Although relucatant at first, I finally gave in to the warm embrace of SP2. I read about all the glitches, the crashes, the meltdowns and the disappointment of the new release but soon realized, most of them were patched up. So, being the central computer in a house of networked systems, I downloaded the larger 200+mb networking pack instead of the 70mb single computer version. The installation process itself left me angered even before anything was on my system. After downloading the pack, it took my (pretty fast) computer nearly 20 mins of "SP2 preparation". I literally left my computer to go watch a couple of sitcoms on tv and returned only to see the "Finalizing Installation" screen. Not impressed! It seemed as though there was a billion files being transfered on my hard drive, almost making me question if my poor C drive had enough space to hold all these new files. Regardless, after all the drama, SP2 was successfully on my computer.

My initial reaction of the security features was confusion. The security centre pops up and you have a few options of controlling firewall settings, virus protection settings and automatic updates. Seeing as my computer has 3 other firewalls installed (Norton, DLink, and @Guard), a 4th one couldnt hurt! And almost instantly the XP firewall kicked in and showed me which programs were accessing the internet. The firewall I'd say is really useful. As for the virus protection, I turned it off, simply because I have about 5 other programs in place to alert me of suspicious material. However, if you feel you need the extra help, keep it enabled. I think the most impressive feature was the pop-up stopper. I visit a few sites where my pop-up stopper (Panicware Pop-Up Stopper Pro) never caught the pop-up window in time. Its something I learned to deal with. But the new service pack did a great job of not allowing it at all! Kudos!

After those initial security features, of course you can see your control panel options change, you have the wireless access setup, security centre, and all those firewall and anti-virus options. You can also control the access permissions for programs which I dont even both using. So in a nutshell, I'd say I'm impressed so far which SP2, key words being "so far". I love the new features and the security (or false security?) it gives you. Microsoft is controlling the distribution of SP2 downloads to prevent an all out attack on their bandwidth, so if you cant download SP2 yet, it may simply be because they dont want you to have it yet! You could always order the CD if you're desperate, but why spend $20 when I'm sure one of your friends can send it to you for free! After about 1 week, you wont even notice the subtle changes. There are still people that are getting shafted when it comes to installing the service pack, look at it this way, if it installs without a hitch, you're gold. If you reboot and your computer starts throwing a fit, I hope you have a backup computer with internet access, because you'll be needing it to contact Microsoft's technical support desk! Dont be afraid, odds are, it will work for you.

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