Windows XP Service Pack 2 promises to protect you from the most pervasive worm attacks, stop pop-up ads, and tighten security in Windows" Achilles" heel, Internet Explorer. But given the problems many users experienced with XP"s first service pack, some people have been waiting to hear whether this update is more likely to hurt than help.
The news is mostly positive: With SP2 finally making its way onto millions of computers, early reports suggest that the upgrade has gone smoothly for the majority of those who have installed it. But for at least a significant number of people, SP2 has spelled trouble, triggering software conflicts, system slowdowns, network outages, and in some cases boot failures. Blame for the difficulties (some of which are still emerging) may rest with software and hardware vendors, or with Microsoft itself. But regardless of who"s at fault, if you were hoping that the decision to install SP2 would be easy, think again.