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I have not installed SP2 and do not intend to.
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I have to ask why ??
SP2 is now mature and has had the bugs worked out.
The installation of SP2 will help your machine run better as well as improving your security.
One of the main things you should do is ensure that your machine is fully patched with the latest updates and drivers. This will ensure your security and efficiency.
A slow running machine is normally down to incomplete maintenance routine.
As a windoze box gets older it gets slower, this is called Windoze Cludge.
It's easy to fix with regular maintenance.
Here's some maintenance steps to be going on with.
General system maintenance includes:
Defrag
FULL patching
Virus scanning
Spyware scanning
removal of rubbish files
Defrag is an inbuilt function in XP.
OPen My Computer > Right click C: > Tools Tab and its there.
To make sure everything is running fine run both anti virus and anti spyware apps in normal AND safe modes. (make sure that they are updated first !

) (
AVG is good and free AV)
(A couple of good removal tools are
Spybot and
Adaware)
ALso an on line virus and spyware scanner is
Trend Housecall
Just a note; actively running two AV's on one machine can cause problems.
So if you are thinking about it make sure your current one is disabled first.
SAme thing applies to online scanners as well.
Removal of junk files is easy with
CCleaner a free app that does exactly what you neeed.