xp service pack 2 yes/no?

[only me]

has anybody downloaded and installed the new service pack and any major problems!?

I chickened out when it suggested backing up before install!

[docevi1]

www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=120139&f=95&h=0

[warmfuzzies]

No Problems here:-
Programmes I am running with SP2 are:-
Macromedia MX
Norton AV 2003
Norton Firewall 2003
Norton Ghost 2003
Doom 3
Unreal tournament 2003&2004
Office 2003
Spysweeper
Window washer
Exif Finepix viewer (fuji)
HP printing software
Firefox 0.93
Partition magic 8
Diskeeper 8
Adobe acrobat 6.0
Nero 6.3 something

and lots more, no issues at all.

Kevin

[pesty]

No problems here so far.

Unless you call anoying things that pop up and say lan area connection is limited what ever that means and also an annoy sequirity thing that keeps telling me i havnt automatic update on


arrrrrg give it a rest I feking know its as annoying as that feking papper clip

[FunkyNige]

No real problems here either. The one thing that did happen was when I installed SP2, Norton 2004 came up with a messgae like 'Another application is requesting to see the status of Norton, do you want to allow it so see your antivirus status?' (or something similar). Norton reccommended I don't allow Windows to see Norton's status, but I allowed it and now Windows says there's an antivirus present.

[Zorro]

Big NONO for me, totally my PC up...the recovery partition wouldn't work either so I'm waiting on a recovery CD from the manufacturer. (I don't have an XP CD)

Local PC bod has some sort of technogeek flyer saying IBM and Compaq advising not to install at the mo also 50% of the peeps who run it have some sort of problem and 7% say it royally fs them in the a55...count me one of the seven

[agent006]

If your PC is in a complete mess already then any service pack will only make it worse.
Trouble is, it takes time and knowledge to keep PC running properly (rather like cars) and most home users don't have eitehr of these.

[GreenV8S]

Since this is supposed to be a security focussed release I'm astonished that they've only included half a firewall and have an insecure admin API which lets applications change the settings and show the user misleading status information. Basically an open invitation to hackers. Is this some sort of twisted joke at our expense?

[Zorro]

agent006 said:

If your PC is in a complete mess already then any service pack will only make it worse. Trouble is, it takes time and knowledge to keep PC running properly (rather like cars) and most home users don't have eitehr of these.

Don't really agree with that, the PC I ran the SP on was 3 weeks old...XP, Athlon 64 with a gig of ram and only a firewall installed and some games. I'm not a boffin but I'm not a complete PC nonce either and it still fd my machine up.

[Jay-Aim]

so far so good for me

on 2 pc's and taking it steady (9 to go)

[m-five]

agent006 said:

If your PC is in a complete mess already then any service pack will only make it worse. Trouble is, it takes time and knowledge to keep PC running properly (rather like cars) and most home users don't have eitehr of these.

Don't agree as I have just done an XP-Pro install from original CD after the kids screwed up an unprotected new (3 weeks) PC.

Installed XP-Pro from scratch (after removing partitions and doing a new NTFS partion), installed the broadband router drivers and then went to install SP2 and after 4 attempts it download successfully, I installed it and restarted.

Went okay until it got to the log-on screen and then froze with a message about a file missing and asking for the admin (i.e. me) to replace it.

It did that twice and then I gave up and am just using the original install. When I have some more time I will attempt to download the 266mb 'full' version in case the 'small' download is missing something.

>> Edited by m-five on Monday 30th August 17:27

[ultimasimon]

m-five said:

agent006 said: If your PC is in a complete mess already then any service pack will only make it worse. Trouble is, it takes time and knowledge to keep PC running properly (rather like cars) and most home users don't have eitehr of these. Don't agree as I have just done an XP-Pro install from original CD after the kids screwed up an unprotected new (3 weeks) PC. Installed XP-Pro from scratch (after removing partitions and doing a new NTFS partion), installed the broadband router drivers and then went to install SP2 and after 4 attempts it download successfully, I installed it and restarted. Went okay until it got to the log-on screen and then froze with a message about a file missing and asking for the admin (i.e. me) to replace it. It did that twice and then I gave up and am just using the original install. When I have some more time I will attempt to download the 266mb 'full' version in case the 'small' download is missing something.

After performing a clean install, the very first thing you should do is enable the Microsoft firewall. The next thing to do is to install your antivirus. THEN and only then should you connect to the net and get the antivirus updates FIRST, before even thinking of downloading SP2. Forgive me if you have done this, but most people do not realise that their computer is at risk of virus infection the instant they connect to the net. These days you do not need to download anything, these new virii will infect your PC through unprotected ports in seconds, like the infamous BLASTER WORM which reboots your PC and sends itself via your email to other users in your address book. It also disables your antivirus. Your AV is only any good if the definitions are up to date.

I don't know what version of SP2 you were trying to download, but I used the 266mb one (see other thread) and I have had no problems.

I have a customer that bought a brand new PC from PC world, it was OEM installed with Norton 2004, and before he got a chance to get his AV updated, his PC got a virus. He took it back and bought one from me

As far as SP2 is installed I too was wary, as I had issues with SP1, but I have rolled SP2 out on all my PC's at home (5) and this week have also done another 3 for my customers - all with no problems.

