Installation reports for Microsoft’s new security-focused upgrade range from trouble-free to complete system failures. Our Take: I had one random reboot and one freeze since I installed SP2 this week. The _only_ other time in the past that my XP had crashed was when I plugged-in a SONY external DVD-+RW drive to a USB 1.1 port last month. Except that DVD-RW incident last month, my XP was crash-free for 2.5 years (which might have been a SONY issue, I give the benefit of the doubt to MS). But with the SP2, I had two crashes in 4 days. Unforgivable. SP1 was really solid, can’t say the same for SP2.
XP SP2 Receives Mixed Marks from IT Pros
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
Follow me on Twitter @EugeniaLoli
Well, interesting, I am using the SP2 since it was publicly available (Beta or RC, don’t remember) and I didn’t encounter a single crash.
I’ve used it since first beta and hanvt crashed it. I was commenting on how it’s more stable then SP1 the other day. To bad you had a bad experince.
I also have had the same sort of experience. I’ve had maybe 6 crashes since the SP2 was released. This is rediculous, but to be expected from our friends at M$.
I have build 2082 and it not only fixed an existing problem that was gobbling ram, but its run absolutely flawlessly.
Could be a problem between keyboard and mouse.
– Microsoft Fanboy
I think, the crashes may come from SP2 incompatible software pieces. Microsoft warned the world that SP2 could break compatibility of some applications (and maybe drivers and services running in kernelspace –> crashes).
Service Pack 2 was seriously needed! I’ve been using SP2 since the RC releases, and the inhancements are key. The built-in pop-up blocker in IE is helpful, as well as the new security center. Finally getting some of that security options in one area.
The one thing I’m annoyed with, and it’s not Microsoft’s fault at all. But I think it’s very sad we have reached the point that you need to get prompted with a million dialog boxes just to download a file or execute an EXE file! That’s the one thing I dislike about SP2, the amount of clicking on dialog boxes has increased! They may have blocked the annoying pop-up ads, but they replaced it with darn dialog boxes.
I’ve gotten lots of crashes. If I leave it at the login screen for long enough, it freezes. No, it’s not a screensaver (it’s not long enough for the screensaver to kick in!) problem, but if I leave it at login screen without moving the mouse for 5 seconds or so, the system hard-freezes. Annoying. I also have had several unexplained crashes, and a BSOD on bootup with one system which was infested with spyware (complaining about w32k .dll). I’ve also had the dubious honor of being unable to use the Far Cry demo (it fails to install on SP2) and having misc. other freezes and crashes. Buggy release, all in all.
PS: I’ve been using it since RC1 and none of these problems were fixed, despite the bugreport app’s use.
//Could be a problem between keyboard and mouse.//
Or, “a problem between keyboard and chair,” since the only thing between most keyboards and mice is a few inches of empty space.
I’ve installed SP2 on 7 machines with different hardware so far without a single problem. Hopefully it will remain that way when I install on the rest.
My experience with RC2 was really good: nothing broken and the wireless improvements were helpful. For some reason, though, the final release broke ffdshow so Explorer would crash all that time when I clicked on an AVI file. I wonder what changed between those builds.
To Roguelazer: maybe a fresh slipstreamed install will do the trick. I think it’s safe to say something is seriously unhealthy about your install if you’re having faults in win32k.sys (I hope spyware hasn’t gone so far as to install virtual device drivers!).
It’s not my install, it’s a friend of mine’s. And it was my fault, really. He had some wonderful software called WebTools. Spyware, of course. I felt naive, so I tried using Windows Add/Remove Programs. It removed and didn’t tell me to reboot, so I then installed XPSP2. Bad idea, eh?
IMHO, the best way to install SP2 is:
a) Format C:
b) Reinstall XP
c) Install SP2
d) Install your Apps
🙂
Better: Merge b) and c), meaning install from a slipstream version
absolutely agree with Nolridor..
SP2 bring so many changes that the safest way to install it is with a slipstream Windows XP SP2 CD
🙂
Great! Reinstall an entire OS just to upgrade software. You know something is fundamentally broken when you have to do that.
Service Pack 2 was seriously needed! I’ve been using SP2
Service Pack 2 is needed, but only for certain individuals. For those of us who are already security conscious, SP2 is more of an annoyance than anything else. SP2 is the ‘dumb ass user patch’.
