XP SP2

Microsoft now appears likely to release Windows XP Service Pack 2 by the end of July. SP2 is essentially a giant security patch, designed to protect your PC from having spyware and adware being installed on it, or from being controlled by an external machine.
Microsoft will make SP2 freeey available even if you have a pirated copy of XP, as leaving machines exposed is considered a greater risk to the company than rogue software. The download is likely to be in the order of 300Mb however -- practically as big as XP itself -- so expect hundreds of thousands of simultaneous downloads to slow the internet down somewhat.