I kept coming to HA since Friday with expectation of seeing a topic in which users wail about what no longer works after installing SP2. I wish an administrator would create a single pinned topic where people report simply what worked before but doesn't after.
I plan on being a late adopter. But, I'm guessing nothing stands in the way of having some undocumented "feature" kick in one future day.

Excuse an ignorant, but what's SP2?

Windows XP Service Pack 2

I am curious about this myself. I wish there was an option not to install firewall/popups related crap. Shall I install or not install. Hmm.

Some people say that the beta versions are slooooow. Does anybody know if this applies to final version also?

I've been using SP2 RC2 without any speed issues for about a month

Just installed SP2 final. The full package is available here.

I've been using SP2 RC1, RC2, RC2 newer beta, and now SP2 final. I must say i'm quite pleased with it. IE and Outlook Express security was tightened quite a bit. Firewall is basic, but usable. And much else has been improved, a full list of fixes in SP2 is here.

And consider that new hotfixes will probably require SP2 anyway. So far, i can see no reason not to install it.

I've had SP2 installed for two days and things have been working fine. If you use wireless networking in XP I highly recommend SP2. The wireless interface has been retooled and many of the wifi problems have been resolved. Yeah!

Some breakage here:

Security center doesn't work properly with Norton Internet Securiry and Norton Antivirus 2004 (even though MS lists them on their webpage).

Wireless seems to be schizofrenic whether or not my wireless card supports WPA.

Edit: Well, it was a good opportunity to switch to Firefox, Thunderbird and Kaspersky No more NIS/NAV.

I've been using RC2 for awhile, and now the final version. It seems good, everything works for me. I've read that SP2 limits halfway open TCP/IP connections, which can cause problems on P2P networks. I found this patch in another forum. I didn't test it, since I'm not really a P2P user. Many people said it works great though.

http://www.lvllord.de/4226fix/4226fix.htm

The limiting of the open connections is designed to slow the spread of worms ect. This program ups the connections to 50.

Nobody should apply that patch, *unless* he gets the warning popup that the connection will be limited, and he's sure it's coming from the P2P business he's doing at that moment. If you don't see a notification about limiting, don't apply it, cause after all it's inofficial and nobody knows which sideeffects it can have when something is changed with some new hotfix by MS. If you see a notification and have no eMule or whatever running, the limiting is actually doing it's job and slowing down a worm.

http://www.lvllord.de/4226fix/4226fix.htm

appears to be dead.

Symantec says a patch for SP2 compatibility will be made available through their LiveUpdate soon.

Good point, don't install with for no reason. Microsoft did what they did for a reason.


It still works for me. Some people in the other forum had same problem, I don't know why.

Network Connections:
It completely killed my dial-up connection and displayed a pop-up that stated either the username or password was not recognised. It however was an easy fix by deleting my ISP in Network Connections, and then using Network Connection Wizard to re-create it.

Registry:
It also leaves behind a mess of junk in the registry (152 kb on my system), this can be dealt with by running several registry cleaners. This is expected, so we can't really call this a bug.

Folder Customizations:
I am no longer able to have the Windows Explorer Status Bar stay ticked-on, even when trying to apply my desired view style to all folders. As soon as I enter a new folder, or close an open Windows Explorer window the Status Bar disappears.

Internet Connection Firewall:
Seems to have been thoroughly updated, seems more like a personal firewall now, I'll have to check it out later.
Should be disabled via Security Center if you already have a firewall installed and properly configured. Two ways to get at its configuration settings to turn it off:
1. Security Center icon next to the clock.
2. Start -> All Programs -> Accessories -> System Tools -> Security Center

Security Center:
Good for newbies, or people whom want some quick info about their system security status.
Utterly useless if you've already got Automatic updates set to run, already have a good firewall, and already know you have up-to-date antivirus software.
Easy to disable using:
1. Start -> Run -> Services.msc -> Security Center
2. Right click Security Center select Properties.
3. Select Startup type: Manual
It can then be manually envoked via: Accessories\System Tools

... still looking for more borked, or annoying stuff.

---
Edit/Update

"RegEdit:
Anyone whom regularly uses RegEdit will notice the bookmarks get erased after the update. That is an easy fix if you've exported the bookmarks, you can then import the saved bookmarks to restore them."

This is not a bug. I just found out it is a new "feature" in Ad-Adware SE called Search for negligible risk entries that deletes them.

And it's up now, confirmed working here.

My query really was about what new complications for ripping might be introduced. And, we still cannot be sure that come January 1 a directive wil not come from Redmond to destroy all but certified WMA and WMV files.
Still, I do think it incredible that they provided just half a firewall and borked the best real ones. Evidently, they want software always to be able to call home.

Yes, we can be sure. They actually have a lot to lose: many many customers. Based on that fact alone, they won't do anything as stupid as that.

One thing I noticed is that the bootup screen has changed. No dates in the copyright and the word 'Professional' is missing. It just says Microsoft Windows XP now. Anyone noticed that?

I installed SP2 yesterday, and have had no problems, except having to update NAV so Windows would know about it having updated virus defs.

