Installed XP Service Pack 2 yet?
 

I am curious what luck, good or bad, you had when you installed XP Service Pack 2? Was it worth it? Any of your programs not like it?
I am hearing that there is some tweaking that needs to take place once you commit to it.

Re: Installed XP Service Pack 2 yet?
 

No issues on a clean install with my brother's computer. There's always tweaking to do with a new install, but there was nothing particularly unusual.

Re: Installed XP Service Pack 2 yet?
 

I didn't install it.

WPI's network doesn't support it as of yet.

Cory

Re: Installed XP Service Pack 2 yet?
 

I just installed it on one of my 2 XP machines(actually just finished the end-of-install reboot), and no major issues as of yet...Security Center had issues talking to my copy of Norton Antivirus to get its status, but I just told it to ignore it...

Re: Installed XP Service Pack 2 yet?
 

I have been running it for some time (since beta 2149), and I have found that it is excellent. Security features abound, its fast, and I have had no application problems.

My only complaint is that it changed my startup logo, from the XP Home logo to a plain "Windows XP", without a Home or professional.

Re: Installed XP Service Pack 2 yet?
 

I have heard that some people had trouble with the iTunes sharing feature. To prevent this you have to open port 3689.

Re: Installed XP Service Pack 2 yet?
 

I did a fresh install after slipstreaming SP2 into my XP Pro install CD.
I ran the pop-up blocker and firewall through some tests. The pop-up blocker is equivalent to the built-in firefox .9, and the firewall showed no open ports. Much improved. I'm still trying to test it's performance. I understand they changed some things about how it handles memory and stuff. If anyone has more info/links about this it would be much appreciated.
I also tested out the new wireless things. It seems good, unfortunately, I'm using a card that likes to crap out randomly. But I like what I saw.

What has everyone's experience been without doing a clean install, but using the upgradde instead? Does it leave things messy or screw up any programs?

Re: Installed XP Service Pack 2 yet?
 

I just installed it on all 3 computers at home yesterday and will be test-driving it this week. I installed the upgrade and did minimal work afterwards (Printshop, IE, Outlook) so I didn't expect to find too much wrong yet.

Only 2 comments so far:

1) There was a message I saw somewhere AFTER I installed it that said there were some known compatibility issues with MS wireless network software (which I use). It seems to work OK but I wish they'd told me that BEFORE I installed it.

2) I LOVE the pop-up ad supressor feature. I didn't realize this was available and it makes for much more hassle-free surfing.

Kyle - can you elaborate on the iTunes problem? My son uses this and I'll need to walk him through anything I need to change..

Re: Installed XP Service Pack 2 yet?
 

iTunes seems to work for me. But I may be wrong.

I installed it last night. No problems so far--well, Microsoft says only letting them tell me that updates are available (as opposed to automatically downloading and installing them) is a problem, but that's their thing. I like knowing what gets onto my system.

Other than that, nothing noticed on Firefox, VirusScan, and Notepad. (hey, can't knock the hustle.)

Re: Installed XP Service Pack 2 yet?
 

Well the only Windows computers I have, is at work, and I can't install itunes there. But basically I have heard that the new SP2 firewall blocks a lot of ports and it supposedly blocks port 3689, the port that iTunes uses rendezvous to access other people's playlist. A way to override this is to start control panels->Security Center->Windows Firewall->Exceptions->Add port then type in "Itunes rendezvous" and port 3689.

As far as I know, iTMS works fine without modifications, however I don't know about Radio Stations though.

Just a note that while SP2 has block-up popper, it is not as elegant as Safari's. For example it tells you every time that it has blocked a pop-up add, which is just as annoying as the pop-up. And it block all pop-ups, including ones that you click to activate, like in CNN.

Re: Installed XP Service Pack 2 yet?
 

It's extremely easy to turn that feature off. Every time the notification bar comes up, it says click here for options or something. Click there and just tell it not to pop up any more in the box that appears.

As for SP 2 in general. I had a bad experience. Keep in mind I'm pretty knowledgable with windows (bazillions of installs, repairs, I do it for money...). I can't tell what exactly happened, but it seems to have messed up my permissions. My administrator accounts some how lost there permissions do certain things like edit the registry and other things that an administrator should be able to do. It also seems to have broke Windows Update. I tried uninstalling it, but the bugs persisted, and it did not appear to be uninstalled as that line of text in safe mode still reported that it was SP2. Anyway, I did an inplace install with a slipstreamed SP2 and it is working flawlessly, now.

