I already had Internet Explorer 8 installed, so it was not added. I was able to install Windows XP Service Pack 4 Unofficial that successfully upgraded my system to SP3.Īfter the process completes successfully, you will see a couple of additions to the Start menu: XPS Viewer EP and BitLocker To Go Reader. Before I started the upgrade process, I had Service Pack 2 installed and couldn’t install SP3 using the standard Microsoft downloader. The one requirement for installing this service pack is that your Windows XP system has to have a minimum of SP1 already in place.

I cannot move or reinstall these applications into my Windows 7 configuration, which is where I do most of my work on the Windows platform ( I am keenly aware that Microsoft is ending support for Windows 7 on January 14, 2020). The main reason I keep Windows XP in the form of a Parallels virtual machine is so I can run several third-party programs whose software licenses are locked to this particular OS installation.

Microsoft discontinued support for Windows XP in 2014, and it is not advisable to rely upon this vintage operating system unless you have a compelling reason that offsets its inherent security risks.

Windows xp professional service pack 4