ccleaner and ATF are both very good legit programs however you can over do things, and with ccleaner there is the possibility to mess with the registry which I never ever advise. As stated if you use it in the default setting and only use the cleaner feature you are ok but daily use is over kill for sure. ATF is not as big a risk since it does not have the registry cleaner feature so it is the one I more often suggest using. In the old versions of windows defrag and clean up were pretty important in the new versions much of that is automated and extra work is not nearly as essential. what I would suggest one spend more time on is making sure all the essentials are updated because these days so many infections are coming in through holes in some of these apps. So use the secuina tool every few weeks or so and make sure you stay fully updated. Secunia Online Software Inspector (OSI) and running a malwarebytes scan every few weeks (update it first) is a definite. Plus if you do not have spywareblaster in my book it is a must have, no scans to do just update it once a week then hit enable all protection so the shield is green and it sits there protecting you. SpywareBlaster

I'm about to update to SP3 on my computers and looked at the instructions Ravencajun linked above: Call your computer's manufacturer or check their support website to see if there are any compatibility issues with your computer. Confirm that your BIOS firmware and device drivers are up-to-date. At minimum, your XP computer must be running Service Pack 1 for SP3 to install. To cover every installation option, make sure that you have at least 1.8 GB of free space on your computer's hard drive. Take this opportunity to confirm that you have enough available storage for optimal performance of your computer. Delete any unused programs and data. Perform complete antivirus and spyware scans with up-to-date virus and spyware definitions. Back up your data and make certain you can reinstall it. Remove any Microsoft applications, such as Internet Explorer 8, Microsoft Shared Computer Toolkit and Remote Desktop Connection (RDP), that will prevent SP3's installation. ------------------------------------- Some of these I don't know how to do. How do I do this?: Confirm that your BIOS firmware and device drivers are up-to-date. -------------------------------------------- Other things I want to doublecheck I really have to do: Remove any Microsoft applications, such as Internet Explorer 8, Microsoft Shared Computer Toolkit and Remote Desktop Connection (RDP), that will prevent SP3's installation. Do I really have to remove IE8. Some of our computers have IE7 - others have IE8. I am not sure if I have Microsoft Shared Computer Toolkit and Remote Desktop Connection (RDP). Would I find these in add/remove programs? What do they do? If I have them, do I really have to remove them? And if so, where do I go to re-install? Same with IE8. Thanks. Lynn. PS - I did order the installation CD a while back and have that to use. I gather it's preferable to downloading?

Curious what SP3 you are downloading. There is an Office XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) 16.1 MB - 57.5 MB* *Download size depends on selected download components. Microsoft recommends that you use the Office Update site to determine if your computer requires this update before installing it. I don't know anybody that even has Office XP. Then there is the Windows 2000 Service Pack 3 Windows 2000 Service Pack 3 (SP3) provides the latest updates to the Windows 2000 family of operating systems. In 10 hours, you probably could have downloaded 100MB on dial-up

I still use land-line phone, and I can tell you all the poor reception I hear on the calls, long distance and local, come from poor performance of the cellular on the other end. When I call someone else on a land-line the call is clear and never drops out. I returned an Acer notebook early this year because of driver problems and poor technical support, I also note it had Vista. I then looked for a notebook with XP, found a good deal on a Gateway, demo unit, which had XP. I also have a Dell PC with XP Media and the Dell update DvDs to "Upgrade" to Vista. I have not done so, nor do I plan to, and given the good news that there is a SP3 coming for XP, I'm happy with my decision. SP2 is fine, but SP3 says to me MS will support XP for many years to come. PC World ran tests of Vista and picked as one of the test machine the same Dell PC I have. They said it worked ok, but slower than XP. Whatever the eye candy is with Vista, I've missed seeing it.