Re: Installed XP Service Pack 2 yet?
 

Pros:
I personally like the new startup background, more professional and clean.

The security center's built-in firewall I enjoy very much.


Cons:
Since I've installed it my computers been more twitchy and programs like AOL Instant Messenger seem to mess up sometimes where I have to sign off and back on and it starts taking all my CPU power, don't really know why it's doing that but I've never seen that before.

It can be annoying with it's alert if you don't have anti-virus installed (I use Pc-Cillin Housecall cause installed programs like Norton take way way way too many resources for what they're worth) or you don't want Automatic Updates on it keeps bugging you. I disabled the security center from booting up with Windows, but the firewall system still works and asks to allow or disallow programs to connect, so it gives me everything I want.


Overall: I'd definitly recommend using it, I love the built-in firewall system. I am just wary of the fact that it seems to be making the system allocate resources in a way that it causes issues... but this might be a simple thing they'll patch quickly (I hope) or a clean install would fix.

Re: Installed XP Service Pack 2 yet?
 

SP 2 did not introduce the firewall. It upgraded it significantly and turns it on by default to make sure the majority of users will use it.

Those may not be two unrelated issues. Processes taking 100% CPU resource for seemingly no reason is often caused by a virus. I suggest you try some other virus scanners.

All of the modern resident anti-virus programs I have tried really take minimal resources on a 1+ Ghz machine. They usually add mere seconds to startup. They are also extremely effective. On a machine with an updated resident virus protection program, I have seen a single virus.

Re: Installed XP Service Pack 2 yet?
 

Don't know if it was worth it yet, but you might as well. It doesn't really change anything, and you get a popup bloker built into IE! :D

Re: Installed XP Service Pack 2 yet?
 

I installed it and restarted. When I restarted my compy didnt seem to want to boot. I got to where it said "windows xp: please wait a few minutes" or something like that. i waited like a half hour and still nothing. so i just turned it off and hoped for the best. it booted correctly the next time and i havent had any problems since. but, i am noticing some programs arent working quite up to par, and alot are running slowly and crashing sometimes, like AIM.

Re: Installed XP Service Pack 2 yet?
 

Got to UVa, tried to register to the network, ... and I'm told I have to install SP2. Interestingly, UVa had it's on version on its own server (one download we had changed settings in the registry to point Windows Update elsewhere), due to the high volume of students who would be installing it in a short time span.

Since all this mention of anti virus programs, ... versions of Symantec prior to 9 don't work well with windows new security panel, so you should probably upgrade. (I had to upgrade, and I had Symantec AntiVirus installed when I got this computer some few months ago. But no complaints, since UVa pays for the liscences for its students ...)

Re: Installed XP Service Pack 2 yet?
 

DO not Instal it It has SO! many incompatibalitys Even on the simplest programs Ive gotten alot of friends coming to me with Dark and scary warnings of the update in one case over 132 incompadibilties

Re: Installed XP Service Pack 2 yet?
 

Incompatible? With what?

If it doesn't work for Quattro Pro for Windows 3.1, and 131 other programs just like it, it doesn't matter! So some examples of the incompatibilities, and their effects would be useful.

Most of these "incompatibilities" have been things like Windows blocking a port that is improperly used by some program (because of a lazy or inept programmer). They can be easily fixed as described above--simply unblock the port.

As for blanket statements, let me make one: if it runs on Windows 2000 (SP3 or SP4) and/or Windows XP (RTM, SP1 or SP1a), it will almost always run on XP SP2. I'd say that this is more probable than "dark and scary" effects.

Re: Installed XP Service Pack 2 yet?
 

Mind sharing some of the programs they are having problems with and the computer processor/ram/hard drive/ect...?

SP2 seems like it is going to help out MS alot with XP...

Re: Installed XP Service Pack 2 yet?
 

If the CPU pegs for awhile, try opening task manager and check out which process is using the CPU. I had this problem and after finding the process, I checked and found it was a background program that was moved/loaded into my startup file and ran all the time. I took it out and haven't had any problems since. If you can isolate the process, even if it's a new XP feature, maybe it can be turned off.

Re: Installed XP Service Pack 2 yet?
 

My only problem with sp2 was that it completely and totally killed Halo for me. After searching on google, I found out that this apparantly isn't just me either. Other than that, sp2 seems to work fine with the rest of my programs.

Re: Installed XP Service Pack 2 yet?
 

