Keeping Windows XP Updated (And Why It’s Important)

Hackers are always working to find holes in Windows security. Microsoft is constantly releasing updates to plug newly discovered security holes. That's why you should ensure that your copy of Windows is kept up-to-date. You can check for updates manually, or you can turn on Automatic Updates to have Windows handle the process for you.

Go to Start > Control Panel > Administrative Tools. If you're in Category View, you'll have to go to Performance and Maintenance. Then click on Services. Now you'll see a long, very complicated-looking list of services. There are only a few of these you need to be concerned with.

The ones you need to ensure are running are Automatic Updates, Background Intelligent Transfer Service, and Event Log. Look under the Status column to see if the status is Automatic, Manual, or Disabled. If all three are not set to Automatic, right click on the one(s) that aren't and choose Properties. About midway in the dialog box, you'll see a Startup Type option box. Select Automatic, then click OK. Now these services will run automatically, and Windows will keep itself up-to-date.

If you were to set these services to Manual, you would have to start them yourself every time you want them to run.