Talk about a double edged sward. Sign up for Microsoft"s dubious abuse of their position in the E-world, or face risks of security vulnerabilities....
"MICROSOFT"S RUSH to get Windows XP SP1 out and about may have been motivated by a desire to hide a vulnerability afflicting the operating system (cough) that allows hackers to delete files from a computer accessing a tweaked web page.
....this vulnerability allows the files contained in any specified directory on your system to be deleted if you click on a specially-formed URL. He points to Gibson Research here, where they warn, "This URL could appear anywhere: sent in malicious eMail, in a chat room, in a newsgroup posting, on a malicious web page, or even executed when your computer merely visits a malicious web page. It is likely to be widely exploited soon."
I guess it would be good of me to tell you that Internet Explorer Service Pack 1 and Windows XP Service Pack 1 were both released in the period whilst we were offline; Windows Update has the files for your pleasure. Also, a little while further back Windows 2000 Service pack 3 was released.