Install Sp3 On Windows Xp Embedded Operating
Microsoft Windows XP was an extremely successful version of Windows. The Windows XP operating system, with its greatly improved interface and capabilities, helped fuel phenomenal growth in the PC industry during the early 2000s.
One of the best things about XPE is its Enhanced Write Filter functionality. You can set up your boot drive exactly as it should be, enable EWF on it and all writes to that drive will be written to ram. If the PC is shut down or restarted, the ram is obviously cleared and the drive appears to revert to whatever it. Jan 11, 2017. When installing ESET products on Windows XP, the error message 'ESET Smart Security / ESET NOD32 Antivirus can not be installed on your operating system' might be displayed. Install Service Pack 3 for Windows XP to allow installation of the ESET product you want to install. For more information and. Screenshot of Windows XP, showing the start menu, taskbar and the 'My Computer' window.
Windows XP Release Date
Windows XP was released to manufacturing on August 24, 2001, and to the public on October 25, 2001.
Windows XP is preceded by both Windows 2000 and Windows Me. Windows XP was succeeded by Windows Vista.
The most recent version of Windows is Windows 10 which was released on July 29, 2015.
April 8, 2014, was the last day Microsoft issued security and non-security updates to Windows XP. With the operating system no longer being supported, Microsoft suggests that users upgrade to the newest version of Windows.
Windows XP Editions
Six major editions of Windows XP exist but only the first two below were ever made widely available for sale directly to the consumer:
- Windows XP Professional
- Windows XP Home
- Windows XP Media Center Edition (MCE)
- Windows XP Tablet PC Edition
- Windows XP Starter Edition
- Windows XP Home Edition ULCPC
Windows XP is no longer produced and sold by Microsoft but you can occasionally find old copies on Amazon.com or eBay.
Windows XP Starter Edition is a lower cost and somewhat feature-limited, version of Windows XP designed for sale in developing markets. Windows XP Home Edition ULCPC (Ultra Low-Cost Personal Computer) is a rebranded Windows XP Home Edition designed for small, lower-spec computers like netbooks and is only available for preinstallation by hardware makers.
In 2004 and 2005, as a result of investigations into market abuses, Microsoft was separately ordered by the EU and the Korean Fair Trade Commission to make available editions of Windows XP in those areas that did not include certain bundled features like Windows Media Player and Windows Messenger. In the EU, this resulted in Windows XP Edition N. In South Korea, this resulted in both Windows XP K and Windows XP KN.
Several additional editions of Windows XP exist that are designed for installation on embedded devices, like ATMs, POS terminals, video game systems, and more. One of the more popular editions is Windows XP Embedded, often referred to as Windows XPe.
Windows XP Professional is the only consumer version of Windows XP available in a 64-bit version and is often referred to as Windows XP Professional x64 Edition. All other versions of Windows XP are available in 32-bit format only. There is a second 64-bit version of Windows XP called Windows XP 64-Bit Edition that's designed for use on Intel's Itanium processors only.
Windows XP Minimum Requirements
Windows XP requires the following hardware, at a minimum:
- CPU: 233 MHz
- RAM: 64 MB
- Hard Drive: 1.5 GB free space (5GB with SP3 installed)
- Graphics Card: Support for 800x600 or greater resolution
While the above hardware will get Windows running, Microsoft actually recommends a 300 MHz or greater CPU, as well as 128 MB of RAM or more, for the best experience in Windows XP. Windows XP Professional x64 Edition requires a 64-bit processor and at least 256 MB of RAM.
Additionally, you should have a keyboard and a mouse, as well as a sound card and speakers. You'll also need an optical drive if you plan on installing Windows XP from a CD disc.
Windows XP Hardware Limitations
Windows XP Starter is limited to 512 MB of RAM. All other 32-bit versions of Windows XP are limited to 4 GB of RAM. 64-bit versions of Windows are limited to 128 GB.
The physical processor limit is 2 for Windows XP Professional and 1 for Windows XP Home. The logical processor limit is 32 for 32-bit versions of Windows XP and 64 for 64-bit versions.
A simple hack of Windows XP tricks Microsoft's update service into delivering patches intended for a close cousin of the aged OS, potentially extending support for some components until 2019, a security researcher confirmed today.
