Originally Posted by
llondel
Tests have been done that show that if you do a fresh WinXP install from disk and put it unprotected on the internet to download all the important updates, it'll be compromised before it's finished downloading them.
I certainly remember that happening to an XP machine some years ago, at the last company I worked for which ran Windows. However, it's not such a big deal for a home user, as they're probably behind a router firewall and can't be remotely scanned.