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Windows XP Service Pack 2

Downloads Count: 1,250,936

License Type: Free

Price: Free

Date Added: May 17, 2007

Operating Systems: Windows XP

Requirements: Windows XP Home, Windows XP Professional

Author: Microsoft

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Editorial Review of Windows XP Service Pack 2

Note: Microsoft has redirected the old XP Service Pack 2 page to the newer SP 3. The vendor is no longer offering SP2 as a separate download.

It's an unsafe world out there for Windows-based computers. Microsoft wants to address the problem with its new megapatch, Service Pack 2 for Windows XP. Does it succeed? Not entirely. But the big fix does so much to close security holes and to make protecting your PC simpler that it's still an essential upgrade.

This giant patch--the biggest single update since Windows XP itself was released--promises to cure many of the known security ills that have befallen XP since it debuted in late 2001, and to preemptively put a stop to a still-unknown number of others.

But it's not just a big security fix; SP2 makes Wi-Fi and Bluetooth networks easier to navigate, adds new features to Tablet and Media Center PCs, and updates XP's multimedia components. It all comes in a 220MB package that (at press time, when we saw only the Release Candidate 2 beta version) installs in under an hour over broadband.

--Paul Thurrott

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