Updates to the Windows XP operating system address the identified vulnerabilities and shortcomings. Each new update can be installed separately, but as they accumulate, they are combined into special packages. SP3 was released in 2008 and significantly improves system security.
Instructions
Step 1
There are two ways to upgrade your Windows XP operating system to SP3. First: open "Start" - "Control Panel" - "System" - "Automatic Updates". Turn on the "Automatic update" item, your system will be updated. Please note that the entire update package is over 300 MB in size, so installation may take a significant amount of time.
Step 2
You can use another update option: download the entire package from the official Microsoft website and run its installation. This option is more preferable, since the installation of a ready-made update package will no longer depend on the vagaries of the network. You can download SP3 for Windows XP here:
Step 3
It should be borne in mind that updating the system can lead to the appearance of certain problems, so be sure to save important data before starting. Save on a different partition where the OS is installed. Better yet, save valuable data to external storage.
Step 4
Usually, on computers with licensed Windows, updates are installed normally, after rebooting the system, the user will see information that SP3 is installed on his computer. But if you are using an unlicensed version of the OS, automatic updating or installing a package downloaded from the Microsoft website may reset the activation and display a message that you have an unlicensed copy of Windows installed.
Step 5
To get around this complexity, you can download one of the "modified" SP3 packages available on the web. However, in this case there is no guarantee that Trojans will not be installed on your computer along with updates. Alternatively, you can install an official update, and then reactivate Windows using the appropriate applications that can be found on the network. But it would be more correct to use licensed Windows or switch to one of the Linux distributions - in the latter case, you will get rid of licensing problems forever.
