Widows XP Professional SP 3-drivers and updates

This is my first post here

I am about to do a reinstall (clean install) of my Windows XP Professional. The ISO that I have is the original version that came out first, before the updates started coming out. This means that I need to get system and driver updates going back many years. Any ideas on how best to go about this would be most welcome. If I could also choose what updates to install and what to reject that would be great.

Thank you

 

1. go to manufacturers website and download all drivers for your pc, save to cd or flash
2. download and install PortUp and this is the Documentation for port up. These will take awhile as portup will search for updates installed and needed to download and it must be online to do the initial search and then when you have done your fresh install before going online run portup and it will install offline a good percentage of updates
3. if your install cd is at sp2 you will need sp3 installed before drivers and updates
go here courtesy of Mike_Walsh for service pack downloads and you might think about slipstreaming your install cd with sp3 so that would be one less thing to worry about installing. Note: if your install has no service packs you will need to install 1 or 2 and then sp3
4. download an offline installer and database for your antivirus as this should be installed even before you go online to MU to get the rest of your updates that Portup does not install. I always install and run a quick scan, and the first thing I do is go to start/all programs and hit the windows update link, this only takes you as far as 2014, there have been several updates that you cannot get at Microsoft updates see this thread, and also you can hide the EOL update from microsoft as this is listed as a priority update but no one needs to know that xp is unsupported,
5. have you ever done a clean install before?
6. do you have all your documents backed to a flash drive or cd?

if you still have questions let me know,

 

Wow! I never expected this much of support. Thank you so very much I am glad I joined this forum. I need to get a few things clear. Please correct me when I go wrong.

All items 1 to4 are to be done after the fresh install?

I connect to the internet and do this after the fresh install?

I connect to the internet for the first part of this, then disconnect and run portup to install offline?

I do this after updating with Portup?

Does Microsoft still offer updates up to the end of support date in 2014 in spite of non support?

I thought this lot is now freely available for XP users

Could you please explain this? I really don't understand this at all. My ignorance!

Yes, no problem with partitioning and installing. Yes, I am going to backup everything.

 

you want your drivers, antivirus offline installer , any programs you download from the internet to use for your pc, ALL downloaded to flash drives before you do a fresh install so that you will have them ready to install before you go online the first time with a fresh install and ensure that you have scanned the flash drives for virus' before unplugging from whichever pc you used to download to the flash drive, this will ensure that you do not bring a virus to your fresh install,

all updates are still available for xp, MU website will take you to 2014 as that is when support ended, but xp pos ready is still supported to 2019 therefore some regular updates are available for xp, it is just that you cannot get them from MU you have to download them from the Microsoft Update Catalog, as listed it the thread in my first reply.
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you want to do PortUp from your CURRENT installation so that it can see what is installed and what you need, then you will let portup download everything while you are connected to the internet and before you wipe your drive, you can choose which ones you want later after the fresh install and before you go online. Please read the documentation ,
This way all the updates that can be installed offline about 80% are going to be installed with portup BEFORE you go to windows updates to get the rest after your fresh install.

The EOL (KB2934207) is a high priority update that all it does is send popup notifications that XP is unsupported and out of date. I never install this and if it should happen to get installed there is a registry fix to get rid of it, thank goodness.
On this note when I go to windows update for the first time AFTER a fresh install and have all my data and programs installed, I always do a custom scan, as this will give you the option to choose not to install an update, the express scan will not give you the option to hide any updates.
Also make sure that you have your service packs installed up to sp3 for xp 32bit and up to sp2 for xp 64 bit and that you have IE8 installed as MU will not work without it.

you can read about it HERE .
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I thought this lot was not freely available to XP users

yes, they are, they are just not available thru microsoft updates, as explained earlier, you have to get them from the update catalog.
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also do the following to save problems with activation after a fresh install, do this BEFORE you wipe the drive:

Create the Activation Status


Navigate to system32 folder.

Copy the wpa.dbl and wpa.bak files

Reinstall XP in the normal manner

Restart the computer and use the F8 key to bring up the Advanced Boot Options

Select Minimal Safe Mode using Up and Down Arrow Keys and press Enter.

Navigate to system32 folder.

Rename the existing wpa.dbl and wpa.bak files.

Copy the previously backed up wpa.dbl and wpa.bak files to the system32 folder.

Reboot the computer.

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Hope I clarified everything , if not just ask again,

 

Thanks a million. Everything certainly is clear! There is one problem. In System32 wpa.dbl is there but wpa.bak is missing from System32.