I’ll probably wait until late Sept/early Oct to install it. That way, if there are any major issues with it (other than crashing on a handful of machines), it should be known by then.
Great! Reinstall an entire OS just to upgrade software. You know something is fundamentally broken when you have to do that.
Weird that the key Linux distributions advice against upgrading… SUSE, Mandrake, Fedora… Ever tried to upgrade Mandrake? It’s pure hell! And considering the release cycle…
Mystilleef, please think a bit more thorough before making such a ridiculous statement. You can say all you want about MS, but when it comes to OS upgrades (ie. 98-XP, or 2000-XP) they have a far better track record than their Linux-based desktop counterparts..
//For those of us who are already security conscious, SP2 is more of an annoyance than anything else. SP2 is the ‘dumb ass user patch’. //
Exactly. If you’ve got your system locked down, there’s really no need for SP2, unless you’re a WMP feature geek — and even then, it’s hardly worth it, at this point. My XP box with SP1 is running perfectly — why add SP2?
I think I’ll hold on to install SP2 until there’s a good workaround for the outbound TCP/IP connections limitation problem. I use BT and eMule frequently and this would make things difficult for me.
Personally I only want the bug fixes from SP2. Its major features such as Firewall and IE Popup-blocker aren’t that useful. (Already using alternatives that work well.) The last thing I want is to have programs I use breaking left and right.
Weird that the key Linux distributions advice against upgrading… SUSE, Mandrake, Fedora… Ever tried to upgrade Mandrake? It’s pure hell! And considering the release cycle…
Really? If so, they fundamentally broken too.
Mystilleef, please think a bit more thorough before making such a ridiculous statement.
What exactly is ridiculous about my statement? The fact that I am digusted that I might have to reinstall an entire OS to upgrade software?
You can say all you want about MS, but when it comes to OS upgrades (ie. 98-XP, or 2000-XP) they have a far better track record than their Linux-based desktop counterparts..
Not really, I just upgraded my system a few hours ago. I didn’t have to reboot the machine, talk little of reinstall the whole OS.[sic]
Each service pack makes Windows more unstable. That way when they relase a new OS people buy it.
You can say all you want about MS, but when it comes to OS upgrades (ie. 98-XP, or 2000-XP) they have a far better track record than their Linux-based desktop counterparts..
______________
Not really, I just upgraded my system a few hours ago. I didn’t have to reboot the machine, talk little of reinstall the whole OS.[sic]
Wow, so someone has actually managed to do that, great stuff. Just like I manage to have my XP box up n running without any hazzle for 2 years now… no BSODs or anything. I tried Mandrake and RedHat Linux a year ago, and they didn’t even manage to recognize my soundcard and autoconfigure it… so much for Linux… not to mention dependency hell…
Slipstreamed WinXP SP2 has been flawless on all of the machines I’ve tested it on. Just doing a regular install of the service pack over top of an existing installation has caused minor issues every single time I’ve done it.
Although I’m sure that there are people who are having genuine stability problems with this release, I am curious as to wether or not a lot of these issues have to do with the various new technologies against buffer overflows not getting along well with cruft left over from before the SP was installed (as in on non-slipstreamed versions).
Smooth sailing here…
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>&g t;>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>&g t;>
I tried Mandrake and RedHat Linux a year ago, and they didn’t even manage to recognize my soundcard and autoconfigure it… so much for Linux… not to mention dependency hell…
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>&g t;>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>&g t;>
Yep that was a year ago. Both linux and now Windows XP SP2
have come along since then. With windows I have to (I wait
for it) put a CD in to install the sony drivers before
downloading my picture and in Suse 9.1 I plug it in and I
am presented with the files strait away. Does this mean
the because of that single invalid point make Linux better
in every way. Spend 60 seconds of your time for thinking
per day, it will do you some good.
i still havent updated (or in some opinions, downgraded) to sp2, i havent heard enough good yet to convince me
well, i’ve just done a fresh install of windows xp and immediately installed sp2. everything seems fine. however, i can no longer install the drivers for my hewlett packard printer. MSI fails every time.
SP2 has been very good for me. It runs absolutely flawlessly. Installed the separate download, not a slipstreamed version.
