There's no time to waste for XP users. If you have a dialup connection to the Internet, get online, go to Microsoft Australia's site at www.microsoft.com/australia/ and follow the links to place your order for the free CD. Alternatively, click here.

Dialup users will have to ignore XP's balloon prompt to download the update, so each time your computer starts, click the cancel button (the x). Wait until your CD arrives in the post for installation.

Installing service pack 2 on computers running XP Home and XP Pro is compulsory. Full stop.

For those XP users who don't install this latest service pack, particularly in the business world, expect to not be able to gain the services of consultants when things go wrong. This was the situation after service pack 1 became available, so things won't change.

If you're on a broadband connection and can't put aside some time for the download and installation, then order the free CD just like dialup users will be doing.

The main job of service pack 2 is to upgrade XP's security and provide notifications of when some external program may be trying to gain access to your information or change your computer. One of the most insidious form of attacks over the past couple of years has been from the marketeers who want to gather data about our computer use, from tracking the sites we visit, to displaying their advertisements without our permission, to trying to record our keystrokes for credit card numbers and passwords.

So the three main changes made are: automatic updates will be turned on, an improved Windows firewall will be turned on, and XP will ensure that you keep your antivirus up to date, whether you have a paid version or one of the free ones.

With automatic updates on, it's hoped a disaster such as that caused by the Blaster worm last year won't happen again. The Blaster writer took a bet on several million XP users not bothering to apply an update to stop such an attack - he was right! And you'd be right to say that similar (nasty) thinking is going on now in relation to service pack 2.

Before installing SP2, it's a good idea to scan your computer for any spyware - use Ad-aware, a free tool from www.lavasoftusa.com. It's probably best to turn off your antivirus background scanner - you usually do this by right-clicking its icon in the system tray. If you're not sure, find out how by reading the program's help pages.

Windows Media Player version 10 was released a few days ago. The interface has been improved by removing the navigation buttons from the side and placing them on top with new names that more clearly indicate the job they do: Now Playing, Library, Rip, Burn and Guide. You can choose to save music files in WMA or MP3 format, depending on your needs. There's no in-built radio station guide - we're supposed to access radio stations through the on-line store function. But you can still choose free stations from sites such as MSN Entertainment.

Hotmail users who paid for extra storage have been enjoying their 2000Mb (megabytes) of inbox space and being able to receive and send attachments of up to 20Mb for the past couple of weeks. However, not many normal Hotmail users have had their inbox size increased to 250Mb as yet.

One new Hotmail feature has appeared in the past couple of days for all users, namely a free calendar which can be shared with others. Entries to the calendar can be one-off appointments, reminders or notes, or you can enter events such as birthday reminders to occur yearly. Sharing your calendar with others enables you to let others know what's on, such as helping to plan meetings or family gatherings.