Hey all, I purchased a full OEM copy xp hm.w/sp1, installed it everythings cool. I have 20 days left before activation.I am waiting on a WD hardrive(120G SE) from Newegg. 1 of my ?'s is should I wait to activate with my new hdd or is it okay to activate now and when my new hdd comes switch everything over to new hdd? 2nd ? is I went to microsoft sight and it said I still needed 22 more critical update dl's,some of them I read had things that would probably have nothing to do with my setup.Being that they are critical is it important to dl. them anyway.I guess the sp1 did not have these 22 dl's on it. thanks in advance,macdaddy

M$ issue updates about one per week, SP1 has been around some while, I have read posts that some updates cause problems, but so far I have downloaded all but two of the updates after rebuild at Xmas and I have the first released version, luckily everything is stable.........

Newegg is pretty good about getting shipments out the door asap. Wait for your new hard drive. As far as updates are concerned, dl only the ones you think you need. Critical is only MS's opinion.

microsoft's idea of critical is mspaint not opening properly

"WOW" that was fast responses thanks ya'll. I've ordered from Newegg before and I've read all the reviews like I got my package ca to ohio in 2 days but they always take 4 or 5 days to me in fla. im not complaining.there the best in my opinion.I did'nt tell the whole story.I'm actually waiting on a rma from newegg I could not get a single WD.Raptor 36g sata drive to work on my mb. so i sent it back and i am going to order a WD. 120g se 8m cache drive and the new Aero 7 heatsink and fan.When I save somemore money I'll order 2 Raptors and setup arry raid o later.Oh yea after i sent the drive back i got a e-mail back from wd saying f6 was the magic key to setting a single drive up oh well.I should of waited but my 14 day return limit was up and i really had no options.(Rambling on again) Lol Thanks again,macdaddy

If you activate now and then go to the new hard drive later you will have to activate again. As for the updates, if your computer is running with no problems then the updates are not needed.