SP2 fixed occasional taskbar lock-up when booting the computer and having Norton Antivirus 2004 installed. When this task bar lock-up happened, you couldn’t do anything, even Ctrl+Alt+Del didn’t work, so the only choice was to press the Reset button or pull the plug… Also, with NAV installed or not, the little notification icons in the taskbar would sometimes not load at startup.
Before someone says that something was wrong with my hardware or Windows installation, I’ve experienced exactly the above problems in three computers over the past 3 years, and SP2 removed them. That says something.
Also, no crashes at all — For the past 3 days since I installed it, I’ve been running my computer 24 hours a day with 16 hours intensive use. Not a single reboot necessary.
I’m seeing the first rain drops falling in the “Linux vs MS” storm brewing. So, I’ll piss off both sides, and get it over with.
I’m an avid Linux user. Love it. However, I must agree that upgrading Mandrake can be a pain, and Red Hat only slightly less so. Suse is the best out of the three, but honestly it’s more a “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it” world. Ah, but you *like* being up to date, don’t you? Yeah, me to. So, insert dependancy hell. I’ve always thought, “Isn’t there a better way to do this?” I HATE dependancies. Installing, or Upgrading an RPM based distribution is HELL. That’s the plain truth of it. My solution is to forget the damned rpms. I run Gentoo, and there’s no such thing as re-installing it to upgrade. I type in: “emerge -U world” and I’ve got the latests, greatest stuff! No hassles! Sure, it takes a while to compile, but eh, I need an exuse to sleep sometimes… So there ya go, Linux with flawless upgrading. See, it does exist.
Now, on to SP2. I will not install it. In fact, I think sp2 pushed me over the edge. Windows is going down the toilet. Seriously, can ANY of you tell me that things haven’t gotten nutz? Sure, windows has the user firendly thing going for it… and it has some things that I’d love to see in linux, HOWEVER, IE is horrid, and even SP2’s security is crap! I honestly can’t believe that anyone would be willing to run an OS that can be eatten alive by stuff like spyware! Can you honestly tell me it isn’t nutz? We’re seeing bandaid after bandaid being thrown on… when the real issue is the core design of the OS. Simply put, MS needs a permisions based OS. That could solve alot right there. It also needs better coding practices.. and opensourcing some of it wouldn’t be a bad idea. (not I said some) For example, do what apple did, and open source the kernel. That would really improve windows. Give the OS permisions like Unix, and OS the kernel, and maybe some of the core OS. Then tell me if spyware is a problem.
There, I’ve said my peace… flame away.
David
Each service pack makes Windows more unstable. That way when they relase a new OS people buy it.
Bullshit. Got Win2k SP4 on one of my boxes, and it runs like a champ. No problems with WinXP SP1 so far, haven’t tried SP2.
Macguyvok
HOWEVER, IE is horrid
No arguments there
nd even SP2’s security is crap!
I think the verdict is still out on that one, but you’re probably right. However, I am more inclined to wait and see how many security holes show up in SP2 before I say for sure.
I honestly can’t believe that anyone would be willing to run an OS that can be eatten alive by stuff like spyware!
Any OS can be ‘eaten’ by spyware – though Linux hasn’t seen much/any of this, it is certainly not immune. As long as some clueless user types in his root password to install an application that has Internet access, pretty much anything is possible. Though it’d be harder for Linux to be infected by spyware via a security hole, this isn’t anything a good firewall and a non-IE browser can’t fix in Windows.
Simply put, MS needs a permisions based OS.
If that is all it took, then how do you explain the phishing epidimic? As long as there’s social engineering, permission based OS’s are only slightly better than the alternative.
I slipstreamed SP2 using AutoStreamer and installed in Vmware.
Runs good. I plan to format my drive and do a clean install.
Looks like all the problems people have mentioned are ocurring when doing an updrade to SP2 – not when doing a clean install.
Win2k SP4 gave a lot of problems to me because of Autocad and also a DVD-RAM drive from Pansonic I have (use google and you will see was not only me). I had to reinstall and stop at SP3 and I’m pretty happy with it.
Not going to try WinXP SP2. Using non-MS browser and firewall.
On linux camp, I’m using Slackware and upgrades have been very nice and without surprises.
