Programs that may behave differently in Windows XP Service Pack 2

Hell Ricky,

SP2 Detected a 3rd party firewall and shut XP's firewall down. Worked as advertised.

Regards - Charles

 

Yes to the improved SP2 Firewall.

I also agree with problems connecting to the Internet or the LAN.

BUT !!. If there are problems with things being blocked ? Isn't that the what a Good Firewall is supposed to do

I have had to grant or deny permission for several programs on both the LAN & the WWW. But that is what I expected and am gald to see that it is working.

BillyBob

 

Quote: "Isn't that the what a Good Firewall is supposed to do?"

BB... I certainly agree with that, but most people haven't got a clue about how a firewall works or how to enable the proper port that allows access. Hopefully there are no major snafus hiding in SP 2. If the majority of WinXP users (that are running around on the internet unprotected) secure their computer and make use of the free virus protection Microsoft has made available... it's got to be a good thing!
Guess we just have to wait and see if it really makes a difference or not.

B

 

You are right !!!

But what about the users that say "I can't be bothered.

I have one ( or had one anyway. but not in my home ) with that attitude and then came crying to me because someone ( or something ) got into their machine and caused problems and wanted me to help. Come to find out they had BOTH AV AND FIREWALL shut down.

I said that I would help ONLY IF they turned protection back on.

BTW. The machine still has not been cleaned up. I cannot see any sense to me wasting my time.

They also wanted me to hook it up to my LAN. I can not print my answer cause I wish to remain a member of this BBS.

BillyBob

 

A lotta this stuff is way above my head and the last thing I need is my PC to crash....unnecessarily......have had too many probs in the past.

Would creating a Restore point prior to downloading SP2 provide the safety factor I need to go back to SP1 in case I had too many problems/conflicts after installing SP2

There must be a million people like me out there that are either too ignorant or too scared.

Roy66

 

Hi Roy,

SP2 install creates a System Restore point, but by all means, create a manual one as well.

If SP2 needs to be uninstalled:
Uninstall thru the Add/Remove entry it will create and then restore to the prior RP that was created.

Regards - Charles

 

I didn't go the AU route either, so someone that has should answer this question definitivly. All the more reason to create a manual restore point.

Roy, set the AU option to notify prior to install, if you haven't already and that is where you are now.

Regards - Charles

 

Thanks folks,

I have submitted an order for the CD...can't lose by doing that.

 

I downloaded from the Download Center using Automatic Download and I did not even think to create a Restore Point, feeling I already had one.

I have experienced not problem one other than a slow reboot following the download. Booting since thwen has been supurb.

Either I'm luckier than many or I just happened to have a very stable system, thru no fault of my own.

 

Hi Rick,

What we would like you to do is confirm that the AU install indeed creates a SP2 Add/Remove entry. Pete brought the point up and I can't answer absolutely because I installed w/ a cd.

Regards - Charles

 

I DO NOT. Never have and NEVER Will trust Windows ( any version ) to do what it is supposed to. Trusting Windows to do what it is supposed to has caused me more problems than any 3rd party software ever has.

Alias: I THOUGHT it had but it had not. Nuff said.

On my machines anyway, Windows is well know for NOT doing as it should. But there is a possibility that something I have done messed things up also. So taking the time to double check to make sure needed things that may be needed is not really a waste of time.

I ALWAYS clean them ALL out and make a new one ( shut down and restart SR ) just prior to doing an install FROM ANYWHERE whether it be Windows Update, the Internet, from a CD or even from a downloaded file on the HD.

That way if something should go wrong I only have one choice for a RP. And I know for sure when it was made. And know that it is a good one.

I used to ( still do ) the same thing with 98SE. I delete all the RB00x.cab files, restart Windows and know that I do have a good reg backup if needed.

And in both XP Pro and 98SE there has been times when said RP was needed.

Bottom line.

