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.
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.
I didn’t install it.
WPI’s network doesn’t support it as of yet.
Cory
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…
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.
I have heard that some people had trouble with the iTunes sharing feature. To prevent this you have to open port 3689.
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?
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:
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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.
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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…
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.)
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.
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.
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.
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.
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! 
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.
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 …)
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
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.
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…
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.