Service Pack 2

[textbook]

Is it worth installing this my friend said it is too restrictive. Is this true?

 

[dave597]

for windows xp service pack 3 is now out. restrictive in what way? what os are you using? either way, i recommend installing it.

 

[Droogie]

No service pack 2 is great. I've heard that SP3 is the one that sucks.

 

[GameMaster]

Yes, and it's sad that you haven't updated your Service Pack yet. SP2 contains necessary files to keep Windows XP safe and normal.

 

[cohen]

I'm using SP2, very good.

If your friend has a computer with an AMD processor, don't get SP3.

 

[Geoff]

Service Pack 2 adds the security center and a basic firewall. By "restrictive", your friend may mean that it annoys you with pop-ups every 5 seconds if you don't have security software enabled, and the firewall may block some apps that you want to run. I have both turned off.

 

[Hsv_Man]

Definantly install Service Pack 2 but DO NOT i repeat DO NOT install Service Pack 3 as it has many bugs which lock up your computer just from navigating around windows.

 

[brian]

Definantly install Service Pack 2 but DO NOT i repeat DO NOT install Service Pack 3 as it has many bugs which lock up your computer just from navigating around windows.

um, that is fauls, sp3 is very stable and out of all 40 computers i have installed it on, none have had any bad affects

 

[TFT]

There is one thing to be aware of going from SP2 to SP3.
I ran XP on SP2 and a non related problem made me to decide on a re-install, I was offered SP3 after the re-install while on the site of Microsoft updates, on which I said yes.
After this security updates would download but refuse to install, come to find out that SP3 does not include "Windows Installer" so I have backtracked to SP2 again. You can upgrade from SP2 to SP3 with no problems but you can't put SP3 on to a fresh install without adding "Windows Installer" otherwise you will have update problems.