I hadn’t have a single (real) problem since installing SP2. Actually the only problem I have is that one application is messed up – instead of fonts i see squares, thought that app is not that important to me. But a friend of mine said he has some (real) problems with SP2. To the person saying that there’s more clicking -> you can turn all that off you know
Maybe visit Control Panel once in a while 
I’ve been using SP2 since the day after it was released on WinBeta. No problems whatsoever on my laptop. So good in fact that I made a slipstreamed SP2 CD, and installed it on my desktop. No noticeable performance hit in Doom3, and definitely not a trace of instability.
Also…
I develop embedded systems for a living, and at the moment, I’m working on WPA-EAP stuff. I had some pretty big problems with interaction “quirks” in SP1 with WPA-EAP, but with SP2 most of those problems are completely gone.
SP2 is definitely a step in the right direction.
… we salute you!
Most of you who got crashes in Win XP is because of:
1) cheap/outdated drivers (HP/ATI anyone?)
2) cheap/outdated hardware or hardware not on WHCL (HP anyone?)
3) you got tons of gizmos that perform unorthodox access (but you got an anti-virii, right?)
4) you system is so badly lock down that even Windows can’t work properly (let’s see, if I disable this service, it will be more secure… yea right!)
And my favorite reason for why your system crashes:
5) you don’t know how to use a computer, period.
For my part, I haven’t have a single crash with XP on my (unfortunately) outdated hardware. But I must say I know that my crappy ATI drivers lock up sometime. SP2 has ‘smoothen’ the edge of XP and now it really perform like it always should.
And reinstalling an OS because of a new SP is not an option (and that’s another reason why I left Linux a couple of years ago). Doing so (reinstalling) just proves that your system is already running badly. SP2 will just pops the rivet out to show you so.
“All your kernel are belong to us.”
I just did a clean slipstreamed install of XP SP2. I was running XP SP1a previously. Everything from browsing to compiling feels faster. I have an AthlonXP1900/1GB ram/10kRPM SCSI drive and it takes only about 15 seconds to boot to a fully ready desktop. The security center properly detected Avast Antivirus and ZoneAlarm Pro firewall perfectly. I disabled the security center service to save memory though. I’m perfectly capable of monitoring their respective tray icons on my own. I’m not experiencing any major issues. Installed ATI driver pack it worked perfectly, however I dont play games so I dont know about 3d. Captured few hours of video in Virtual Dub without any hickups. I have local apache (latest 2) and mysql (latest 4.0) servers running for web development. They have been up for days, without any issue.
Only few issues I encoutered:
During installation it defaulted to a 1280×1024 desktop but with tvout enabled which limited the output to 800×600. Not a big deal, just had to use mouse to scroll around the desktop screen till ATI drivers were installed. This didnt happen during clean slipstreamed SP1a installation.
I disable windows firewall service to save memory since I use ZoneAlarm. But when I do, I can’t browse computers in my workgroup. I can still access them by directly typing in their name. But using ‘view computers in my workgroup’ doesn’t work. Enabling the firewall serivce makes it work again.
Some of my WSH scripts that use WinHTTP aren’t working. WinHTTP is only grabbing first 1,024 bytes of pages and then closing the connection. This actually started before SP2, with an update that was on windows update a couple weeks prior.
Windows XP Service Pack 2
I just got done restoring my laptop after installing SP2… Here’s what happend to me:
1) The computer would freeze when shutting/opening the screen, pressing the power button to hibernate, and plugging in a USB device.
2) Thunderbird/Firefoxes newmail/update popups in the right hand corner would stay up and not go away.
3) My hard drive seemed to go crazy. Lots of disk activity for unknown reasons.
4) Shutting down the laptop would either cause it to freeze, or if it did exit out of windows, the backlight and the power light would stay on (and never turn off, from what I could tell…)
Until installing SP2, I have never ONCE had a lockup or any issues even close to what I’ve experienced with SP2… Ouch!
Build 2082 where can i download it from?
I honestly can’t believe that anyone would be willing to run an OS that can be eatten alive by stuff like spyware! Can you honestly tell me it isn’t nutz? We’re seeing bandaid after bandaid being thrown on… when the real issue is the core design of the OS.
Please detail which aspects of the “core design of the OS” you feel are responsible.
Simply put, MS needs a permisions based OS.
You mean “multiuser”, I think, not “permissions based”. NT has been multiuser since day one.
For example, do what apple did, and open source the kernel. That would really improve windows.
