My understanding is that XP Service Pack 2 is essential

As are the regular updates after that. In general, it's best to keep it as up to date as possible.

Read MS's pages on XP SP2, but I'm pretty sure it can be applied over the top of an original XP. Just in case, beforehand back up anything you cannot afford to lose.

You may need to upgrade non-XP software afterwards as they may be broken by SP2 (someone mentioned Google toolbar, but it applies to anything not belonging to XP), but it's been out long enough that that should be relatively easy.

Posted By: BerlinCanary, Oct 10, 19:36:43