I didnt know that, where do they come from then? None of that stuff is on mine and it only appears to afflict people that have SP2.

Sp2 is fine, its great, more security and stability etc, Windows defender is a separate download and does not come with sp2, I do not have it
Still surprising your not on it mate, I mean sp3 is out soon

Quote from: Clockd 0NeI didnt know that, where do they come from then? None of that stuff is on mine and it only appears to afflict people that have SP2.

The only thing "SP2" adds UI wise to my knowledge is the security center which says "oi your firewall is off" or "oi update your antivirus". It doesnt even come up if you have those two things in place, and if you want it turned off its a case of disabling a single service.

Theres no UAC in XP at the moment, if it comes in with SP3... ive no idea, but it certainly isnt in SP2.

Windows Defender, Windows One Care are all seperate downloads that arent even shown in windows update.

Quote from: M3ta7h3ad

Quote from: Clockd 0NeI didnt know that, where do they come from then? None of that stuff is on mine and it only appears to afflict people that have SP2.

The only thing "SP2" adds UI wise to my knowledge is the security center which says "oi your firewall is off" or "oi update your antivirus". It doesnt even come up if you have those two things in place, and if you want it turned off its a case of disabling a single service.

Theres no UAC in XP at the moment, if it comes in with SP3... ive no idea, but it certainly isnt in SP2.

Windows Defender, Windows One Care are all seperate downloads that arent even shown in windows update.

few other improvements.  The Wireless config is much easier to understand, and supports better security in SP2.  SP1 and prior had terrible pickup, and only supported WEP.  Its a definate required download though from a reliability point of view as well.  SP3 doesnt actually add any noticable differences, its just a rollup of the existing security updates, with a few extra reliability tweaks.  I had it on my lappy before I formatted and moved to XP64.  Cant fault it to be fair.

Hes gonna be ages updating his pc if he goes for sp2 now lol.

Last I checked there were 59 patches straight after an SP2 install... with a further bunch that came up after those.

Oh and one other improvement Ive noticed over SP1... sp2 brings an extra switch to the netstat command.

netstat /b useful when tracking down spyware/virus processes.

Dont forget if youre not legal its a pain in the arse updating to SP2.

Been running a legit copy of windows since May and its so nice just letting it auto update each night.

Quote from: M3ta7h3adheres no UAC in XP at the moment, if it comes in with SP3... ive no idea, but it certainly isnt in SP2.

Here is the SP3 overview file if you are interested.

One interesting change is that will no longer ask for a License Key during the setup phase.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=68c48dad-bc34-40be-8d85-6bb4f56f5110&displaylang=en

to sum up for people if your up to date on xp it will have all those updates and changes but the new stuff basically is...


Black Hole" Router Detection
Windows XP SP3 includes improvements to black hole router detection (detecting routers that are silently discarding packets), turning it on by default.

Network Access Protection (NAP)
NAP is a policy enforcement platform built into Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, and Windows XP SP3 with which you can better protect network assets by enforcing compliance with system health requirements. Using NAP, you can create customized health policies to validate computer health before allowing access or communication; automatically update compliant computers to ensure ongoing compliance; and optionally confine noncompliant computers to a restricted network until they become compliant. For more information about NAP, see Network Access Protection: Frequently Asked Questions.

Descriptive Security Options User Interface
The Security Options control panel in Windows XP SP3 now has more descriptive text to explain settings and prevent incorrect settings configuration

Enhanced security for Administrator and Service policy entries
In System Center Essentials for Windows XP SP3, Administrator and Service entries will be present by default on any new instance of policy. Additionally, the user interface for the Impersonate Client After Authentication user right will not be able to remove these settings.

Microsoft Kernel Mode Cryptographic Module
Microsoft Kernel Mode Cryptographic Module (Fips.sys) is a FIPS 140-1 Level 1–compliant, general purpose, software-based, cryptographic module in the kernel mode level of the Windows operating system. It runs as a kernel mode export driver (a kernel-mode DLL) and encapsulates several different cryptographic algorithms in an easy-to-use cryptographic module accessible by other kernel mode drivers. It can be linked to other kernel mode services to permit the use of FIPS 140-1 Level 1–compliant cryptography

Windows Product Activation
As in Windows Server 2003 SP2 and Windows Vista, users can now complete operating system installation without providing a product key during a full, integrated installation of Windows XP SP3. The operating system will prompt the user for a product key later as part of Genuine Advantage. As with previous service packs, no product key is requested or required when installing Windows XP SP3 using the update package available through Microsoft Update. Note The Windows Product Activation changes in Windows XP SP3 are not related to the Windows Vista Key Management Service (KMS). This update affects only new operating system installations from integrated source media. This update affects the installation media only and is not a change to how activation works in Windows XP.

Beta users have reported a number of other little tweaks
desktop tweak changes rumoured
Msn live 8.5 will be on there
changes to IE but will not include IE 7 as part of the update so you got to get it separate still


But basically sp3 extends xps life so you may see an announcement with this they will extend support for a little while longer for xp