What's unclear is whether those patches actually protect a Windows XP PC against cyber criminals' exploits.
The hack, which has circulated since last week -- first on a German-language discussion forum, then elsewhere as word spread -- fools Microsoft's Windows Update service into believing that the PC is actually running a close relation of XP, called 'Windows Embedded POSReady 2009.'
Unlike Windows XP, which was retired from security support April 8 and no longer receives patches, Embedded POSReady 2009 is due patches until April 9, 2019.
As its name implies, POSReady 2009 is used as the OS for devices such as cash registers -- aka point-of-sale systems -- and ATMs. Because it's based on Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3), the last supported version of the 13-year-old OS, its security patches are a superset of those that would have been shipped to XP users if support was still in place. Many of POSReady 2009's patches are similar, if not identical, to those still offered to enterprises and governments that have paid Microsoft for post-retirement XP support.
Jerome Segura, a senior security researcher at Malwarebytes, an anti-malware software vendor, tried out the hack and came away impressed.
'The system is stable, no crashes, no blue screens,' Segura said in an interview, talking about the Windows XP virtual machine whose updates he resurrected with the hack. 'I saw no warnings or error messages when I applied patches for .Net and Internet Explorer 8.'
The Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) update Segura applied appeared to be the same one Microsoft released May 13 for other versions of Windows, including POSReady 2009, but did not deliver to Windows XP.
But although he has run the hacked XP for several days now without any noticeable problems, he wasn't willing to give the trick a passing grade.
'[POSReady 2009] is not Windows XP, so we don't know if its patches fully protect XP customers,' Segura said. 'From an exploit point of view, when those vulnerabilities are exploited in the wild, will this patch protect PCs or will they be infected? That would be the ultimate proof.'
Microsoft, not surprisingly, took a dim view of the hack.
'We recently became aware of a hack that purportedly aims to provide security updates to Windows XP customers,' a company spokesperson said in an email. 'The security updates that could be installed are intended for Windows Embedded and Windows Server 2003 customers and do not fully protect Windows XP customers. Windows XP customers also run a significant risk of functionality issues with their machines if they install these updates, as they are not tested against Windows XP.'
That last sentence was puzzling. While Microsoft would almost certainly not test POSReady 2009's patches on a Windows XP system, it would have tested the XP patches it crafted for its post-retirement support clients. And from all the evidence, POSReady 2009 is, at its heart, Windows XP SP3.
'The core of [Embedded POSReady 2009] is pretty much the same as Windows XP,' said Segura.
Microsoft itself makes that plain on its own website. In one document, Microsoft stated that POSReady 2009 offers 'full Win32 compatibility' with Windows applications.
Install Sp3 On Windows Xp Embedded Operating System
While Microsoft urged XP users to steer clear of the hack and instead ditch the old OS for 'a more modern operating system, like Windows 7 or Windows 8.1' -- Segura pointed out that wasn't always possible, often for financial reasons. 'If someone is going to stick with XP [the hack] is better than doing nothing, better than not having any patches,' Segura said.
'But there are better alternatives,' he continued. 'Don't use IE for one thing. Use an alternate browser -- Chrome are Firefox are going to still support XP -- and there are security products, including our anti-exploit products, that still run on XP. Those would be much better than the hack.'
The POSReady 2009 hack wasn't the first end-around Windows XP users have found for patching their PCs. In August 2010, after Microsoft required customers to upgrade from XP SP2 to SP3 to continue to receive security updates, a security adviser with antivirus vendor F-Secure revealed a Windows registry hack that tricked Windows Update into 'seeing' an XP SP2 PC as an XP SP3 system.
Segura was curious how Microsoft would deal with the hack. 'It's so easy to get the patches,' he said. 'Did Microsoft miss something? Will they do additional validation [to block the hack]? Can they?'
Instructions on how to apply the hack can be found on the Web, including this piece by Martin Brinkman on his Ghacks blog last Saturday.
Gregg Keizer covers Microsoft, security issues, Apple, Web browsers and general technology breaking news for Computerworld. Follow Gregg on Twitter at @gkeizer, on Google+ or subscribe to Gregg's RSS feed . His email address is gkeizer@computerworld.com.
See more by Gregg Keizer on Computerworld.com.