Windows XP SP2 Experience Forum

Site to collect SP2 experience and generate statictics on SP2 problems/no problems.

http://isc.sans.org/xpsp2.php

Regards - Charles

 

After reading the comments on that site, I'm definitely not installing SP2. Its firewall locks out third party firewalls, it doesn't work with some A/V progs and tries to disable third party IM progs like YIM. If it aint broke, don't fix it!

 

Hi Shadowhawk,

I think you're going to have to at least try it sooner or later in order to avoid future problems with MS updates. If you're not running some form of drive imaging, it does have an uninstaller.

You are one of the people that should wait at least for a month in order to give time for a shake out period. I'm almost certain that MS will have "fixes" for SP2 because of problems, great and small, encountered in the field. I think this is to be expected.

Regards - Charles

 

I've got Yahoo! Messenger and it's not tried anything cheeky with it.. definately right about the third-party firewall issue though. It kicked up living hell with my BlackICE installed.

 

Hello lforster,

I think today is your first time here. Welcome to the site. Looking forward to seeing more of your posts.

Regards - Charles

 

Today is indeed my first time here.
Thanks very much, I found this place a couple of weeks ago when I was tearing my hair out with some e-mail migration problems. Needless to say I've found some true gems on here since so I'm trying to see if anyone has got any problems that I can help with and also just contribute generally.

I'd like to... give something back.

 

The only problem that I've found with SP 2 is that with my Roxio Easy 5, when I'm compiling a files to burn on a disk (either music or data) the running file size count gets wiggy. I'll just use Nero.

 

I'm running SP2. Zone Alarm runs just fine and the same goes for Etrust. Don't know about the IM programs. I suspect the the firewall problem is caused by runnning both at the same time. I've tried it with ZA just out of curiousity and had no problems at all. There's one minor problem with it. XP's new health center says that ZA is installed but says it's status is unknown. I'm not going to lose any sleep over that though. Health center sees Etrust and says it's on and running the latest updates.

 

The FEW negative responses I'm reading on this site and others is exactly the same as it was for SP1. Those that loudly say they are not going to install SP2 always end up installing it.

I've installed it on 3 machines with no problems to report.

Interesting how the copyright year is now missing off the bootup VGA screen.
I'm looking forward to discovering other little changes. One of those is the the local area connection in the tray. The wireless connection icon now has little "radio" waves indicating it is wireless. Cute.

 

Well maybe I'll install it someday, but definitely not right away. I don't want it to cause my Unreal Tournament to crash.

 

List of fixes:
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=811113

List of programs that may have problems with SP2:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;884130

Slipstreaming was very easy. Setup halted at first reboot with ntfs.sys corrupted or not found error. Booted back into setup with a generic boot.ini on floppy and finished the installation/repair/upgrade. The boot.ini problem was caused by a bootscreen program I use (BootXP) and setup's inability to interpret its entries in the boot.ini (I should have thought of that.), but so far, all works well, the system seems rock-stable and faster.

I like the built-in popup stopper, but the Data Execution Prevention feature (I am using the software version since my CPU does not incorporate it) has stopped some small apps from working. Nothing serious, though, but small enhancement programs written by less experienced programmers.

Glad I did it.

 

lforster,
just curious... Did you disable 'BlackIce' before the install of SP2? Windows firewall is *on by default* after installation. Could this have been a conflict caused by two firewalls *on* at the same time? Or did you receive a lot of activity with BlackIce after the install?

B

 

Hi Abraxas,

Thanks for those references, going to need them in the period ahead.

Hope I'll be glad as well

Regards - Charles

 

Experience Forum

Slipstreaming is a new term to me, would someone do me the favor of explaining it?

 

No I had it switched on - that's probably what it was. Nice one Mr. B.

 

Basically, the updated files in the SP2 package are incorporated into the XP installation CD so that what is in effect a new operating system CD is created that already has SP2 included when it is installed.

Saves a lot of hassle---no i386 folder on your drive, files extracted from the CD are already updated to their latest versions, and you need just do a normal installation or repair to have XP SP2 installed.

 

Hello Ricky,

http://www.windowsbbs.com/showthread.php?t=33813 References to what and how.

Regards - Charles

 

Slipstreaming

So let's see if I understand this correctly. Slipstreaming only applies when you install XP Pro? Since I already have it (XP-Pro) installed, I would only be able to download and install the SP-2?

Is my thick old grey head got this straight?