Microsoft has been a leading provider of many computer and Internet products and services. They may be best known for their operation system (OS), Windows, especially XP, released in 2001. In fact, more people use Windows operating systems (as opposed to Mac, Linux, or another lesser known OS) than all other operating systems combined. Windows XP is currently being used by more people than all the Windows OS's combined, not to mention claims about 60 percent of the entire OS market shares.

One of the quickest ways to identify the Windows XP is by the green start button and blue taskbar on the bottom of your computer screen, but it is responsible for much more than that. Microsoft in a way started over with the way they presented operating systems for their users.

Before XP (short for “experience”), there were two strands of operating systems in use by computer users in the late 90's—one was a business/networking friendly version known as Windows NT (which was upgraded to Windows 2000, in the year 2000). The other version was a consumer friendly version known as Windows 98 (succeeded by Windows ME, also in 2000).

Microsoft not only greatly improved the performance and, what they considered to be a vast improvement to usability, XP also replaced the two “strands” of Windows OS's into one operating system. XP is alternatively named “Windows 5.1” because it follows the Windows NT code base and is the successor to the NT based Windows 2000 (or, Windows 5.0).

There are multiple versions of XP, but the two most popular are Windows XP Professional Edition (similar to the Windows 2000 format), and Windows XP Home Edition (to replace 98 and ME), but every version is highly similar in the look and feel of XP. The most obvious difference in XP and all its predecessors is the major changes in the GUI, or graphical user interface. The colors, design, even shadows are significant improvements to the “aesthetic” quality, although this is a “classic” option to revert to the Windows 2000 look.

The most important reason for all the changes in the GUI was to improve the usability of all its features, especially for those who are new to computers. Options from the start menu, to the placements of icons and options were “optimized” to make computing simple to do and easy to understand (of course, these improvements may not be appreciated by those who have become accustomed to using a previous version of Windows, so not everyone agrees on the value of them).

The Control Panel, for example, was changed from previous versions to having two views. The “Classic View” just like the older versions that listed all the options in thumbnails in alphabetical order, and the “Category View” groups similar icons together to help users know where to find the controls they want.

Several upgrades to XP, called a service pack (SP), have been released since the original 2001 release. These are basically security and stability fixes that were available for free from the Microsoft website or as an automatic update. The last upgrade, service pack 3 had over 1,100 fixes! XP SP3 is the only version of XP that is still supported by Microsoft. According to the company, Microsoft will continue supporting (and provides free updates for) XP SP3 until April 2014, even though two newer operating systems, Vista and Windows 7, have already been released.

For information and troubleshooting resources, go to www.microsoft.com/windowsxp. 

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Written by Hannah Miller, Online Marketing Representative and Customer Service, Copper.net.

Copper.net is a nationwide Internet services provider that is all-American owned and operated. Call today, 1-800-336-3318 or sign up online at www.copper.net! Check out my blog for more articles!

Perhaps the biggest challenge for dial-up users is downloading updates on Windows computers. When everything takes ten times longer, getting daily updates for your computer or antivirus program can be a cumbersome task.  If you want to surf quickly on the Internet or have a large download to do, the last thing you want to do is share that precious little bandwidth with your updates. However, failing to do these important updates can put your computer at risk because you didn’t download a security patch. It can also cause your computer to run slowly because it is missing an important fix or upgrade for the operating system. So even as frustrating as these may be, these downloads really are helpful and necessary.

Here are a few tips if you are struggling to keep up with antivirus updates and windows updates:

*Schedule your antivirus scans and updates. You can often adjust when your antivirus uses your system resources and bandwidth in effort to avoid doing so when you want to use the Internet. You should find these setting in the advanced options of your antivirus program. Refer to the manual, website, or tech support line if you need more help with this step.

*Don’t turn off updates. As tempting as it might be to just turn off updates so you don’t have to take the time to download them, this will only cause the necessary updates for your computer to pile up until you turn them on again. If you don’t regularly update your computer, catching up on updates could take days on a dial-up connection. In the meantime, your computer is at risk and may not be able to keep up with normal functions and web applications.

*Adjust your Windows updates settings. You can set up your Windows updates so that you will be prompted when an update is available. This way you can ensure that you choose when to download an update, instead of your computer taking over and running installation while you are using the computer for other things.  You will still easily see when a new update is available.

