Skipping SP 2 and new patches

I considered that to. I lasted 2 days before installing it on my primary PC and Laptop.

 

How'd it go? Any negative side effects? Did it cause anything to crash that ran well before?

 

I first installed it on my secondary older PC, an Athlon Thunderbird 1.2G. Even I'm a little cautions. The only problem I had was that on reboot, up came the desktop but without any icons, or taskbar etc. I ended up having to hit the reset button three times I think before the icons appeared. Now I could have gotten really worried at this point. But I chose not to.

All was well after this initial huccup.

I've since loaded it on my primary PC and also on the Toshiba laptop. No problems, and everythings working fine, including dialup and wireless from the desktop to the laptop.

 

Wow a billion dollars in that install package and all we get is 2 more Icons. I'm impressed!
Bill coulda threw in a game or somethin, huh?

 

Seriously, I guess XPSP2 had some issues with Nero 6. Nero already released the update, as did a bunch of the other general software publishers. Maybe they were getting ready to what was the final edition.

Apparently, the slow roll out of SP2 was in deference to the third party software publishers not to be swampped with support calls.

 

I'm wondering something about SP2. Since it will now have a virus checker and better firewall, should I get rid of Norton AV and my Kerio Firewall and use XP's instead? Didn't I also read that it'll stop pop-ups? If it does, do I really need my Google bar? So many choices....so many decisions. Any feedback on this will be greatly appreciated.

I'm also wondering if I should send for the CD as I hear it's a pretty big download, even for cable modem.

 

Does it have its own virus checker? I thought it only checked if a virus programme was installed and up-to-date?

As far as the popup blocker goes, yes I think it does make most others obsolete. Others may be more configurable, but for me the SP2 one is adequate.

Regarding firewalls, I only used the basic one in SP1. The SP2 version will be fine for my needs.

Full download is around 272 MB. A big download, but on cable/ADSL not that big. Once you download it, archive it to CD, and you can also slipstream it into the original XP disk, and burn that to CD as well.

 

Thanks, Paul. This'll give me some things to think about.

From listening to some people talk, they've downloaded SP2 already. I read that your AUTOMATICALLY DOWNLOAD AND INSTALL box should be checked so you will get SP2 as soon as it's available. I don't have that one checked. I prefer to use the DOWNLOAD AND LET ME KNOW box. There have been some updates that I don't want, so that is why I like this selection better. Is it really neccessary to check the AUTO one or shouldn't I be able to just go to Windows Update and download it if it's there? (didn't see it today when I checked, tho)

 

Hi Panda,

The MS update site will have SP2 available Monday the 16th.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...BE-3B8E-4F30-8245-9E368D3CDB5A&displaylang=en

This additional download will be much smaller than the one that has been available up to now - around 60+ MB's as opposed to 266 MB's.

You can also download SP2 at the Catalog site http://v4.windowsupdate.microsoft.com/en/default.asp?corporate=true which is a download only setup file. Save to a folder and keep for use in case of XP reload.

Regard - Charles

 

THANKS, charlesvar! Now that I think about it, I did hear that a smaller SP2 was coming out for single pc users. I guess I'll go turn on the AUTO and wait until I get notified.

 

When's the smaller one going to be available? I don't much care for Windows' new update scheme that keeps bugging you to get updates and won't take no for an answer. I can't actually use the Windows Update site because it freezes IE. Will the smaller one be available from say http://www.microsoft.com/downloads?

 

Hi Shodowhawk,

Is it the catalog site that's freezing your system?

Should be available from the catalog site http://v4.windowsupdate.microsoft.com/en/default.asp?corporate=true for starters and there will be others.

Regards - Charles

EDIT: As of this morning, don't see it there yet.

 

Heres another:

http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4323.html

 

Hi Rokckit,

Both Shadowhawk and I are waiting for the smaller package approx 60MB.

Your reference is for the Pro networking version.

Regards - Charles

 

Charles,
Your right .. I should have looked closer! Sorry about that.

 

Another option is to order the SP2 CD from MS - whenever ordering becomes available: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/updates/sp2/cdorder/en_us/default.mspx

Regards - Charles