On what do you base that ? What quantifiable benefits has Apple gained because their OS kernel is open source ?
Give the OS permisions like Unix, and OS the kernel, and maybe some of the core OS.
NT has a better permissions infrastructure than most unixes.
Then tell me if spyware is a problem.
Of course it will be. What on Earth makes you think it wouldn’t ?
just reinstalled SP2 an whatta know .. i opened up ICQ4.1 an gaim, got through without the Firewall asking whether to block them or not, when are we gonna start seeing security in Microsoft OS’s
Wow, so someone has actually managed to do that, great stuff. Just like I manage to have my XP box up n running without any hazzle for 2 years now… no BSODs or anything. I tried Mandrake and RedHat Linux a year ago, and they didn’t even manage to recognize my soundcard and autoconfigure it… so much for Linux… not to mention dependency hell…
What does that mean:dependency hell?Could you enlight an average PC user?I like to know.
I just loved how SP2 thought it was okay to reinstall windows messenger and to make sure it boots at start up.
How is WM important to security?
“What does that mean:dependency hell?Could you enlight an average PC user?I like to know.”
It is kind of comparable to “DLL hell” in Windows.
In both cases you want to install something, but for that install to be succesfull you are “depending” on other files, which may at times give conflicts.
See:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dll_hell
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dependency_hell
Great! Reinstall an entire OS just to upgrade software. You know something is fundamentally broken when you have to do that.
—-
ya.name is Windows
well, i’ve just done a fresh install of windows xp and immediately installed sp2. everything seems fine. however, i can no longer install the drivers for my hewlett packard printer. MSI fails every time.
Well, now that you know that the edrivers for you HP printer doesn’t work, run off to HP and flame them. It is HP’s responsibility to keep their drivers up to date so that they work with the latest version of Windows. Simple as that. If HP don’t want to do that, they should get out of hardware and software business.
I’ve installed Service Pack 2 on 3 PCs in an office I administer. The PCs are all Dell SX260s (and as someone here recently put it… it doesn’t get more standard than Dell).
While Windows ran absolutely stable, we did encounter some issues. Some things suddenly were unbearably slow. Opening the print dialog in Word would take 15 seconds. Moving a cell in Excel would take 10 seconds, all while the total CPU usage was around 2%. It felt like Windows was waiting for some timeout.
Anyway, while I appreciate the security improvements, working like this is very annoying, so I had to deinstall it again.
Zero BSODs since the day XP was released in 2001. 🙂
What quantifiable benefits has Apple gained because their OS kernel is open source ?
—-.
read the apple faq on that. its pretty clear. it has shared cost advantages since they dont directly manage all of the kernel.
—
Zero BSODs since the day XP was released in 2001. 🙂
—–
by default xp restarts the system instead. if you change that you get bsod and even kernel crash dumps. i have got that
> Great! Reinstall an entire OS just to upgrade software.
> You know something is fundamentally broken when you have
> to do that.
>> Weird that the key Linux distributions advice against
>> upgrading… SUSE, Mandrake, Fedora… Ever tried to
>> upgrade Mandrake? It’s pure hell! And considering the
>> release cycle…
>> Mystilleef, please think a bit more thorough before
>> making such a ridiculous statement. You can say all you
>> want about MS, but when it comes to OS upgrades (ie.
>> 98-XP, or 2000-XP) they have a far better track record
>> than their Linux-based desktop counterparts..
Ever tried debian? I’ve been using it (debian unstable) for 1.5 years and it’s quite up to date. Never had problems EVER with upgrading (I upgrade every 3 days my machine). Except for kernel updates, you never have to reboot your machine. I think it’s the same with gentoo.
So, think a bit before making such statements…
“Well, now that you know that the edrivers for you HP printer doesn’t work, run off to HP and flame them. It is HP’s responsibility to keep their drivers up to date so that they work with the latest version of Windows. Simple as that. If HP don’t want to do that, they should get out of hardware and software business.”
Wrong!!! It is the responsibility of both! In this case MS made the change and THEY should make sure there is still compatibility.
im not a programmer but isv must produce good software for multiple user accounts both admin and limited. people dont use limited acounts because of “somedamn.ini disk write failure” and they dont know how to fix it or the software, i.e. games, cant be fixed so they stop using limited accounts and just go back to admin mode and get infected with viruses, worms, and trojans. i understand time=money and profit margins and most isv dont make anywhere near the boatload of money ms makes per copy of software, but how much time and additional cost go into programming software for multiple user accounts? how many man hours does it add to the cost of developing the software?
