Thanks for all the good information.
I have been off line doing a fresh install, for other reasons, but will take
your advice and leave it off this time, at least until SP3.


"BillW50" wrote in message
...
In ,
PA Bear [MS MVP] typed on Thu, 12 Nov 2009 02:58:38 -0500:
NB: Computers running WinXP SP2 will NOT be offered any further
critical security updates, Automatic Updates will cease to function,
and Windows Update website will not be available after 12 April 2010
until SP3 is installed.

One of my many Windows XP machines I already stopped updating back in May
of 2009. There are many reasons for this:

1) It sports only a 4GB SSD

2) My MS EWF doesn't work with SP3

3) Updates will stop in the future anyway, so why not get used to idea
now?

With Microsoft's EWF (Enhanced Write Filter), updates doesn't really seem
necessary anyway. And it is my belief that a firewall blocks most viruses.
And a good anti-virus program blocks the rest. So whether or not one gets
updates or not doesn't seem that important to me.

I know my father has refused updates on his computer for years. As one
update hosed his system and now refuses to update his computer at all. I
did talk him into using backups. And he did get a virus once. But no big
deal, restored from a backup and all is well once again.

So I don't really think not getting updates is as bad as most makes it out
to be. Heck there are still Windows 98 users out there that isn't getting
updates anyway. In fact, I have one such machine myself.

--
Bill
Asus EEE PC 702G8 ~ 2GB RAM ~ 16GB-SDHC
Windows XP SP2