Is SP1 or SP2 really needed?

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Guest

Hi all
My OS consists of the following...
Widows XP Home Ed
Firewall (via my ISP)
eTrust EZ 7.0 antivirus from CA (free 1 year trial)
Adaware
Spyware blaster
Spybot S/D
Malicious software removal tool.
My question is, do I still need to install SP1 or SP2 for my computer to
stay fairly secure from viruses spyware etc. with all the above
Thanks for any input.
Franktee
 
Franktee said:
Hi all
My OS consists of the following...
Widows XP Home Ed
Firewall (via my ISP)
eTrust EZ 7.0 antivirus from CA (free 1 year trial)
Adaware
Spyware blaster
Spybot S/D
Malicious software removal tool.
My question is, do I still need to install SP1 or SP2 for my computer to
stay fairly secure from viruses spyware etc. with all the above
Thanks for any input.
Franktee
Click to expand...

You need SP2. All of the above is irrevelant to whether you need SP 2 or
not, although you should have all of the above even with SP2. You might want
to add Spyware Guard as well. You can get it at the same place you got
Spyware Blaster.

Alias
 
Franktee said:
Hi all
My OS consists of the following...
Widows XP Home Ed
Firewall (via my ISP)
eTrust EZ 7.0 antivirus from CA (free 1 year trial)
Adaware
Spyware blaster
Spybot S/D
Malicious software removal tool.
My question is, do I still need to install SP1 or SP2 for my computer to
stay fairly secure from viruses spyware etc. with all the above
Thanks for any input.
Franktee
Click to expand...

No.

SP1 and SP2 make it much easier to stay "fairly secure". You will have to be
more vigilant than someone who has all the latest updates. As an added level
of security if you are on broadband I would recommend a router with a built
in firewall. I would also install a 3rd party software firewall rather than
rely on your ISP. Is the ISP's solution software you install on your
computer or something they implement on their gateway?

Kerry
 
Service Pack 2 updates over 5 million lines of code,
enhancing the performance and security of Windows XP.
I suggest you install it at your earliest convience.

Top 10 Reasons to Install Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2)
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/sp2/topten.mspx

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows XP - Shell/User
Microsoft Newsgroups

Get Windows XP Service Pack 2 with Advanced Security Technologies:
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/protect/windowsxp/choose.mspx

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

:

| Hi all
| My OS consists of the following...
| Widows XP Home Ed
| Firewall (via my ISP)
| eTrust EZ 7.0 antivirus from CA (free 1 year trial)
| Adaware
| Spyware blaster
| Spybot S/D
| Malicious software removal tool.
| My question is, do I still need to install SP1 or SP2 for my computer to
| stay fairly secure from viruses spyware etc. with all the above
| Thanks for any input.
| Franktee
 
Only if you want to continue getting Windows Update, and be protected.

If you are happy with how it runs, don't care about security holes and/or
never go on line, you don't need it.
 
You would only need SP2 if you still want any newer updates from Microsoft.
XP (original) can be used forever. However, MS will not push any newer
updates to it. (Especially Internet Explorer 7, if you want to "gamble")
 
Even if that peson doesn't care about security holes, the rest of the online
community does. This malware nonsense clogs the system which costs YOU and
costs ME. If a Windows XP user goes online, I fully recommend they install
SP2.
 
Stephen said:
Even if that peson doesn't care about security holes, the rest of the
online
community does. This malware nonsense clogs the system which costs YOU and
costs ME. If a Windows XP user goes online, I fully recommend they install
SP2.
Click to expand...

While I recommend SP2 it is not needed to secure a Windows XP computer. I
have a client that cannot use SP2 due to proprietary software that they base
their business on. The vendor has dumped support for all the smaller clients
and refuses to fix it. I installed firewall, antivirus, and antispyware apps
on all the workstations and implemented a proxy server for web surfing. Once
a month I check all their computers and rarely find any problems. The
problems I do find are because a user installed a tool bar etc. SP2 wouldn't
have helped at all. For home use a consumer router with a built in firewall
would work just as well as the proxy server they are using.

Kerry
 
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