well from my point of view, updates / patches are actually good. at least the software company is still doing their job to best protect their assets. However, from my past experience, to me to perform regularly update ( in this case, Windows XP ) is not a necessary ritual/routine for me anymore. Well here's my reasons :

before that, i only patch till SP2 and the irritating trojans like sasser / blaster which really gives me troubles. I used a router but that's not very secure as well. It only helps to block trojans like blaster / sasser. Then, i do not have software firewall or antivirus, i even turn off windows firewall, no windows defender etc.

ok back to reasons:
1) Yes i'm a pc literate people, i do know how things works ( in this case, i know how virus,trojan,worms,any rubbishes works not fully but sufficient to protect myself )

2) I use non-IE browsers. Based on the current trends, MOST (not all) attacks through IE regardless on what type of "intruders". I did encounter the LAN type of viruses, but not a problem for me as well after i took some neccessary actions ( but not updating or patching ). The executable file based viruses are not common now. But usually it is easily detectable by the filename, time and date created etc. For me, i won't simple execute any unknown file ever.

3) MOST( not all again) of the viruses/worms/trojan are not very destructive compared to the previous generation of virus. They just screw up your windows only but not the bios/harddisk/MBR/filesystem. So i don't really care and usually i can fix it up without formatting.

4) Yea, sometimes it will slows down the system after updates. Firewall and antivirus make it even worst.

but beware, I chose this decision becoz i do know how to protect my pc without any patches/updates/protections. If you do not have the confidence, then please do patch. No harm doing that.

This post has been edited by error: Mar 15 2007, 12:04 PM