BlameThePixel!

Windows XP service pack 2, it fixes a lot of security holes (and opens many more, surely), enables a crappy ms firewall, and bugs tons of programs. I didn't install it.

This SP2 is a shame, they postponed it hundreds of times, they announced it like the security messiah, and it is so secure& fixy that almost every app/game has problems with it. Blame SP2 !

Phew !
So no sp2 problems at all with w:a, eh ? (I bet I can get it now, hehe)

The more files you write, delete, and rewrite onto your hard drive, the more likely it is to become fragmented, that is to say, files ar written in a fragmented way, multiple pieces, when system cannot or will not allocate enough contiguous space to store a complete file as a unit, but instead puts parts of it in gaps between other files.
To read a file, if it is fragmented, the hard disk must make lots of moves and it takes more time.
Defragmenting is the operation that writes all the files contiguously. It doesn't make your hard disk speed up, but it will take less hard disk accesses to read files. So it is good. Browsing creates a lot of fragmentation.

Thx for docs, and for the firewall stuff, well... *click* *click* *click* , since I already use (a better) one. Anyway, I'll update as soon as it's available in french (translation in progress...), for the security holes stuff.