The pictures below show the number Windows XP updates needed as of 2010.02.03. This system was reloaded from scratch and Windows XP Service Pack 2 was installed. Then Internet Explorer 8 and .NET 3.5 were installed. Then Service Pack 3 was installed. After those were installed these are the screen shots taken at that point and in between. After the big bunch of updates after Service Pack 3 were the 65 updates and after those were done, it had to have a few more rounds of updates because the updates needed updates. If you are in this unfortunate position of having to reload Windows XP, plan to have a long afternoon to do it and you will HAVE TO have a high speed connection to do it. I do not know if Microsoft still sends out update discs if you request them, but might be worth a look. You need to know that once you do the updates, you have to keep going back to check for updates until it can’t find any more.
If you feel you are advanced enough, do a search of this site and find the AutoPatcher page and use that to do the updates. It can be a HUGE time saver as far as not having to keep loading from the update.microsoft.com site over and over again.
Windows update after Service Pack 2
Windows update after Service Pack 3