I've gotta agree with Matt here. SP2 has so many things that was basically cried for in previous Windows releases (including SP's). I personally believe that if Microsoft listened to their customers the most at anytime, it'd have to be during the creation of SP2 (just me though).

I personally haven't tried it yet, because I'm not a risk taker for incompabilities (sp?), but if/when MS gets this (mostly) all fixed, I'll be up for a test run.

Re: Installed XP Service Pack 2 yet?
 

Not yet, but that's just because it requires 600 MB! :eek: I'm thinking that would require me to re-partition (one NTFS, the other still Win32. One drive).

Re: Installed XP Service Pack 2 yet?
 

Well, no problems with Halo here... Although, I did turn Windows firewall off. (Yes, I do have my own firewall. Hardware and software.)

Re: Installed XP Service Pack 2 yet?
 

i have installed sp2, and if you use ISS, the windows xp ftp/smpt/http server program, it will not work, you will get a premissons error, and the session will time out. i tired a differnt ftp server program and it seemed to work.

Re: Installed XP Service Pack 2 yet?
 

Yes it does. Netops doesn't want Faculty and Staff to install it on WPI owned computers, but a dorm computer should have no problems at all (mine doesn't). If you have trouble, you can always deactivate the firewall, and the network interface will act virtually identically to SP1 computers (unless you do something silly like join the WPI domain). Don't let NetOps scare you, they could honestly care less.

Re: Installed XP Service Pack 2 yet?
 

Allright.

Microsoft You better be listening.

I Just had a MAJOR problem when I was installing SP2.

I have XP Home Edition (it was upgraded from windows ME) and the download/install went perfect. Asked to reboot and that is when the problems came. I oked it to reboot and than it'd flash my compaq screen and than say that Windows could not start up because the file "biosinfo.inf" could not be found. I have spend about the past 2-3 hours trying to get this figured out - and finnaly did. Gotta have the old CD of XP and a copy of the file "biosinfo.inf" on a floppy. (ONLY that file on the floppy) and have to use recovery option ("r" selection) and manually copy the file to the \WINDOWS\INF\ directory. It was a huge pain in the rear.

Microsoft - for your sake - you better hope noone else has the same problem that I did. Eather than that SP2 seems to be rockin' pretty well...

:mad:

Re: Installed XP Service Pack 2 yet?
 

Incidentally, a clean install is really a much better idea! Windows Me has essentially nothing in common with XP--the upgrade tries to preserve settings, but because of their notorious unreliability and the many concessions to the upgrade process (files in different places, no NTFS, etc.), it isn't particularly prudent to go from any Windows 4 to Windows 5 OS. (That's 95, 98 or Me to 2000, XP or 2003.)

Did you have Norton Antivirus installed when you ran the upgrade? There's an issue with Norton causing a biosinfo.inf error during an upgrade from Me to XP. If you didn't encounter the issue going to XP, maybe it is still relevant going to SP2? (That's only a hypothesis.)

Re: Installed XP Service Pack 2 yet?
 

I was weary on doing the install of SP2, but I decided I should do it before I start managing my network at my apartment with information traversing wildly through that. My zd7000 came equipped with XPSP1, so I was trying to push it off... but my thoughts....

1. I run Norton Corporate and first I was scared that it said it didn't detect a anti-virus program. I decided to just tell it to ignore it, and let me self-manage. It would be nice if SP2 had been able to at least recognize all virus programs, if nothing else.

2. The firewall - yes I know it says to only let one run. Well, I don't think you can ever be too safe. So, until I have a conflict with Zone Alarm, SP2 Firewall, and my router..... I'll let them all do their own thing.

3. My only annoyance so far, the old windows update would ask you once if you wanted to restart, and that was that. The new security "menu" will ask every 10 minutes if you want to restart. :mad:

Just so I find no major conflicts with applications I will be content.

Re: Installed XP Service Pack 2 yet?
 

I upgraded from ME to XP, and it's given me no problems.

I have 1 drive with 2 partitions, C: and D:.

When I installed XP, I told it to convert C: (where ME was installed) from FAT32 to NTFS. Thus, it wiped my OS (which, normally, is avoided :) ). But D: is still FAT32.

If you have 1 drive, then I recomend backing up to CD-R or another drive (my 20GB takes about 30 CD-Rs). Then you can copy them back on w/o problems.

Re: Installed XP Service Pack 2 yet?
 

