Stefano Demiliani WeBlog

Should I install XP SP2?

With the XP SP2 availability on Windows Update, I think that many people are still unsure of whether they should download and install SP2 or not. Will I gain something or will I loose something?

I think that what you could gain with XP SP2 are 2 things:

• more security: the new Windows Firewall is not so good as I could expect from this product (there are too many better firewall out on the market and the new Firewall lacks in many feature) but is better than the native XP Firewall (if you consider it a real "firewall" ). The Popup Blocker feature for IE is what we're waiting from years and it's a must to have (maybe a browser changement is the ideal choice ), the same for the Download Manager. Obviously, keep this is your mind: installing XP SP2 is not equal to "My system is secure!" but "My system has something more about security"
• better WiFi support: with XP SP2 you could have a native Bluetooth support (I was waiting for it) and improved Wireless features.

Where you can loose?

I think that if you're not a "lamer" and you know how to administer your system (expecially how to configure your new firewall) you loose nothing. Obviously, if you don't know how to set your firewall options, you can have lots of problems with some applications.

According to what I write above, here you can find an interesting test about Performance comparison between XP SP1 and XP SP2.

Read it... as you can expect, there's not a loose on performance between SP1 and SP2. So, what's your decision?