Have had no problems with RC1, RC2 or RTM SP2 on various systems (Intel and AMD clones, Dell, Compaqs, HP’s…)
The best procedure is to:
1) get your AV updates and run it.
2) got to trend.com and run another AV scan
3) get current Ad-Aware (or sim.) updates and run it!
4) manually check your startup, Run keys (CurrentUsers & LocalMachine); look in your Add/Remove Programs and get rid of any junk.
5) reboot!
6) Now install SP2 (it you are feeling brave, it installs faster if you skip the backup [use /n switch]
7) reboot (your system will run better after the 2nd reboot).
Bottom Line: Clean up your system before you install it! garbage in/garbage out.
On 4 machines that we are beta testing it on, there have been no instances of crashes or instability. In fact, each of those machines felt smoother and quicker, with other annoyances having been fixed it seems. The only application breakage was not really a breakage at all, but just due to the firewall blocking the application ports. Easily fixed by adjusting the windows firewall to allow those ports from the host providing the application. I did not use any of the Betas, so this is with the actual release of SP2.
HOWEVER, IE is horrid, and even SP2’s security is crap!
I run IE as my primary browser. Its security is more than adequate for users who know what they are doing.
When setting computer for users who don’t, you can harden IE so that they will be safe.
I honestly can’t believe that anyone would be willing to run an OS that can be eatten alive by stuff like spyware!
Spyware? The only spyware living on my computer is tracking cookies that are forced on a browser by the Web site. These are browser-independent, in fact, cookies were invented by the Netscape.
Try Mozilla and see the same spyware cookies on your hard drive.
We’re seeing bandaid after bandaid being thrown on…
You know, an opposite approach, like “I just rewrittent everything in version 3.0” or “use enbcruwe instead of brudrobe in our distro version 8.8” is with its own problems.
when the real issue is the core design of the OS.
VMS-based design is not good enough for you?
Simply put, MS needs a permisions based OS.
Which one, based on old good unadequate UNIX rwx-rwx-rwx style of permissions or new, SELinux, arrived just lately, and compared to Windows permission model by independent observers?
It also needs better coding practices.. and opensourcing some of it wouldn’t be a bad idea.
A critical bug hiding in the opensourced code for years- it is the fact for Mozilla.
An awful security record for open sourced Sendmail- it is the fact.
OpenSource is not the magic bullet. It is only in the land of dreams of some very politicized people everyone on the Earth and his dog are itching to drop everything they are doing and spend hours reviewing sources.
Believe me, reading sources is very boring, reading sources not coded by you in search for bugs is as exciting as doing any kind of paperwork.
Believe me, reading sources is very boring, reading sources not coded by you in search for bugs is as exciting as doing any kind of paperwork.
Well, it’s just how you look at it. I tend to like it. However, my girlfriend likes gardening. I tend to turn my head away and pretend I’m not listening when she tells me the grass is an inch high …. I like reading code much more than gardening. So please, don’t take away my pleasure.
A critical bug hiding in the opensourced code for years- it is the fact for Mozilla.
An awful security record for open sourced Sendmail- it is the fact.
Ok, it happens. At first, all webservers were open to DOS attacks, only, open source was fixed faster. Plus, fact is that you cannot deny that Linux is much more stable than Windows.
Which one, based on old good unadequate UNIX rwx-rwx-rwx style of permissions or new, SELinux, arrived just lately, and compared to Windows permission model by independent observers?
Linux has ACLs in kernel 2.6. So basically, we’re on the same level as Windows permissions. I agree that rwx is a little outdated and not adequate for most systems. Most “commercial” distributions like Suse had a kernel already precompiled for earlier versions (like 2.4 of the kernel)
I use both Linux and OSX. I was Microsoft Certified, back in the days, so I know “a bit” of both.
Monday tomorrow … First day I have to put up with clients running SP2. I really can’t wait
(
Oh, forgot … For the rwx thing ….
Not enabling the x on *nix is one of the things that prevent much problems like virusses and other stuff. You must enable everything yourself to execute it. IMHO, that’s not such a stupid idea ;-))
Maybe it would even be nice to run each user in a chroot’ed environment.