 

wpa.bak is a backup, that is what the extension .bak means if it is not there no problem, just copy the wpa.dbl.

 

Do I change the names arbitrarily to any two names I can think of? What extensions should I give them?

So that the System32 FOLDER will now contain 1. the files with the changed names and 2. the files that were previously backed up?

Just making sure that I get it right

 

wpa.dbl.old wpa.bak.old and once the new ones are in the system 32 folder you can delete the .old ones

yes, 1. the preexisting files and 2. the new file/files that you have installed

 

I have to wait for the weekend to do this. In the mean time if you think of anything else I should know, please post here. I will check regularly.

Thank you

 

I cannot think of any thing else right now, except be sure to install drivers after any service packs and then the updates.

 

My motherboard manufacturer does not offer any driver updates for Asus P5LD2 which is quite old (It is still lightening fast). Does PortUp find driver updates too? Didn't look like it from what I read. Are there any reliable applications similar to PortUp that gives driver updates?

 

if you have not wiped the drive yet look up all your drivers in device manager
get the manufacturer
and the name and the version , these will be under properties and then look at driver, then you can search the web for that particular driver, there are

https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/P5LD2/HelpDesk_Download/

this page has drivers for your pc

https://sourceforge.net/projects/drvback/

above sounds like a promising program, I have not used it but you could try it.

https://www.google.com/search?sourc...ab..3.16.2598...0j0i131k1j0i3k1.0.N6z7qEyr0iA

if not use the above search page for drivers, and remember when you install drivers after a fresh install the chipset driver is installed FIRST

 

Thank goodness I have not wiped the drive.

Yesterday I found the same Asus download page and wasted a couple of hours trying to find driver updates. Today I clicked on your link and got the same page. Still I couldn't find any. Because I had faith in your statement "this page HAS drivers for your PC" I persisted. The downloads didn't open because it was blocked by 'No Script' in my Firefox!! When I allowed 'script' downloads appeared as if by magic. You saved my life!

I have never done this before - so the questions. 1. For example, there are 8 driver downloads for Realtec Audio. Do I download only the latest version dated 2007/02/02 and with the other downloads also I follow the same procedure? 2. In the sourceforge page I download the application shown in green, install it and go on in the same way from there? 3. What will happen if I try to install an unwanted or incorrect driver update?

 

3. if you try to install a driver not for your system it will tell you that this driver does not match
1. look at the version of your realtek audio in device manager and match it to the download or just download the latest one 2007/02/02 that is what I would do.
check each download with your version listed in device manager, and also that it is compatible with your pc, some are only for 64bit and some are for 32/64bit. You can tell what you have by going to start/ right click on My computer/ choose properties/ on the general tab if you do not see 64 anywhere, then you have a 32bit system.
2. the program from source forge, which is generally a great website, you should follow the instructions on the program which can be found here, if you have more questions, let me know

 

I have saved the drivers with the application from Sourceforge, that you gave me a link to, and also with another program that I found on the Internet. What is the antivirus that you use with XP. I have been using Avast Free but I don't much care for it.

Can you also name a couple of good on line virus malware scanners?

Thank you

 

malwarebytes free for malware

360TSE for antivirus (also spyware) there is a 360 TS, which includes a lot of bells and whistles, but I only want the antivirus as I can clean my pc myself, you can download the full package for offline install the full package comes with bitdefender database and you can download the avira database from the same page, go to green box on the right side of the page, scroll a little bit down.

 

After I get the full package by clicking on the 'Download' link, I click on the green box and on the page that opens, I click only the 'Avira' link (because the bit defender data base is already in the full package that I downloaded earlier). Am I correct here? How do I integrate the Avira data base to the main program?

For cleanup I have been using Ccleaner and adwcleaner. If I get the 360TS would it make it more convenient for me by not having to use those two?

Thank you

 

correct, and once 360 has been installed, (make sure to not install the opera browser , look at the checkmarks on the first install page before clicking install), close out the 360 window and double click on the avira download, it will install after a minute or so, then be sure to enable the avira engine.

I use ccleaner because I can control what is removed or not, 360TS will let you do the same but I prefer to do it myself, and also 360TS comes with a lot more ads on the free version.

 

Does it install itself in to the main 360 that I already downloaded?

I have never seen this before; one anti virus using two data bases. Could you tell me why they made this optional instead of including both data bases by default?

I wonder why 360 is not shown by AV comparatives.

 

yes it will install itself, 360 uses five engines, as some older pc's do not have the power to run all five, avira is optional.

HERE, you can read several reviews