Hey there J.C.,
Reasons to install Service Pack 2
1) Service pack 2 contains all of the hotfixes that were released after
Service Pack 1 including the wonderful "flip your display upside down" trick
using the Accessibility Options in XP.
2) The Windows Firewall has been improved for easier handling, and actually
alerts you when there is an application attempting to access the network.
Although this currently runs in one direction, a touch of additional
protection never hurts. Using this feature in conjunction with other
firewall software just that much more.
3) Improved support for Wireless Networking. The Wireless Networking
wizard is much easier to work with now, and it's a lot prettier.
4) Pop up blocker. I find that a lot of the free pop up blockers that are
free for use wind up installing more than just that. Many Pop up blocker
applications come with some form of "spyware" in the installation bundle,
which is just as bad as not having a pop up blocker installed. You don't
have that issue with the Windows Pop up blocker.
5) Support for the NX features in the AMD Athlon 64 Series processors. The
instructions prevent executable instructions from being launched in the non
executable range of memory, decreasing the risk of a malicious user from
exploiting code on your pc. Intel is also working on NX instructions for
their nextgen procs.
6) Software based Data Execution prevention. Basically does the same thing
as the hardware potion, however, and someone correct me on this if I'm wrong
please, but the NX instructions on the processor will run at all times from
POST until shutdown, whereas the Software based only runs while the operating
system is running.
Of course if you want more reasons feel free to visit the following website
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/security/expert/bowman_introtosp2.mspx
My reasons: It's cool...don't you wanna be cool? You know you wanna!
Regards,
William