I would normally agree with the slipstreaming method, but I’ve discovered that SP2 doesn’t work well when manually installed on older systems. Briefly, I upgraded six older machines which had windows XP pre sp1 installed (Compaq Presarios and Dell Optiplex’s). The result was the same; All booted through the Black Windows XP Logo screen and BSOD’ed! I flashed the BIOSes with their most up to date versions afterward to no avail. I then thought back to the old NT days when Service Packs weren’t as cumulative as MS stated, and installed SP1 on the remainder of the machines first, then SP2. No problems.
Summary – Slipstream over slipstreamed SP1, not over the out of box XP.
XP crashed during the last step of installation. I think that might be an omen.
“Well, now that you know that the edrivers for you HP printer doesn’t work, run off to HP and flame them. It is HP’s responsibility to keep their drivers up to date so that they work with the latest version of Windows. Simple as that. If HP don’t want to do that, they should get out of hardware and software business.”
Wrong!!! It is the responsibility of both! In this case MS made the change and THEY should make sure there is still compatibility.
Bullshit. Are you yet another HP drone making excuses for why you should continue receiving a pay cheque without any work?
HP screwed once with their printers; I sent them a clear message, I now only use Epson. Atleast they’re willing to put out drivers when required vs the half-assed effort HP puts into their products. If it isn’t their computers that suck big proprietary rocks, its their printers and the driver writters inability to bloody well TEST the bloody drivers for the MONTHS that the SP2 was made AVAILABLE publically so that software producers may test their software and drivers with.
Sorry, I have no sympathy for HP; if you’re another HP sucker, drop their products and run like the wind. Send HP and their half-assed development team a message, crappy support equals no customer loyalty; dissatisified customer equals, that customer telling his or her friends about how crappy the HP product is, and how they should avoid buying HP products in future.
I run IE as my primary browser. Its security is more than adequate for users who know what they are doing
—
a lot of users dont know or shouldnt need to care about patching up IE all the time. IE has a bad security history and isnt a modern browser. it doesnt have tabs or any such features and popup blocking is bad compared to firefox or opera. dont even bother supporting it
If, like most Pro windows users you slipstream your install CD to include the SP2 files (rather than installing windows then installing SP2 on top, slipstreaming replaces the files before install so the old versions never touch your PC), this one’s for you
Norton AV 2002’s LiveUpdate won’t work after install. Solution is to first disable the nFirewall for the connection you use to the net, THEN disable the firewall altogether, then upgrade to LiveUpdate 2.0 by downloading the installer
Otherwise it’ll fail quoting a corrupt update list.
If you install Norton onto windows XP or XP-SP1 then the SP2 on top this isn’t an issue.
read the apple faq on that. its pretty clear. it has shared cost advantages since they dont directly manage all of the kernel.
I sincerely doubt Apple is letting anything into the kernel that they haven’t “managed”.
by default xp restarts the system instead. if you change that you get bsod and even kernel crash dumps. i have got that
This old excuse is really getting quite tiresome:
“It automatically reboots, of course you’ve never seen a BSOD.”
Because people never notice a bunch of applications they were running when they walked away from their computer aren’t running when they get back, right ?
Try customising your Windows Firewall to grant the programs you need to access the web exemptions. Might be supprised. No problems on any systems I have installed it on and better OS responsiveness in general. A step in the right directin for MS.
“a lot of users dont know or shouldnt need to care about patching up IE all the time. IE has a bad security history and isnt a modern browser.”
That’s what automatic updates are for. IE has a very good record when patched. You’re probably the sort to recommend turning automatic updates off, though and then complaining that the machines aren’t patched afterwards.
I have a fresh install of Windows XP that I just upgraded to SP2. I had two crashes in 10 minutes. The two sample downloads I did were both corrupted. This is probably the worst update ever.
Now, I have uninstalled it and everything is back to normal.
I don’t think I will be able to upgrade to SP2 until they fix their stuff. I don’t have a lot of apps – and I was getting blue screen just by copying files under Explorer.
SP2 is junk, IMO
My system was very slow.
SP2 is junk!
My games don’t work!!! :-(((
But, what is more important, Internet Connection Sharing with W98 doesn’t work. With or without FW, sth is blocking connection…