Since Microsoft has introduced Windows Vista they have been rapidly trying to get rid of Windows XP.  You already can’t buy Windows XP from OEM or Retail.  However system builders can still buy Windows XP up until January 31 2009.  After Jan 31 2009, supposedly you will not be able to buy Windows XP anymore.  That doesn’t mean you can’t use Windows XP, that just means you won’t be able to buy new copies for your computers.  Microsoft will still be supporting Windows XP until 2014.

Have you ever wanted to take a picture of your screen to show some one? Taking screenshots is actually very helpful to your tech company. If you can take a screenshot that shows exactly what the error is it will help them solve your issue easier and sometimes faster.

To take the screenshot is actually very easy, all you have to do is hit the “print screen” key on your keyboard. Once you do that the screenshot is copied to your clipboard. At this point you have many options of what to do with the screenshot. You can put it in Word, Paint or even directly into an email. Once you decide what you want to do with the screenshot, all you have to do is paste it (Edit -> Paste). You paste it just like you are pasting normal text that you have copied. Once you hit paste, your screenshot will appear.

Using Print Screen will take a screen shot of your ENTIRE screen and everything on it. If you only want to take a screenshot of just one window on your screen you can hold down Alt and press Print Screen at the same time. This will take a screenshot of just your currently active window.

Microsoft announced that this will be their last service pack(SP) for Windows XP as they are trying to move people to their Vista Operating System (OS).  This last SP has addressed many things about the OS that most people probably didn’t even know were broken.  According to Microsoft’s website, support for XP will end in January 2009.  This basically means that free security fixes will not be available through Windows Update.  Time to start planning those Vista upgrades which unfortunately may come with hardware upgrades to not only your computers but also other peripherals that may be on your network.

The easiest way to download SP3 for XP is through Windows updates.  In most cases you can click on START>ALL PROGRAMS>WINDOWS UPDATE to manually force the update.

Doug