Well, having bit the bullet, I found no problems at all installing SP2. As I have
always done in the past, overkill with the preparation is probably worth the
trouble.
Not being able to disable it, I uninstalled McAfee Security rather than risk any
conflicts, and when Windows Defender popped up with its warning, I disabled
that. I then shut down every programme likely to launch in the backgound,
such as Stickies and configured alerts from the likes of Microsoft Outlook.
All that done, I downloaded SP2 to my desktop from the Microsoft website -
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=a4dd31d5-f907-44406-9012-a5c3199ea2b3&displaylang=en - better than using "Update". I then
came off-line.
Next, I ran RegMechanic and repaired any faults it found. Finally I checked
Task Manager 'Processes' to make sure nothing was around to interfere.
Installation took a little over 30 minutes - counting download time - about 45
minutes altogether.
Now two hours in and no issues to report. Let's hope it stays that way.
Ed