I am still to find out what advantages are there in SP2.
What makes Windows boxes ridiculously insecure, if you already have the firewall enabled, are mainly two M$ programs, IE and Outlook Express (OE).
If you switch to Firefox and some other mail reader that is not a clone of OE, like Eudora, you are ok. At least I am...
I never have enabled automatic upgrades of my windows system because I do not trust M$ enough to do it. It has happened to me way too frequently that the SPs are more trouble than advantage. It happened with SP6 for NT, which you then had to correct with SP6a.
It happened with a first version of SP2 for XP, which then was completely removed from the updates to be replaced much later with this one.
I can't see how a SP that makes OE into a component of the OS is a good thing. It was bad enough that M$ has made an OS around a browser, it is plain stupidity to repeat the same mistake with a mail reader.
My advice to my customers and every person I know is this:
Don't use IE at all.
Don't use OE at all.
Always turn on your firewall.
Have Spyware protection active in case some stupid software launches IE when you don't want it.
Makes updates only when you are sure you need them and ONLY those you need. If you don't know when you need them, ask somenone who does know. Not M$.
I tell them this because I have had no problems since I did it.
Whenever a program opens IE for some reason, I immediatly have tracing cookies or some other form of spyware in the AdAware scan I do just after.
I can browse all night and day with FF and get 0 objects when scanning for Spyware, even if I visit porn or warez sites.
The popup blocker in FF is so good that I uninstalled the popup blocker I used back in IE times.
SP2 may be a good thing, I just have not seen it anywhere yet.
If anyone can give a good reason to install SP2, I am willing to hear.
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I am still to find out what advantages are there in SP2.
What makes Windows boxes ridiculously insecure, if you already have the firewall enabled, are mainly two M$ programs, IE and Outlook Express (OE).
If you switch to Firefox and some other mail reader that is not a clone of OE, like Eudora, you are ok. At least I am...
I never have enabled automatic upgrades of my windows system because I do not trust M$ enough to do it. It has happened to me way too frequently that the SPs are more trouble than advantage. It happened with SP6 for NT, which you then had to correct with SP6a. It happened with a first version of SP2 for XP, which then was completely removed from the updates to be replaced much later with this one.
I can't see how a SP that makes OE into a component of the OS is a good thing. It was bad enough that M$ has made an OS around a browser, it is plain stupidity to repeat the same mistake with a mail reader.
My advice to my customers and every person I know is this:
Don't use IE at all.
Don't use OE at all.
Always turn on your firewall.
Have Spyware protection active in case some stupid software launches IE when you don't want it.
Makes updates only when you are sure you need them and ONLY those you need. If you don't know when you need them, ask somenone who does know. Not M$.
I tell them this because I have had no problems since I did it.
Whenever a program opens IE for some reason, I immediatly have tracing cookies or some other form of spyware in the AdAware scan I do just after.
I can browse all night and day with FF and get 0 objects when scanning for Spyware, even if I visit porn or warez sites.
The popup blocker in FF is so good that I uninstalled the popup blocker I used back in IE times.
SP2 may be a good thing, I just have not seen it anywhere yet.
If anyone can give a good reason to install SP2, I am willing to hear.
Regards.