At this point in time, anybody wanting to use Windows XP should get a full Windows XP sp-3 CD and install it. Then it will get the updates that come after SP-3. There is no official SP-4. Rather, you must install a XP sp-3 from scratch and then wait for the updates to come.
Once you have a full install of XP sp-3 with updates, you should make a image backup that can be used later to restore the y system in case of failure.
If you want to use it on the internet, you must have the protocols ans security of SP-3 and the updates. The full list of things fixed is rather long and you don't want to read them. Just believe they were needed.
Most older computers can work well with Windows 7. At some point in the future Windows XP with be left out and it will not work for you. There is some work now about making the HTTPS much more secure. If they do, old XP will not do a secure connection. Your XP will not be able to log in to anything. ( I will post more on this in the NEWS section.)
BTW, one can now buy a certified reconditioned PC with Windows 7 installed with product key for less than the price of the retail version of Windows 7. So there is little resewn to stick with XP on an old computer. Unless it is part of a museum display.
And yes, I still use XP, but it st is a personal thing. I am too slow running windows 7 or 10. Not the computer, I am too slow. Can't remember where things are in Windows 7, yet someday I will have to quit using XP and join the rest of the world. 
I was going to use the Win Update which has SP3, and if I read it right I believe that (and the manual d/l) has the advantage of not needing the product key, whereas the CD may require it. But you won't get subsequent updates if installing SP3 from any other source than the CD? Where do you get a Win XP SP3 CD, an ISO somewhere?
Yeah, an image backup is the real trick. That's what I've been wanting to do from the start, but have had to settle for lesser quality or inconvenient backups. Other than just simple user file backups, or using NT Backup, I was going to start using DAR instead. Seems a capable good program, but not image/clone level, and has a significant learning curve to use. I had found many free cloning programs. But they all ended up either from a malware prone site, or there was Clonezilla-- which ended up no good to use, for me. I'm not sure UBCD had any others that were promising. The only other live Linux CD that yet works on my system is the not-the-most-capable Legacy OS (Puppy Linux), which ironically has a few cloning programs. That may be the only real option and the best option for cloning software, actually.
I had already looked over the updated functionality of XP SP3. It sounds advisable to install it. I just hope it's not too much more taxing on system resources.
My system doesn't meet the system requirements for Win 7. I didn't see anything about HTTPS being made much more secure in the news section. I've heard other info about Win XP being obsolete & unusable too. I've actually been meaning to install and migrate over to a Linux platform from the start, with this system. I never cared much for Windoze, obsolete or not. The problem is I haven't found much for a capable/modern live Linux flavor that actually can successfully boot. The only full OS that has worked so far is Legacy/Puppy, which can't support my USB 2.0 adapter nor anything for WAN but ethernet, which isn't available for me. I've also tried Slax and Vector, unsuccessfully. But UBCD also works and is based on Debian. I'm going to check if there's a quick fix for Vector, otherwise definitely next trying Debian.
As for the refurbed Win 7 system, I'm not really into desktops as I need something more portable. There's similarly cheap mini-computers, that would be portable to move around at least, though not while using
. (
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Order=BESTMATCH&Description=ASUS+Mini+PC+VM42-S075V&N=100006550&isNodeId=1) I'm planning on getting an affordable netbook, which would probably only cost significantly less than $100 more than just replacing the LCD & battery in this laptop. It would be running Win 8 or newer, plus good OS(es) I'd install.
It doesn't seem like newer Win versions are too fundamentally different to use to me
. I was recently able to help someone find and adjust the settings to get their Wi-Fi working on a laptop probably running Win 8 or newer, even though I haven't used anything newer than XP.