I have d/l 'd the SP2 as wel and noticed a few changes!

1) It has a built in Wireless program to adapt to your network as well as it covering the wireless adapters (such as linksys's)

2) Its firewall is decent won't say its excellent but i do like the pop up feature within the browser window to let you know it had blocked a pop up add.

3) it does not sense that i have NAV - norton anti virus - and like many others I have chosen to monitor it my self.


And to the dude who posted the link on how to incorporate the sp2 into winxp and make it bootable YOU THE MAN!!!!! i will be trying this out later this week when im not so busy

Installed, then uninstalled.
 

Mine was a big headache, and I had only installed Winamp, Symantec Antivirus and Warcraft III. No real funny programs in there.

It broke DirectX, and I couldn't get it to work.
It broke my antivirus(symantec).
It broke Windows Update.
It broke Warcraft. (Need to figure out which ports to open manually)
It broke shutting down. I left it on over night, and it still said Windows is shutting down 15 hours later.

So I got tired of no music, and used the restore point to uninsal SP2, and things went back to their happy working self.

Wetzel

Re: Installed, then uninstalled.
 

I just installed it, and haven't had any major problems. I turned off the windows firewall, I already have Norton Internet Security (firewall and AV) and my router firewall. I really like the new wireless interface.
The only flaw is that it re-installs windows messenger. I also had a weird problem with winamp, but a re-install took care of it.
So far, so good.

Re: Installed, then uninstalled.
 

Well - when I first installed it (and finnaly got it running) everything was slow as heck. But after some tweaking and deleting/reinstalling some programs everything has gone smooth. Once I have seen that program that uses like 100% of processing power - but that's been it. Ran Ad-Aware SE and my regestry mechanic, and a virus scan and I'm good to roll.

Sofar I like it - but not enough to cover that horrible accident in the beginning...:/

Re: Installed XP Service Pack 2 yet?
 

Uh... yeah.. I cant get it to work on my pretty much brand new computer... everytime I log on it says i have a new service pack to instal or whaterver... when i do.. it goes through the stuff it does... then it gets to the restart.. that is where the problem is... I do.. then it redoes the stuff again... grrr... I hate windows.. up with linux!

Thanks,

Budda

P.s. if you know what to do to help.. pm me plz... or better yet email me since i dont ever get on cd anymore b/c of school issues.. thanks.

Re: Installed XP Service Pack 2 yet?
 

I just got a new A64 computer, which I should have installed SP2 on, but with the issues with A64's and SP2 I was scared off. Also, the big advantages of SP2 (firewall, increased security awareness) I don't need so I'm sticking with SP1 for now.

Re: Installed XP Service Pack 2 yet?
 

My brother can't get Halo to work either...If anyone knows a way to fix this, please email me or him...jake.gallagher@gmail.com or jarrod.gallagher@gmail.com. Thanks

Why are you running XP on a Win32? Are you dual-booting with an old OS or something? I've always just done NTFS since I converted to 2000 then XP and I just wanted to know.

To anyone who has had issues from installing the SP onto an existing install, I would check on a guide on Slipstreaming the SP into the XP install and if you can, reformat and install with that updated version. Otherwise, just try reformatting if you can and upgrading from a fresh install...seems like the problems are stemming from computers that have been upgraded from stale OS installs.
And to anyone who has had issues with SP2 after they upgraded from ME...best thing to do is to reformat and get that nastiness of your computer. Please. Kill ME. : Or just go to Linux. Yay.

Re: Installed XP Service Pack 2 yet?
 

i really didnt appreciate it becuase i had enough anti-adware on my computer and it conflicted with those. Like the "new" pop-up blocker IE has conflicted with the yahoo!® one and made the explorer lock up a lot. So i just basiclly disabled all the dumb firewalls and what not becuase im not worried about hackers stealing the stuff on my computer because all it is is pictures of my family and the Enron® Files anyway. Then there is also the thing asking me if i really want to install what i want to install. I'm not a big fan of the new service pack, just made windows more of a hassle.

Re: Installed XP Service Pack 2 yet?
 

I don't like SP2. It did something to my computer to the point I can't put my computer in standby. I used system restore to revert to SP1 and I still can't go into standy or I can't even repair my installation to fix the problem.

Re: Installed XP Service Pack 2 yet?
 

Everything was fine with my install. I didnt have any issues on my laptop. Now my wireless connection is much better because it doesnt have to reconnect when my wireless router changes its password every 3600 seconds.