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Windows XP SP2 Review: Nothing Special

     - Thursday, August 26, 2004

Downloaded and installed Windows XP Service Pack 2. Ten minutes after the install, and I'd give it an Apgar score of 7 - nothing (apparently) has been damaged, but that nothing great has happened either.

Download and install, including 2 reboots, took about an hour. Most noticable change of all is that the Windows startup splash screen no longer says Professional, it's just Windows XP now.

Most changes are related to Internet Explorer and Outlook Express, neither of which I use. So not much of a benefit for me. I can see how this will be a huge benefit for my friends and family who aren't as interested in tweaking their machine as I am.

I was really surprised that the update left Mozilla Firefox as my default browser. I was sure that would get hijacked.

The new Security Center is cool. It's a single spot to check your overall security environment. I'm glad to see this, and excited about the future development of a feature like this. Previously, it was just too hard to determine if your machine was safe or not. Glad that it recognized my anti-virus software, AVG.

Don't bother rushing out to upgrade, but do upgrade at some point. It might not help much, but it won't hurt either.

posted by Kevin Watts |  Permalink |