known for its stability and longevity. It offers a number of features that help make it a great operating system for home computers and laptops. It also supports older hardware and software with compatibility mode.
Requirements
Although sales of Windows XP ended in 2008, many computers are still running the operating system. In order to get the best performance out of Windows XP, hardware manufacturers must provide drivers that support the OS. Independent software vendors also need to support the OS with new releases of their products.
Microsoft designed a number of different versions of Windows XP to suit various needs. Windows XP Home Edition was built for consumer use, while Windows XP Professional included advanced management features and could support two central processor units. It can also run on a 64-bit system, which increases the amount of memory that can be allocated to a single process and adds support for Intel Hyper-Threading.
To take advantage of the increased performance offered by a 64-bit system, Microsoft developed a technology called Windows-on-Windows 64-Bit (WOW64) to allow 32-bit x86 applications to run on 64-bit versions of XP. This provides a similar experience as running 32-bit software under NT, but with better security and performance.
Installation
When you boot the XP installation disk, it will prompt you to press a key. You have about a second to choose a key or the computer will reboot. Use your arrow keys to move over the choice for the Onboard or USB CD-ROM drive and then hit Enter.
Once the installation process starts, a window will appear asking you if you want to help protect your PC by activating Automatic Update now or later. It is recommended to activate automatic updates now to avoid future problems.
The next screen shows you the status of the installation. It may take a while for the program to copy the files and start the installation process. The progress bar will indicate how far it has got. Once it has finished installing the file system, it will automatically restart the computer again. This is normal.
Configuration
After the setup program begins to load the files, it will ask for a product key (like in the picture above). This must be a valid product key or else the installation will not complete.
The next page that will appear is the Windows XP Licensing Agreement. You can skip this by pressing F8.
Setup will then format the partition using the NTFS file system. This is the preferred file system because it supports larger partition sizes and includes security features at the file system level.
The final screen will ask you to select the name of the computer and its location on a network (see the second picture). You may also want to remove checkmarks from programs that should not be started at startup. To do so, open the msconfig utility (click Start, type msconfig and press Enter). Click the Startup tab, then remove all checks for ‘MMERefresh’ and ‘digiSPTIService’. This will help reduce the number of system resources that these services consume at startup.
Security
Although Windows XP can no longer receive security updates from Microsoft, it offers some built-in security features that make it more difficult for malicious code to infect a system. Those measures include an internal firewall and the ability to prevent certain USB drives from automatically running executable software when inserted.
Home versions of Windows XP, however, do not provide the same protections as the business editions. Administrative shares (hidden folders accessible to administrators over a network) are not disabled, and some newer applications may not run in XP Home.
For organizations that must continue to use XP, a tool called the Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit lets you backport some of the security features available on newer Windows operating systems. In addition, you can make it more difficult for external hackers to exploit memory corruption vulnerabilities by requiring users to log in using standard, nonadministrator accounts. Privilege management software can also help you limit what users can access on a physical or virtual XP system.