Those of you intending to keep XP for a while yet-- rather than "upgrade" to Vista, may wish to make a small investment to make your lives a little bit easier in the future.
XP support is ending soon... but Microsoft will still send you a CD copy of service pack 2 for just the cost of shipping.No other charges.
I call it cheap insurance-- if I have it on disc nobody can take away my access to it, right? In fact there are no copyright restrictions on use-- so you can buy one copy and pass it among your friends legally
MS was so intent on gettting this SP to everyone at first that they actually encouraged people to do just that.

Any way-- if you have a valid, but older copy of XP in my opinion-- in my opinion this is a must-have-- if you don't wan to upgrade yet. I will someday --but not right now.

See Link here: Order Windows XP Service Pack 2 on CD

When are they stopping XP support? The moment they stop releasing patches is the moment i format C: but surely it'll be a while before they end support since they're still releasing patches for 2k.

The ending of suppport will be for free stuff.--phase 2 starts late this year (as of right now-- people still scream about 98 being dropped so it could change-- especially with Vista's "issues")
It goes in phases
1st) everythings free (online only)- 5 years-- (it's already past that time-limit-- this is a new policy at MS--just put in last year)
2nd) security updates are free/optional stuff requires a subscription
3rd)only security updates are produced (still free)

Its a good idea bills. Lots of people especially on dialup could do with this sort of thing.

I suggest it for anyone with an "older" version of Windows XP.(without SP2)
You could then use them both to make a "slipstreamed" install disc
-- legal and much easier to use... and eventually windows update will not work after a fresh install from the initial release. Save yourself a lot of grief for 5 bucks shipping.
http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase...slipstream.asp