*Take turns. If you know that your antivirus has a new update ready, you can temporarily stop windows updates from downloading. Your antivirus should take first priority, because if your connection is interrupted, the download has to start over. If you download your antivirus updates as soon as you connect to the Internet, you are more likely to get it to download successfully the first time. You can then turn on, or start the download for your Windows updates afterward, because these downloads can be interrupted and will resume the next time you connect to the Internet.

*Update overnight. You can connect to the Internet just before you go to bed, then start your updates. This way, it doesn’t matter how long they take or how much bandwidth they take up because you aren’t sitting there waiting on them.

*Download at another location. If you have a laptop and travel with it occasionally, you could turn off automatic updates and then manually download them every time you are at a place with free wireless or another form of broadband. Then you can quickly update every few weeks in a few minutes instead of trying to do them at home.

If you ever want to check whether your computer has all the updates that are available for your computer, simply go to http://www.update.microsoft.com (make sure you are using Internet Explorer) and your computer will automatically be scanned for any possible updates. You can pick what updates you want by choosing a custom installation, or you can just download everything (which is recommended by Windows).

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Written by Hannah Miller, Online Marketing Representative and Customer Service, Copper.net.

Copper.net is a nationwide Internet services provider that is all-American owned and operated. Call today, 1-800-336-3318 or sign up online at www.copper.net! Check out my blog for more articles!

Windows updates, or automatic updates, is a component of the security features on any computer running the Windows operating system. They are designed to keep your computer up to date with the latest patches and security fixes that Microsoft releases for Windows computers at any given time. They vary in size and importance, and if your computer has an Internet connection, it can receive notice from Microsoft when your computer lacks the latest update for its operating system.

These updates are not too frequent, but can quickly pile up if you do not connect to the Internet very often or if you disable your computer from automatically installing new updates.

These updates are important. Sometimes they help your computer function better. For example, if Microsoft releases an operating system, there might be a bug or glitch that arises after it has been released. Microsoft can issue a fix for this glitch and your computer can receive notice of this update automatically and, if windows updates are fully enabled, download it for your and install it right away.

There are also security updates that arise as Internet and computer threats become stronger and more pervasive. These are especially necessary if you use your computer to surf the Internet. You could actually experience an improvement in the speed and functionality of your computer after completing some Windows updates. Other updates you might recieve are newer versions of other Microsoft supported programs that are installed on your computer. You may receive automatic updates that are specifically for or related to your Office, Outlook, Adobe, and Internet Explorer programs. There is a chance that you would not want to install an update, fix, or new release, for example, if you didn’t want to take up hard drive space or you didn’t really use that program very much anyway. For the most part, however, these updates are necessary and will benefit you.

You can view or change your Windows updates settings by opening Automatic Updates in your Control Panel settings. You will see that there are different ways to handle Windows updates:
1. You can download and install updates automatically. This would mean that any time you are connected to the Internet, windows update may detect that a new update is available and download and install it immediately. This is great if you want your computer to be as updated as possible and you don’t care to make decisions about what gets installed.

2. You can specify that you would like to be notified when an update is available and choose when to download the updates yourself. This is the best option if you don’t want to download every update just because Microsoft has determined you don’t have that update. You can see a name and description of the file, choose the one(s) that you want, then download only those.

3. You can download the updates, but specify when to install them. This might be convenient for you to do if you don’t want to use system resources while you are working on the computer or uploading/downloading a large file. You can leave your computer on whenever a new update is available and let it install overnight or during the day when you are at work.

4. You can completely turn off automatic updates. This is ok temporarily, especially to free up space while downloading large files or using the computer for your own purposes. Another way it might be ok is if you do not use this computer to surf the Internet, but then you wouldn’t be getting updates anyway. If you turn off automatic updates, you will be warned by your Windows security system that your computer might be at risk, as you may be missing out on an important security update.

If you ever want to check if your computer has all the updates it needs, using Internet Explorer, visit www.update.microsoft.com and your computer will automatically be scanned to check for the latest updates your computer might need.

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Written by Hannah Miller, Online Marketing Representative and Customer Service, Copper.net.

Copper.net is a nationwide Internet services provider that is all-American owned and operated. Call today, 1-800-336-3318 or sign up online at www.copper.net! Check out my blog for more articles!