Microsoft Support for Windows Vista (with no service packs installed) ends on April 13, 2010, while support for Windows XP (without Service Pack 3 installed) ends on July 13, 2010. Windows 2000 support will end on July 13, 2010 as well.

There is no Service Pack 3 for the 64-bit version of Windows XP. If you’re running the 64-bit version of Windows XP with SP2, you have the latest service pack and will continue to be eligible for support and receive updates until April 8, 2014.

What Does It Mean When Support for My Operating System Ends?

If you are still running a version of Windows where support has ended, it means that version of Windows will no longer receive any updates from the Windows Update or Microsoft Update site. These updates are generally provided for security reasons to help protect the PC from harmful viruses, spyware, malware, and other malicious software. Windows Update also provides new drivers for your hardware that can improve the reliability of Windows.

Hackers love to take a security vulnerability in Windows and exploit it to their advantage. So, if a vulnerability is found in Windows XP or Windows Vista and you are not running the latest service pack, you will not be protected

How Can I Tell What Service Pack is Installed?

Follow these steps to discover what Service Pack is installed:

1) Click on the Start Button
2) Right-click on either My Computer or Computer (depending on your Windows version)
3) Click on Properties

On this window, it should tell you which version of Windows along with which service pack is installed). It should also tell you whether you are running a 32 bit or 64 bit version of Windows.

Where can I download the latest Service Pack for Windows?

For Windows XP, click on the following link to download Service Pack 3

Windows XP Service Pack 3 info

Windows XP Service Pack 3 download

For Windows Vista, click on the following link to download Service Pack 2

Windows Vista Service Pack 2 info

Windows Vista Service Pack 2 download

Go To Original Source

Adobe Flash is a plugin for Internet Explorer and Firefox that allows active content to be displayed in your web browser. As with other third party programs, its updated on a regular basis. In many cases, the Flash Security Update KB923789 in Windows Update would not install properly. In other cases, you may have received an error “you must install a later version of the Macromedia Flash Player”.

In April 2008, Adobe is releasing another security update that may cause issues too. Because of these problems, you may have to uninstall and reinstall the flash player to may it work properly. Follow the steps below to download the Flash Player Uninstaller and then reinstall it. In most cases, a reinstall will fix any issues with Flash Player.

Last week, a hacked flash ad injected into online advertising enabled malware to attack systems just by visitors viewing the infected web page.  These “malvertisements” may become commonplace in the future and are even more reason to uninstall any old versions of Adobe Flash Player and install the latest version. Read more about Flash Security further down the page.

Download the Adobe Flash Player Uninstaller

Many times, just uninstalling and reinstalling the Adobe Flash Player from the Add/Remove Programs Control Panel will not solve the problem. If the Flash Player is corrupted, it may not remove properly and therefore an new installations will not proceed correctly. Click on the following link to download the Adobe Flash Player Uninstaller and save it to your desktop.

http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/download/alternates/

Run the uninstaller program and then reboot your computer to complete the uninstall.

Download the latest version of Flash Player

Now that Adobe Flash has been uninstalled, go to the Adobe site and download the latest flash player.

http://www.adobe.com/go/getflashplayer

Security Level Issues Won’t Allow Flash Player to Download

Sometimes, browser security will not allow you to download the Flash Player correctly. If this happens in Internet Explorer, check the following items to allow the download.

To change your security level:

1. Open Internet Explorer.
2. Click on Tools, Internet Options
3. Click on the Security Tab
4. Click Custom Level
5. Find the section titled “ActiveX controls and plug-ins”
6. Choose Prompt for “Download Signed ActiveX Controls”
7. Choose Prompt for “Run ActiveX Controls and Plug-ins”
8. Click OK twice to close the options screen

More Troubleshooting Help for Flash Player

If this procedure does not allow you to install Adobe Flash, you may want to visit the Troubleshooting FAQ on Adobe’s site.

Flash Security

Because of the recent vulnerabilities found in Flash applications that allow malware code to be released when a flash file is viewed, you may want to turn flash off when viewing flash enabled websites. This is a more extreme measure, but should be considered.

Here are some utilities that will help turn flash off when needed.

For Internet Explorer:

• TurnFlash – a utility to turn flash on or off from the system tray
• No! Flash – free utility to disable flash, java, and more

For Firefox:

• FlashBlock – an add-on extension to block flash, shockwave, and authorware in Firefox

To read more about this flash vulnerability visit the Windows Secrets article

Go To Original Source

Windows only: Driver update utility Device Doctor finds outdated drivers on your PC, and helps you download the latest version—without charging you a dime.

Using the utility, which can be installed or used as a portable application, is about as easy as it gets—just click the Begin Scan button, wait a couple of seconds, and you will be shown a list of drivers that can be updated. The download button for each driver will take you to their web site, where you can download the drivers for free, without signing up for anything at all. Most of the drivers come with setup programs, but some of them are nothing more than zip files, and would need to be installed manually—hopefully something they can improve on in the future.

During our testing, we used the application on half a dozen PCs, and had varied results—on our XP test system, Device Doctor worked well and accurately found new drivers, but for Windows 7 we didn’t have as much luck, with a few incorrect drivers being thrown at us. That said, Windows 7 was only released recently, so expect that support to improve in the future.

Device Doctor isn’t perfect yet, but as a completely free, portable application that you can toss on your thumb drive, it’s well worth a look. It might even save you some time searching for new drivers while you are fixing mom’s PC.

Device Doctor is a free download for Windows only. Be sure to check out the full How-To Geek review for a more in-depth look, as well as instructions on installing drivers manually.

Go to Original Source