The Arbitrary ChuckJerry

I'm set up for automatic updates with my Windows XP OS. Four or five days ago I was updated with the new Windows XP Service Pack, which is apparently supposed to increase security and things of that nature.

It's good because finally Internet Explorer has a pop-up blocker that actually works and is integrated completely inside the IE system. I've only downloaded free pop-up blockers before, but they all sucked and were very intrusive into the browser space. One of them even made a gun shooting sound whenever it would block a pop-up, which was only about 10% of the time.

This service pack pop-up blocker blocks any and all pop-ups, even ones you request by clicking on a link. You have to turn off the blocker for certain sites if they shoot up new windows for browsing. It's easy to turn off, though if you're so inclined.

The other thing it does is to block any program that connects to the internet. For example, it blocks Kazaa and AOL Instant Messenger unless you tell it not to. Again, it's not hard to turn it off, but the default is to completely disconnect any such program.

The main purpose of this service pack is to apparently increase security. The new security features are very apparent, while I really can't tell if it's doing anything else new that's not related to security. I don't think it is. I guess I'm glad to be safe. It's better to err on the side of caution, especially with such a widely used OS, for folks who might be in the dark about protecting their stuff.