Do a MANUAL check and make sure your backups are there is needed. BEFORE making drastic changes.

roy66

To you I say. Congratulations for being honest. Admitting that you have limits in no way makes you ignorant.

I am glad you had good luck as I did.

BUT !! I suggest that next time you check to make sure that you do have a Restore Point. I suggest that from a lesson learned personally the HARD way.

Microsoft Windows may be good but, it is in no way fool proof. It does bare watching.

BillyBob

 

Another good reason for manually checking.

There are things such as Viruses and Trojans a nd other Nasty stuff that may/can/does shut Windows components down.

BillyBob

 

charlesvar - Yes, Add/Remove in Control Panel does show SP-2 as a remove (only) entry.

Hope this satisfied the curiosity.

 

I installed SP 2 last Sunday and had one small problem involving Bootup time. It doubled. I found the fix and all else seems fine. My printer, scanner both worked fine as did all the software programs. I was having trouble prior to the installation obtaining entry to the Windows Update page, I had to disable my Firewall, and this was fixed by the SP 2 download.

Speed up Start-Up / Reboot / Shutdown

For those of you getting errors on different apps including explorer after installing SP2.
You can use this fix even if you computer is running great to get a little better performance.

It all seems to be a memory protection issue with the new DEP system provided with SP2. If you disabled DEP your problems will go away. Most systems don't have hardware support for DEP, so it is enabled using software support.

You can access the DEP setting here...
Control Panel/Performance & Maintenance/System/Advanced/Performance/Settings/Data Execution Prevention/

The Fix...
Under Control Panel/Performance and Maintenance/System/Advanced, Click the Settings button under "Startup and Recovery ".
Click the Edit button under "System Startup" to edit the boot.ini file in Notepad.

Change /NoExecute=OptIn to /NoExecute=AlwaysOff

Save the boot.ini file and "OK" your way out of there.

Reboot you computer.

If you go to Control Panel/System/Advanced/Performance/Settings/Data Execution Prevention, the DEP setting will be grayed out.

 

Hello Balo,

I wouldn't recommmend this "fix" for anyone not experiencing problems - besides, the symptoms may be from another cause. One more reason not to do this: this was done by MS to eliminate buffer overun vulnerablities, so to shut this off gratuitously is the wrong move.

I do not experience any slowdown, actually quite the opposite, so your experience is not universal. There have been problems with turning on DEP for application programs, but that just simply means historicaly sloppy code on the part of software vendors not ready for this.

Regards - Charles

 

Hi... I NEED THE BOTTOM LINE!!... Is it safe yet to install SP2? I just recieved it in the mail but from what I've read here and there, I'm getting cold feet. Sure I can uninstall it but that brings me to another problem I'm experiencing with Restore Points. They all fail when I try to use them. Even the ones I've made manually. Thanks for any input...

 

Hello Mcblazer,

Lets tackle SR first, you should to fix this first:

System Restore:

You probably have a corrupt restore point somewhere in the chain of Restore Points, the integrity of each restore point is dependent on the previous one.

Shut SR off: My Computer > Properties > System Retore tab > Check "Turn off System Restore on all drives" - below, if multiple drives - have the option to differentiate.

Reboot.

Go back and re-enable SR - will create an initial restore point.

After re-establishing SR, a way to test the Restore function:


Take any executable file ( extention .exe) , and burn it out and/or move it to the My Documents folder and delete it from it's original location. SR does not monitor files in My Documents folder regardless of file type.

Then restore to the initial restore point created by the system; the deleted executable should be back in it's original location. Afterwards, you can delete the copy in My Documents.

Another action to take for SP2 is take the time to update drivers.

 

System Restore

Thanks Charles... I did as you said and SR worked without a problem.

So now I am left only with my original question... To go with SP2 now or wait a while until its totally verified rock solid. I try to keep my drivers up to date always so I don't think that will be a problem. Plus this is a fairly new install of Windows. In this thread I've read reference to "45 or so problem programs ". But I missed which ones. Thanks again