After installing WinXP, what's the fastest way to install all the Windows Updates?

[Red Squirrel]

If it's behind a router, it wont contribute to botnets, unless a virus comes through as another means such as an email, at which point it does not matter how well patched you are. What's irresponsible is putting ANY computer straight on the internet with no proper protection. There will always be exploits that are found at some point on any OS, especially Windows because of all the crap that runs and has opened ports with exploitable apps. RPC is constantly being exploited. The OS itself cannot be your protection.

 

[Nothinman]

It always matters how patched you are unless you're intentionally running exploits you find. Just visiting a website can infect you with the right exploit, which is why A/V is recommended by so many. Most of the exploits these days are user initiated, either directly or indirectly.

And recent versions of Windows should actually be fairly safe directly on the Internet. With the default Windows Vista and up firewall config, almost nothing is accessible by default. But I still wouldn't recommend it unless you've audited the config and are very sure you've secured everything possible.

 

[VirtualLarry]

If it's behind a router, it wont contribute to botnets

Somehow, I think that is false.

 

[sm625]

What I do is... after installing SP3 I go to another fully updated machine that has the same version of XP installed. I open the WINDOWS\SoftwareDistribution\Download folder and copy everything in there onto a flash drive and put it in that same folder on the new machine. I overwrite nothing. When update runs it will still take a while but it wont have to download anything.