[m-five]

ultimasimon said:

After performing a clean install, the very first thing you should do is enable the Microsoft firewall. The next thing to do is to install your antivirus. THEN and only then should you connect to the net and get the antivirus updates FIRST, before even thinking of downloading SP2. Forgive me if you have done this, but most people do not realise that their computer is at risk of virus infection the instant they connect to the net. These days you do not need to download anything, these new virii will infect your PC through unprotected ports in seconds, like the infamous BLASTER WORM which reboots your PC and sends itself via your email to other users in your address book. It also disables your antivirus. Your AV is only any good if the definitions are up to date. I don't know what version of SP2 you were trying to download, but I used the 266mb one (see other thread) and I have had no problems. I have a customer that bought a brand new PC from PC world, it was OEM installed with Norton 2004, and before he got a chance to get his AV updated, his PC got a virus. He took it back and bought one from me As far as SP2 is installed I too was wary, as I had issues with SP1, but I have rolled SP2 out on all my PC's at home (5) and this week have also done another 3 for my customers - all with no problems.

The very first thing I did after putting XP on was to set up the router (including the hardware firewall).

I then went to Microsoft Update and it wanted me to download the 75mb SP2 pack, and 18 security updates.

I tried this but it didn't work - everything downloaded, but a few failed to install. Then I had to restart and that's where the trouble started.

I tried this again and got a similar result - except this time I got to download a 96mb SP2 pack, and 16 security updates, and after the restart got an error message about the missing dll.

I tried to download the 266mb version but once it had finished downloading it refused to install - saying it was corrupt.

I've finally got it working again, but I'll leave the updates for now as the machine is working fine, and I've installed Kaspersky AV, Ad-Aware SE Pro, and some other blocker that I forget the name of. Just got to install all the other apps/games/utils now!

[pesty]

mmmmm I have got a problem i think since putting on SP2.

AOL keeps signing off orr cutting off or locking up. Its getting very anoying and it didnt do it before

Coincidence?

[k4trn]

all fine here - I downloaded it on Thursday.

[Mr E]

Went on tonight. The first thing I did afterwards was disable all the MS 'security' garbage.

I have a real firewall thankyou microsoft.

[scruffy]

Linux anyone?

[scruffy]

Mr E said:

Went on tonight. The first thing I did afterwards was disable all the MS 'security' garbage. I have a real firewall thankyou microsoft.

Good advice - Mcafee anyone?

I have to use boxes that 'certain manufacturers' use, but shelled with NT4, various 'data bases', editors with blatent XPpro, 95, 98, as well as OSX, OS9, linux and unix.

Only Microsoft seems to trip up at each hurdle though none of the OS's are transcendental. Then again different processors seem to have different interpretations of a MS product and blatent recommendations by each 'products' manufacturer seem to suggest that their R&D dept's only use the one OS - I have used a Mac classic to perform a data transfer, recently mind, with no real trouble - apart from the programmers foibles... yet the latest nonsense monster fast proc with many gig RAM and spupid amounts of R&D time - even when left hand knows what right hand is doing...

BACK THE FCUKER UP

Before you do anything, even if you only use the er for kiddie porn...

I'd make my feelings known about a certain operating system manufacturer - (monkeys and typewriters), but i'm typing on it at the moment - and err.. I'm Ranting, and smoking, and drinking beer, and it wouldn't be fair to the 1,000,000 programmers working on the final compile...

The lesser of my two Gates models fell at the first hurdle...

I'm about to start again...

with a penguin.

[m-five]

scruffy said:

Mr E said: Went on tonight. The first thing I did afterwards was disable all the MS 'security' garbage. I have a real firewall thankyou microsoft. Good advice - Mcafee anyone? I have to use boxes that 'certain manufacturers' use, but shelled with NT4, various 'data bases', editors with blatent XPpro, 95, 98, as well as OSX, OS9, linux and unix. Only Microsoft seems to trip up at each hurdle though none of the OS's are transcendental. Then again different processors seem to have different interpretations of a MS product and blatent recommendations by each 'products' manufacturer seem to suggest that their R&D dept's only use the one OS - I have used a Mac classic to perform a data transfer, recently mind, with no real trouble - apart from the programmers foibles... yet the latest nonsense monster fast proc with many gig RAM and spupid amounts of R&D time - even when left hand knows what right hand is doing... BACK THE FCUKER UP Before you do anything, even if you only use the er for kiddie porn... I'd make my feelings known about a certain operating system manufacturer - (monkeys and typewriters), but i'm typing on it at the moment - and err.. I'm Ranting, and smoking, and drinking beer, and it wouldn't be fair to the 1,000,000 programmers working on the final compile... The lesser of my two Gates models fell at the first hurdle... I'm about to start again... with a penguin.

A 'proper' firewall would be hardware (i.e. in the router), not software based (Microshite, et al).

Should I back up the operating system as soon as it is installed, or should I install the CD/DVD Writing application first?

On my own machine, I keep everything except the operating system on second and 3rd drives - if anything happens I have an external firewire boot drive with repair utilities on, and all my data is safe (apart from settings and preferences).

Although I used to occasionally get a pop-up or two, the Safari pop-up blocker stops these, unless I have specifically asked for the pop-up.

I have no need to have anti-virus software running all the time in the background, and the only virii I have ever seen have been Macro ones in Word files from my colleagues, which have not bothered my Mac at all.

[Mr E]

m-five said:

A 'proper' firewall would be hardware (i.e. in the router), not software based (Microshite, et al).

Correct. Running a custom Linux kernal and a few other bits and bobs. It's also my mailserver.