wow a pop up blocker and a shitty firewall.. Search and you will find much better versions of these for free: zonealarm, etc. backup before you install sp2!

This DEP feature seems to do exactly what it was trying to prevent viruses from doing. Personally I'll wait until I feel the need to do a complete re-install, and then maybe use a slipstreamed one. Only 1 of 4 of the XP2 installs I've seen at work worked without problems, a couple may be fixable by application patches, but 1 just BSOD's even after a fresh install, SP1 = NP. But if you bought your machine from PC World and use AOL, go ahead, knock yourself out ;)

SP2 hates my pc upstairs, xpm2500 @ 2.4, 9800pro, 512mb ddr etc, kept bsod. Yet the same slipstreamed cd works fine on the medai pc downstairs. 2000xp fx5200 512. Both using NForce2 chipset mobos aswell. Tis weird

If you run WinXP then yes you want to install SP2. Just for the security updates alone is more then enough reason to install it. It may not be important but 98% of benchmarks goto SP2 when comparing SP1 and SP2. The firewall is for the most part NOW equivalent to ZA as well.... It has a reasonable amount of configuring to it such as the ability to allow/not allow your preferred ports, etc... As for no shortage of alternatives for computer OSes... I would have to disagree with you there. The majority of computer users these days dont want the hassle of a *nix distro etc to have to mess with. They want a turnkey program that for the most part will run itself, such as the Windows environment. Linux is getting much much easier these days, but is still very limited to the common user. I myself prefer Linux and have a reasonable knowledge of the OS, but still use Windows for my day to day activities.

I like my XP-SP1 just the way it is, I have a good firewall, anti-virus, firefox. It's stable, I love Microsoft and want to have Billy Gates babies :o All I think these disgusting people are trying to point out is that just because there is a major service pack release it's not suddenly going to make the world a better place or cure cancer. It does have problems, and doesn't appear to have been tested as well as it could have by the thousands of apparent beta testers even for the millions of users. Witness the number of patches that are being released for SP2 compatability issues, could that not have been foreseen? Some of use don't install every updated driver /patch or service patch without asking questions first.

Not 'This people'. And yes sarcasm aside I really do want to have Billys babies... ...Just think how much you could ransom them for.

Yep.. Its the users preference, but obviously they created SP2 for a reason... The most being the major security flaws in SP1 or previous versions.... Granted SP2 has it few issues, but so did SP1 and the original WinXP. I agree with you about IE6 too.. I tried them all and the only thing IE6 needs is tabbing! Otherwise its as fast or faster then any other browser out there hands down. Plus the pretty new GUI with SP2 :) jk!

BetrayerX ... Check yer info before posting. IE6 is and will always be the most used browser out there, and Frontpage HAHA... you gotta be a fool or totally new to coding if you actually use that garbage prog. Notepad is the way to go.

some of us are kinda forced to use this.. if we want to play our games, as soon as loki comes back and fills the linux void with games... but heh.. yeah thats gonna happen. its not so much the extra features, its what the extra features do to our current software titles, see that long list of reputed broken/affected apps caused by sp2? i dont care for their new built in firewall and popup blocking because... a 3rd party app is likely to get updated quicker than something MS gives us on install. at least if they gave us a nice package selection like linux does, and allow me to pick and choose what features i want on my os.. i woulnt be so hostile toward them. ms's "you need this installed because we tell you to" just dont float with me. i tried xpsp2 both beta, and final, i didnt like how xp acted (i tried all forms of install, from slipstreamed to fresh install w/o sp1 and w/sp1.) my way around all this, i dual boot win2k sp4 (VERY stable), and Winxp with sp1 and autopatcher, i use xp for games, and i use 2k for editing etc.. it works out well.