QuantumKnot: Yes, I noticed that on all the computers I've seen with SP2.

The abiliy to have multimedia files auto-destroyed has been built into the OS so that MSN can have their paid subscription plan desroy music if users don't continue paying. Doubtless, the capabilities enabling that have been strengthened in SP2.
So, suppose the RIAA and MPAA lawyers assert that Micrososoft is condoning piracy if the ability to destroy files is not used to support RIAA and MPAA claims ... ?

The retail "2002 edition" of Windows XP (with SP1 integrated) already had this (this is the one I'm using).

Some pretty wild assumptions you make there, some could see it as slandering. Restricting use of their own DRM-protected files after some rental time is something entirely different than "destroying all but certified WMA and WMV files".

Nero 6.0.0.11 isn't compatible with SP2. Once I double clicked it, I got a Windows warning message saying this version of Nero is known to have incompatibilities with this version of windows.

Burning a CD at this moment so hopefully nothing goes wrong

This is a good read:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/08/12/wi...2_stop_moaning/

Needs more tinfoil. They could still be reading your thoughts

For some strange reason, my PC cannot wake up from the suspend to RAM and suspend to disk states.

Finally, someone honest who isn't just shooting their mouth off because Bill Gates is the Devil and Redmond is Hell on Earth.

Weird...suspend works here (but I don't have hibernate set up anymore).

It might be a problem with the graphics card driver then. Before installing Service Pack 2, Fast Write and AGP 8x were disabled; after installing Service Pack 2, they are both enabled.

Waiting for CATALYST 4.9...

In that case, it's probably a problem with the motherboard/it's chipset. The ATI driver does a test of these modes after it's been installed (noticable by the screen flickering after the reboot), after which it determines if these modes can safely be turned on. If it somehow decided wrong, that might be the cause. Fast Writes are known to cause trouble with VIA-based mobos and probably others, but usually works fine on Intel boards (no surprise, since they invented AGP). So if you have a VIA board, i'd turn that off again.

I told it to retest everything and it came up with those settings again. I also tried manually setting them to Off, but S3/S4 still doesn't work. Actually, it got worse; after the HDDs start, I can see how they are turned off again, so I suppose XP fires a BSOD (which I cannot see, though).

Anyways, I have a SiS 648FX chipset.

The only thing i could find on this, Hexus.net had a similar problem when they reviewed an Alienware laptop with SiS 648FX: "90% of the time it would never resume from Windows' standby mode. I couldn't remedy it, either with BIOS tweaks, WiFi driver or graphics card driver updates. One of the devices on the board didn't like coming out of suspend and I just couldn't track it down."

i wonder if i'd need this for bittorrent? i've connected to 40-80 different people (uploading and downloading) on a single torrent before... i haven't heard groanings from other bittorrent users, so i don't think it's necessary. unless someone can correct me on that...

I read where the G1 network is the only one effected by the limits. BitTorrent and all the rest work fine. I'm waiting till RTW before I update.

It can affect BT, but only when you're first connecting to the other users. It makes no difference in the sense that connecting might be a bit slower at first, but the final speed and number of peers is not affected.



What's RTW, do you mean RTM? It was RTM on August 6th already.

Until now, I'm not planning to install SP2 at all, because:

SP2 will not make my machine faster, more stable and secure.
To use it, I'll have to sacrifice extra disk space and/or cause possible software conflicts.
I have a very stable install of Win XP sp1.
On line security is my concern for sure, but I can manage it by myself and I don't like the idea of Windows taking decisions whithout my knowledge or calling home frequently.
I already have a good "quartet" doing a great job: F-Prot/Ad-Aware/Sygate/Opera.

LIF's edit: to clarify ideas and removal of some redundant observations/

You wanna bet?


Windows XP itself already takes so much hard disk space that the extra space you lose with SP2 is negligible. Your concern for possible software conflicts is valid, but System Restore can be your friend. Also, SP2 can be uninstalled.


Can you please give me a few examples of Windows "taking decisions without my knowledge" and how SP2 affects this?
Also, what do you mean with "calling home frequently"? Are you talking about automatic updates? IMO everybody should have this enabled.


That is a good setup indeed. I can see that the new firewall and new security features of IE don't really have any added value for you. However, from my experiences (having used all NT/2000/XP versions privately and professionally since NT 3.51) it is always a good idea to have the latest service pack installed.

Also, what are you going to do the next time you reinstall Windows? Are you going to download all updates individually? It would make a lot more sense to install SP2 instead (ideally, it would be slipstreamed, as others have mentioned).

I think you're going to install SP2 eventually, it's just a matter of time.

I just managed to fix my Hibernate / Suspend issue... It wasn't the graphics card as I expected, but the Parallel Port. I disabled it in the BIOS because I never used it and the S3 and S4 modes now finally function as expected!

BTW: Sorry for bringing up such an old thread, but I thought it might help others who share the same problem.

SP2 totally messed up my networkingconnection (both internet and local). To the point where I could not use FTP to connect with anything and msn transfers did not work.

In that case you need to do a clean install from an XP CD with slipstreamed SP2...