P2Plife Forums: Updates Without SP3? - P2Plife Forums

I'm told M$ does not offer security updates to systems not having SP3 installed. Is this true? I get monthly updates of the Microsoft Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool but no security update notifications. I do not have SP3 installed. Do I need to install it? I am using the latest version of MUB.

Thanks for all your work. This is a fine piece of engineering.

lashmk, on 29 June 2011 - 03:39 PM, said:

I don't know if MS "refuses" to update. I know that XP support is coming to an end, and it makes sense that they might restrict what limited support they either do or will provide in the future to only those machines that have SP3 installed.

I think there is a larger issue which is that SP3 really should be installed no matter what, primarily for Security reasons. Ignore all the wailing and crying from people that do not know anything, SP3 installs easily on machines that are not infected. It's possible you may need to disable or even uninstall your Anti-Virus software, but that's a problem with the AV and not SP3. The benefits of SP3 significantly outweigh the risks. What risks there are are not the fault of XP, MS or SP3. Hard drive errors, active malware and poorly programed anti-virus software would be the only 3 risks to consider, IMO.

I concur with everything Johnny Quick says. Running XP without SP3, and subsequent security updates, is asking for trouble.

BTW, Microsoft stopped providing security updates for XP SP2 in July 2010.