windoz xp question

[seagull]

My sis came for a visit with her 2002 HP laptop w/XP and asked if I could update it for her. Someone had turned off the auto updates when it was new. It seams to run good but she wants to run some of the games,ect,ect that she can,t now without the add on updates.

My question is Where do I start with the up dates.Or do I just leave it be.

Thanks for any suggestions
stay safe
DB

[bailey]

windows update would be a good place to start, it will update everything for you.

[seagull]

Is there s certain place to go to get all the updates I need to bring it up to date or do I have to pick and chose each one. Like browser,media player ???

[Force Flow]

There are "critical" updates...mostly the security updates and bugfixes, then there are the "optional" updates, that include things like the media player, .NET, etc. The "optional" ones are the ones you have to select manually when you go to the windows update site in IE.

http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/

[seagull]

Well YOU DO LIVE & LEARN.
installed all windoz updates and brought AVG up to date. Never again for me. Now it takes 12 seconds to open start menu. Def raged and everything I know how to do . I would trash this drive but all I have is HP CDs

Looks like I did my sis a big favor Ha ha ha.

[Panama Red]

You might also turn off some running programs and services. Go to Run>msconfig>startup tab and take a look at all the programs running in the background. Use this site to determine which programs you can do without running all the time.

http://www.sysinfo.org/startuplist.php

The go to: Run>services.msc and use the following guide from Black Viper to Disable unnecessary XP Services.

http://www.blackviper.com/WinXP/servicecfg.htm

Also, consider this, when you first start a computer with Auto updates turned on, it will take a few minutes for things to settle down. WU is checking for updates and AVG is phoning home to see if it is up to date also. I tell people to wait 5 minutes or so after first starting up before attempting to access the internet or opening any programs. You can monitor the updating activity by opening the Task Manager and selecting the Processes tab. Watch the cpu usage at the bottom and the corresponding processes rise and fall. You'll often see a major cpu load for the first few minutes. Just be patient and things will settle down eventually. Good luck.

[seagull]

Thanks PR !!!!! Your links are great. I will go see what I can do. BTW I am patient most of the time

stay safe
d