"Glen "Wiley" Wilson" wrote in
message ...
. . .

Briefly, SP2 is a significant upgrade to the security of WindowsXP.
It's like a flak jacket - it doesn't make you absolutely bullet proof,
but it stops a lot of the small caliber stuff. :-) There are other
features, but I regard security as the compelling one. Most of the
security issues addressed by SP2 will have already been handled by the
expert user with add-on firewalls, third party email packages, and a
replacement browser like Mozilla Firefox (highly recommended! I
switched a few months ago and I find it to be superior in every way.
YMMV).

For a naked XP system with an internet connection, SP2 is a very
important upgrade, but it is not trivial. You should definitely read
*all* the information at the above link before upgrading, but my
personal opinion is that you should upgrade when it is convenient.
Backup your system first!

There is a list of over 200 applications, including quite a few of M$
themselves, that stop running or show severe problems after updating to SP2!

Meindert