Win XP SP2 - your experiences

[Áedán]

Now that the official XP service pack 2 is out, what are your experiences with it? For those who don't want to wade through things, Aidan has posted an article on the front page detailing some of the things that have changed.

[danrok]

I hear that this is the 'Mother-in-Law' version which likes to nag at every available possibility.

Haven't installed it yet. I think I will wait and see...

[karbon86]

I installed it and it seems to be ok for now. No performance gains or decreases. After i open a program that needs internet it asks to block or let it go. It's a little anoying but idk if it works yet.

[Áedán]

For those thinking about doing it, it might be worth making a ghost copy (or similar) of your system before you install the service pack!

In terms of performance, I wouldn't expect a performance gain. If anything, I'd expect a very slight performance loss.

[kellamne]

I just put together a budget system: 2000+ (pal), A7v8x-x, 384 Crucial DDR 2100, Geforce4 MX440.

Stability testing at the moment, so not activated the copy of XP home yet so fairly safe, so I think I'll trial it SP2 on this system and wait for more feedback before putting it onto my main system.

Biggest problem at the moment is the dial up speed but cant blame that on SP2, so at least another 4-5 hours left to change my mind about it.

[karbon86]

It seems that web pages load slower for me at least. I also noticed that pages that didn't work on Mozilla like the MSI live update page don't work on IE without allowing it to go through

[danrok]

I have Norton Internet Security, so would the XP firewall interfere with this?
Can the XP firewall still be completely disabled?
Or, maybe the new XP firewall is better than NIS and I should use that instead?

[Phat Pat]

sp2 is just peachy keen if you disable the firewall -there are a few new control pannel buttons, one is firewall, you can disable it there- (I use sygate personal firewall) and disable the security center (in services (services.msc at command prompt))

im not worried about the loss of the firewall because of how useless the old one was, not to mention I have a router with a firewall built in (think consumer grade hardware firewall)

I hear there are changes to OE and IE, but I dont use them anymore, so I cant really tell ya.

I had a problem with the install, the only style I could get was Windows Classic, but a second restart solved that.

I give it a 8 out of 10 on the microsoft patch meter, but its only been a day and Im sure in true microsoft style, it has screwed something up that I havent noticed yet.

[Áedán]

Originally Posted by danrok

I have Norton Internet Security, so would the XP firewall interfere with this?
Can the XP firewall still be completely disabled?
Or, maybe the new XP firewall is better than NIS and I should use that instead?

The XP firewall can be disabled. However, be careful with NIS as there may well be issues with NIS and SP2. The new XP firewall doesn't appear, from the paper specs, to be as good as NIS, but I've not tried it out.

[Phat Pat]

I just have a problem with Microsoft protecting my pc, seems like hiding behind a lamp-post.

[DigitalKnight]

I'm going to try it on my old backup system when I get off work today, I'll let you guys know the gory details, and I'll also see if I can't get the MS firewall and my ZoneAlarm wall to conflict.

[mookydooky]

STUPID STUPID STUPID!!! For 3 hours I've been trying to figure out why SP2 wouldn't install on my computer. It turns out that StyleXP changed some boot settings including the kernel file because I use a custom Boot Screen and not the one with the Windows logo. Finally I realized what it was and returned everything back to the way it used to be. It finally installed. It took almost half an hour, but it's finally on there.

BTW, when SP2 finished installing, the Windows Firewall was off and it gave me a message saying that a firewall (ZAP 5.1) was already in place.

[Daniel ~]

"BTW, when SP2 finished installing, the Windows Firewall was off and it gave me a message saying that a firewall (ZAP 5.1) was already in place"

An unlooked for consideration I must say! ":O}

[mookydooky]

SP2 broke my email client though. I'm trying to fix it now. Friggin' updates. I hate 'em.

[mookydooky]

This is gonna sound strange, but Firefox seems faster...but it could be my imagination.

[Daniel ~]

That's more the consideration we're use to! ":O}

[mookydooky]

Ok. Fixed my email client. If you use Outlook 2003 (not Outlook Express) and ZAP 5.1, you need to download SP1 for Office 2003 or you get Remote Procedure Call errors.

[mookydooky]

Originally Posted by Daniel ~

That's more the consideration we're use to! ":O}

Seriously, it seems a lot faster. IE seems about the same, but Firefox really flies now since I installed SP2.

[mookydooky]

After the first 3 reboots, I've decided the stupid Security Center was stupid so I turned it off.

[barneygumble742]

danrok is correct. it's actually quite a bit of a pain in the neck.

i finally got around to doing it. but it has the pesky security center icon on the taskbar that doesn't go away no matter what. i have a good anti-virus software, great firewall, and something else it asks for...but none are microsoft's products but there's no way to get rid of the tiny icon even if i disable the "security center."

but glad to see that IE finally has a code disabling function. i doubt how effective it will be.