Service pack 1 and 2 for xp

Hi guys,
I have a friend of mine who has winxp pro...he has not service pack 1 or 2 installed. He says he uses a decent firewall and he never gets any problems. Could this be ? He says that he's been running like this since 2years without problems. Can it be that service packs 1 and 2 are not that important ?

 

Service Pack 2 is very important.

Just because your friend has been lucky doesn't mean it's not necessary.

Service Packs are cumulative, so you only need to install the latest one, in this case SP2.

SP2 is much more than just an update to the firewall.

It also includes many program and system updates, as well as improving Internet Explorer security and adding improved BlueTooth support etc.

Even if you are experienced and have a firewall, SP2 is still a must-have.

 

I agree SP2 is really important.

Mostly because it offers alot of protection to windows users, and it also fixes the little problems that might accure in windows.

Plus im pretty sure its gonna become manditory soon.

 

Sorry to re-introduce an old thread, but I thought it would be better than starting a new one on the same topic.

I have recently reinstalled Windows WP Home on my laptop (today, as a matter of fact). I then installed the service pack 1a, but I really don't want to install the service pack 2, because it really did slow down my computer to a crawl last time I installed it.

So my question is, can I just foregoe installing it?

FYI, I use my laptop almost exclusively on the LAN at work (which does have internet access), and even then I usually run Ubuntu Linux, except when using non-compatible devices. I have a 3rd party firewall on my computer on top of the LAN's firewall.

 

Is it a possibility that the reason your computer "crawled" before was because of built up junk on your laptop and not sp2? What are your system specs on your laptop?

 

I'm sure the built up junk contributed considerably, but I remember the first time I installed the sp2 having an immediate drop in performance.

My computer:

Sony Vaio PCG-SRX3E/BD
Intel Celeron 650MHz chip
256 MB RAM
Windows Partition: 10GB
OS: Windows XP SP1a

I bought it 4 years ago.
Anything else you need to know?

 

no, that's good. You can run xp without sp2, however not recommended, but if you don't want to install it you don't have to. Keep in mind though that some things won't work as great as they should.

 

I'm mostly concerned about viruses, trojans, etc. The increase in speed more than makes up for "things not working perfectly". I don't expect much from Windows, anyway.

Thanks for your help! I'll keep my PC as it is and not install SP2.