If Windows XP has the distinction of being the longest-running consumer OS from Microsoft to dominate the market, there has got to be a reason. One reason that ranks close to the top is “security” that was “good enough” for its time. Successive service packs have gone on to shore up this operating’s reputation and trust in the eyes of consumers. To the extent that many still prefer to use this almost 9 year old OS, than use the latest and most glitzy one released by Microsoft (see details in the last paragraph). For those still running WinXP today, meaning most of us, here are two of the quickest steps to make sure the PC is still secure.

1. Install the latest updates and Service Pack (SP3 in this case).
2. Install an antivirus (MS Security Essentials will do fine).

Of course, make sure your PC’s firewall is enabled, and that important system services have not been disabled by gratuitous “tweaking” applications in a bid to speed up your PC. Both the above have been available for quite some time now, yet a lot of WinXP users still haven’t installed them. The SP3 for Windows XP can even be integrated into an older WinXP CD that you have, to create a new “slipstreamed” disc using tools like nLite. That way, you can have all cumulative updates already present upon installing the OS.

Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) is titled quite clearly, and this security software just might win you over. It is free for everybody including business, unlike free antivirus software from other companies that mandate you to use the free version only for home or non-profit purposes.

If you’d like to delve deeper into MSE, here’s some information you might want to use. Download the MSE base components from its home page. Note that the downloaded installer (barely 5 MB) is for the application only, and does not include virus/malware definitions (which weigh in at about 50 MB). Once installed, MSE downloads the latest updates and goes forward from there, with frequent updates. If you want to avoid a tortuous time waiting for the definitions to be downloaded, want definitions to be installed before connecting to the Internet, or simply don’t have an Internet connection available on the PC where you install MSE, don’t fret. For these purposes, you can manually download the definitions from another PC and install them on the relevant PC (just like installing Norton AntiVirus definitions offline). The links to download the 32-bit and 64-bit versions of the definitions are different.

The SP3 for WinXP is a fairly boring update, in the sense that it does just what MS promised a Service Pack would do. It would include all previous updates released for the OS, and also include newer security updates that were released after the previous (SP2) Service Pack. The only major “features” that were added with SP3 from a user’s perspective, were support for High-Def audio soundcards, and allowing a trial install without having to enter a key. This is very unlike the blockbuster XPSP2 which added so many features and fixes that some called the result an entirely new OS. Which in hindsight was true during its long innings, WinXP would not have been as secure or as satisfactory without SP2. If you like detailed information, see the list of fixes included in SP1, SP2 and SP3 for Windows XP.

Having said that the Service Packs made WinXP a more usable OS, we shall also reiterate that for all practical purposes, the OS is dead now. Windows XP was released on 24th August 2001, compared to Windows 7’s 22nd July 2009 date. Having been around for almost 9 years is not a bad achievement at all. Its sales were stopped and it is out of the “mainstream support” phase. Its last Service Pack (SP3) is close to 2 years old now, and those still running SP2 are not even covered by the "extended support" phase. For more details of how the support policy works and what it says, see links one, two, three, four, five and six. By default, WinXP SP3 has a slightly secure version of Internet Explorer 6 (IE6), but even Google has started dropping support for such old software. So if you want a reasonably modern and secure platform which is still supported, use Windows 7 (with UAC and IE8 Protected Mode) in combination with MSE, if your PC has the muscle to run them.