Windows XP

Green Hills Forever: Windows XP Is 20 Years Old

Microsoft released Windows XP, one of the most popular and enduring versions of Windows ever, on October 25, 2001. It brought a graphical refresh and much-needed stability to consumer Windows. We take a look back at what made…

Benj Edwards Oct 25th, 2021

Still on Windows XP? Update Manually or Get Wormed

Microsoft just patched a remote code execution hole in Windows XP with a critical update—over five years after it left mainstream support. However, Windows Update won’t automatically install it. You’ll have to manually down…

Chris Hoffman May 14th, 2019

Microsoft is Still Making Security Updates for Windows XP, But You Can’t Have Them

Windows XP isn’t dead and buried yet. Microsoft will be creating security updates for XP for years to come, but those updates won’t be available to normal users. No, they’re just for large businesses and governments with mone…

Chris Hoffman Apr 11th, 2014

Windows XP Support Ends Today: Here’s How to Switch to Linux

Microsoft is done supporting Windows XP. If you want security patches, you’ll have to buy an new boxed copy of Windows or a new PC — or you can switch to Linux and get free security updates for years to come….

Chris Hoffman Apr 8th, 2014

Windows XP End of Support is on April 8th, 2014: Why Windows is Warning You

Microsoft won’t be releasing new security patches for Windows XP come April 8th, 2014, and they’re making sure all Windows XP users know it. You’re on your own after this point — no more security updates for Windows XP!…

Chris Hoffman Mar 10th, 2014

Windows XP Users: Here Are Your Upgrade Options

Windows XP won’t be officially supported for much longer. Sure, you could keep using it — it won’t just stop working one day. It will just become more insecure over time as Microsoft and everyone else stops supporting it….

Chris Hoffman Sep 16th, 2013

Will You Take the Risk and Use Windows XP Beyond April 2014?

The deadline for the end of Windows XP support is drawing closer every day now, yet many people and businesses continue to use it. Microsoft is adamant that once April 8th comes and goes, there will be no end-of-life extensio…

Akemi Iwaya Aug 27th, 2013

Microsoft is Ending Support for Windows XP in 2014: What You Need to Know

Microsoft will be ending support for Windows XP on April 8, 2014 after 12 and a half years of supporting it. Microsoft has gone out of their way to extend support on several occasions, but the 2014 deadline looks like the fin…

Chris Hoffman Apr 14th, 2013

The Painless Way to Ditch Your Old Windows XP for a More Secure Linux

Windows XP just isn’t secure anymore! If the expense of the new Windows operating systems is too great, here’s an easy and painless way to get a completely free Linux, keep your old Windows XP installation, and start surf…

Eric Z Goodnight Oct 31st, 2011

Online Safety: Why You Should Give Up Windows XP For Good (Updated)

Most geeks will tell you it’s well past time to get rid of XP and upgrade to newer, safer operating systems. It can be tough to explain, so keep reading this list of real world reasons to let XP go.

Eric Z Goodnight Oct 24th, 2011

Make Windows XP Shut Down Faster

One of the biggest annoyances in Windows XP is waiting for what seems an eternity while it shuts down, so we have a couple of registry tweaks to help force Windows to shut down more quickly.

Brian Burgess Mar 12th, 2009

Make Windows XP Shut Down Faster

One of the biggest annoyances in Windows XP is waiting for what seems an eternity while it shuts down, so we have a couple of registry tweaks to help force Windows to shut down more quickly.

Brian Burgess Mar 11th, 2009

Get Vista Explorer Style Full Row Selection and Checkboxes in Windows XP

If you are still using Windows XP and are jealous of the optional but really useful checkboxes feature in Vista, or the full row selection in details mode, there’s a new solution for you that one of our readers wrote in about…

Lowell Heddings Dec 19th, 2008

Fixing "The Event Log is Full" Error on Windows XP

I was working on a project for work when I suddenly got the strangest error: “The Event Log is Full”. Seriously? What I didn’t remember is that Windows XP doesn’t automatically overwrite events less than 7 days old from the e…

Lowell Heddings Dec 9th, 2008

How to Get Virtual Desktops on Windows XP

This guest article was written by Emma from Laptopical.com, a site covering news and reviews for laptop computers.

Lowell Heddings Oct 8th, 2008

Enhance Windows XP Look & Feel the Easy Way

This is a guest article by Ghaus Iftikhar Nakodari from AddictiveTips.

Lowell Heddings Sep 24th, 2008

Remove That Unsightly Focus Rectangle in Windows XP or Vista

After a number of readers have written in about how to remove the dotted black outline that sometimes appears when you make a file selection, I realized that I needed to write this up for everybody’s benefit, since there actu…

Lowell Heddings Aug 12th, 2008

Force Firefox 3 to Use the Vista Default Theme in Windows XP

This article was written by Leon Steadman, the same helpful reader that showed us how to Use a Custom Theme for the XP Classic Logon Screen.

Lowell Heddings Aug 3rd, 2008

How to Remove Shared Documents Icon from My Computer in Windows XP

Have you ever wondered how to remove “Shared Documents” from your My Computer window in Windows XP? If you don’t use that feature, it seems rather silly to have it wasting space on the screen when all you really want to do is…

Lowell Heddings Jul 16th, 2008

Make Windows XP Use a Custom Theme for the Classic Logon Screen

This article was written by our excellent reader Leon Steadman.

Lowell Heddings May 16th, 2008

Customizing Your Icons in Windows XP

My new friend Sue asked me the other day how to customize icons on Windows XP, so I thought I’d write up all the ways to change the icons, both by using the built-in methods and also with additional software….

Lowell Heddings Apr 12th, 2008

Install Recovery Console as a Boot Menu Option on Windows XP

When you have a problem with your Windows computer, you’ll usually be told to insert the Windows cdrom and then start the Recovery Console in order to fix the issue. So where did you put that XP disc anyway? Why can’t we just…

Lowell Heddings Mar 11th, 2008

Defragment Your System Files (Pagefile and Registry) in Windows XP

In the pursuit for performance, making sure your drive isn’t fragmented is a regular task. The problem is that Windows XP doesn’t allow certain system files to be defragmented without commercial software. What about free solu…

Lowell Heddings Mar 4th, 2008

Remove User Accounts from the Login Screen in Windows XP

So you login to your computer every single day, but there’s more than one account to choose from… either because you got the computer from somebody else, or some software package added a user account that you really don’t w…

Lowell Heddings Feb 17th, 2008

Speed Up Disk Access by Disabling Last Access Updating in Windows XP

Did you know that Windows XP updates files with the last access update time when they are opened by any application? Seems to me that it’s not entirely useful, so let’s go through how to disable it.

Lowell Heddings Feb 5th, 2008

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