Service Pack 2: how was your upgrade?

Hi Newt,

"hoses" from the Langa article - I wonder if that means it trashes them beyond repair or causes minor problems or something in between.

That's the big question, what's minor to us, is a big deal to the majority - they might or might not panic.

I did run into what I thought was a minor problem during my install of SP2: during the "Backing up the registry" phase, got a message that java reg items couldn't be backed up - permission denied, made note of the reg items (3), aborted the install and went into the registry and deleted those items. Those items were one MSJVM folder that got stuck there - it was the Java permissions that were the problem - despite my having thought that I killed the beast. Then I just started up the install and it was fine.

So would this have been a "minor" problem for the majority?

As to breaking it into chunks - Microsoft has been beaten up pretty badly by large customers for the frequency of updates they've been putting out.

Agreed - MS is between a rock and a hard place a lot of times.

Regards - Charles

 

The poll should be per computer not per person to be comprehensive - I installed on 2 with no problems.

 

About the size of SP2.

I looked into SP2's uninstall file - 366 MB's. That's the original windows components - for example .dll's, and executables.

Almost every OS call process - notepad, wordpad, defrag, and of course the firewall, and on and on - there were so many, couldn't keep track - were new versions. I needed to give permission to run via System Safety Monitor which is how I know all this stuff is new.

Regards - Charles

 

RH Davis

This system I built is about 3 months old (AMD 64 3200) and is working great.
Windows SP2 is another problem I have downloaded it twice once from windows update and once from the CD I received today the installation went through without a hitch but each time I restarted my computer itcrashed.My
problem is the Blue Screen doesn't stay up long enough for me to get any info
does any one have any ideas for me Thanks

 

Right-click My computer then left click properties\advanced tab\startup & recovery - settings button then uncheck the 'Automatically restart' box.

 

Over the past 3 weeks prepared...
Installed DVD burner, backed up all non OS data.
Cleaned up HD, defrag not required.
First let Update check for new driver updates.. sound card and network card both had recent updates... applied and rebooted.
Disabled Kerio, AVG and other tray apps, remaining 22 processes left running.
29 minutes to download and install of SP2, was back to desktop up and running.
Reacquainted Kerio with numerious MS apps.
Went through Task Manager / Services, did following...
Alg.exe disabled, Widows Firewall-ICS disabled, and Windows Security Center Notification (wscntfy.exe) managed via Control panel / Security Center / Change the way Security Center Alerts me.. cleared all three boxes (wscntfy.exe no longer runs in processes). Auto-Updates set to "Notify ".
Overall ... update was as smooth as silk. No performance hits. Locale network linked and communicates fine. Have not found an app (yet) that won't load. Bootup seems to take longer. For this session, my hat's off to MS. As time goes on, XP remains stable will be the next test.

 

I did the same exact thing as Bmoore1129 did I Slipstreamed SP2 into my
XP PRO SP1 CD. I decided it was about time to go with the NTFS file system
I got tired of not being able to backup files over 4GB with the FAT32 to my
2nd hard drive. Well so far so good no major problems with my Apps and SP2
yet.

 

Hi Pete,

I noticed that you put great empasis on shutting WF off:
Turned OFF the Windows firewall immediately

You probably have read this thread http://www.windowsbbs.com/showthread.php?t=34394 wherin I lament my not being able to keep WF running past the next bootup.

I suspect that there are many people that are thinking to themselves "is this guy crazzy?" or daft I know that it sounds counter intuitive, but surfing is smoother and faster when ICF ran prior SP2 and now even better with WF currently.

Regards - Charles

 

Hi Pete,

AFAIK MS are still saying that although WF will co-exist with some third party firewalls, running two is not only unwise, but unnecessary.

I know, but I'm not big on listening w/o trying it

Regards - Charles

 

Ran across this thread at Sywareinfo which is to my point:

http://forums.spywareinfo.com/index.php?showtopic=23019&st=0&

Regards - Charles

 

Hi...

Got this article in a newletter that I receive...Application Problems in Windows XP SP2. It's a pretty good read.

 

Interesting article indeed Kent and thanks for posting it.

One of the common themes that comes thru loud and clear from that article is the huge numbers of software and hardware vendors that either did not do any testing prior to the RTM version of SP2 or if they did, failed to let folks know their product was gonna bomb.

I think the bulk of the SP2 beta testers did so using personal or very small network systems. I know I did and avoided any testing on my PC at work. I (wrongly) assumed that our major vendors would have done some testing of their own and either fixed the issues or at least told us about them.

For instance, we back up a significant number of systems using Legato. And we pay Legato a significant sum of money to use their product so I know they are aware we are a customer. Maybe a little notification from them about the problem and the fix? Granted, it will not be anything that causes widespread problems because we run a border firewall and the internal machines will have it switched off but the dang-blasted vendor doesn't know that. Grrrr.

 

Downloaded and installed (with NAV and NPF disabled) - no problems,
and system seems more responsive and was faster (without a defrag)
and then faster yet (with a defrag). All programs installed work.

 

dobhar--Thanks (as always) for that interesting WindowsIT Pro link
I have Juno 4 as a backup for my cable email and ISP. So far no problem with it, even though Juno and NetZero are now a merged company. Maybe this is because that old Juno version predated the merger.

How are we supposed to know the difference between old and new drivers?

 

SP2 Upgrade

Got the CD for XP SP2 upgrade from PC World. No hitches except after install was completed and I restarted, it froze at the desktop and had to restart but other than that it was fine.

 

Poll question was hard to answer because of some variables. I installed SP2 but slipped streamed it and ran a fresh install on a laptop and main new PC.

Networking had to be setup a slight differently then in the past, but this is better in the long run. Not a problem.

Absolutely no SP2 issues on install on main computer. The only issue is a few software programs are now buggy. They still work, just lock up if certain things are done. Example. My KDS tower CD organizer software runs fine, but if you slid the viewing pain slider down it sometimes stops responding.

A very little problem, but sometimes aggravating. This program never gave problems in the past.

On to the laptop. I have a laptop that in the past would NOT except SP1 updates without completely locking up after a few minutes. I tried a slipstreamed SP1 and still had problems. So it has always ran with no updates.
With SP2 it works with no lock-ups at all. The only big issue is you can not "RESTART" windows. You must "SHUT DOWN" then turn on. If I use restart it drops to the BIOS screen and tries again and again to restart. Each time dropping back to the BIOS screen.
I have just learned to Shut Down and turn back on.

All in all, SP2 is great.