my opinion of XP SP2

keenon

this thing sucks.. it reinables the firewall by default even if you have one but now adds it with a security center and you have to go into services and turn it off along with messenging and a few other things they have added they you may have removed or disabled.. overall sp2 at 248mb is a huge waste of time.. just tighten the firewall rules and turn off unneeded services. MS should do what they do best ........and its definitely not browsers, firewalls or stable OS either

STexams

SP2 is more annoying for sure. You can disable the firewall from the network connection properties advanced tab, but then the security center will sit there and annoy you with messages about the firewall being disabled. It is supposed to be more secure, and hopefully it is, but the constant nagging everytime you disable the firewall or your antivirus program needs updating gets a little old.

viper75

I had the Beta ver. and I was not happy with it either. SP2 will never make it to my machines!!! It's garbage!!!

superflyzx3

Another thing I didn't like about SP2, is the fact that MS installs the new IE Browser and Windows Media Player 9. I don't understand why they get away with forceing their crap on us end users.

keenon

to disable the security center go under extended services and you can do it there.. the new ie browser i removed as well i don't care for IE at all i like mozilla or netscape. media player i use rarely but i have the security at the highest level( which we know is MS world means little) i think maybe someone other than MS should create their service packs..lol

fryguy

SP2 may be annoying with some of its features like the security center. I think its funny that it may offer a possible vulnerbility by allowing attackers to monitor and possibly spoof that your protection is up to date.
Not to mention the Drag-N-Drop vulnerbility that the discoverd in SP2 also.
Not a good start for SP2 so far but whats new?

The other thing is the fact that it installs alot of things and don't ask or tell you about it either.
Like the new IE Browser/Popup blocker and Windows Media Player 9 (That I had removed/striped out before SP2) also why would it install IIS by default (according to Cnet and PCmag though on all my computers that didn't happen?).

With the good and bad I would still recomentd it to users, though with us pro's it leaves some tweaking to be done. But thats no big deal to me.

TeKniques

It sucks! All my games now reboot randomly in the middle of it. I need to get this garbage off quickly.

It's any game too. CS, COD, MOHAA, etc etc. Even my daughters Dora the Explorer games go black and stuff.

RussS

Haven't had a problem with any of my clients who have installed it except for one who had a power outage part way through.
When you reboot it gives you the opportunity to NOT use the firewall etc. Consensus from many system admins on large networks running XP clients is that it is mostly good.

For those that are upset about things that come with it - I suggest that if you had done your homework prior to blindly installing it you would have known exactly what it installs and what the defaults are. The documentation has been out for a month now

skaeight

Yeah I'm staying away. I use Norton A/V, FireFox, Thunderbird, and Zone Alarm. So SP2 has no benifits for me whatsoever. I'm just afraid that if I install it, it will break something. I went down MS's 10 Ten list of reasons to install SP2:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/sp2/topten.mspx

and not one of them applied to me because I already had a 3rd party tool that did a better job than SP2 would.

Another scary thought is theres a way for hackers to spoof the security center, so it will tell you you're protected, when in reality your firewall may have been disabled.

Hopefully they will continue to realease security patches for SP1.

wowitfoth

Microsoft and SP2, Congrats! A job well done, intrusive and left to us as usual to figure out there crap! Tried it, deleted it! Installed a bigger drive on a families pc and xp upgrade. Then my Bro-in-law tried to put his favorite Winamp skin on, could not, would not. That was after messing with all the added security features! Bill did well, just as always and after the benefit of the doubt. Never again! Is it not true that if you treat your customers well they will support you? I get treated well here and keep coming back? FYI, after deleting it that Winamp skin installed as it should!

wildfire

What a heap of crap!! SP2 took over my Wireless NIC put its own bollocks on there, wont connect cos I broadcast SSID off, put it back on it picks it up, turn it off off it goes again! Cant put the linksys thing on there instead, when I ran netstat is shows one thing in there called MS reporting agent!!

I cant run Ciscoworks 2000, damm IE popup blocker conflicts with google toolbar!! Unistalled ! another god job bill u prat

Ricka182

SP2 is an incredible waste of time. It's just more proof that M$ wants Windows to do everything for you, even if you don't want it. I tried the Beta, and took it off less than a day after the install. I'm all set with SP1.

keenon

i did the same the same day i put it on. i rolled it back on both my systems after most of my apps stopped working the only good thing it does in uninstall then i had to defrag..watch out those that think it will protect you

nate_lewis

My experience with it.... Was thinking bout upgrading (hah) bout 150 or so computers so thought I best stick it on a few with differnt hardware just to see. Well I tested it on two laptops... an old toshiba, worked fine, and then a newish 2.8 P4 HP Pavilion ze5300, which totally sucked! It took me 3 tries to install it. everytime it restarted to complete it just died, then on the next startup it removes itself (or at least tries) when i finally gave up and got back to good ol' sp1 release the screen was in 640x480 mode, and on a laptop that is literal. the screen was 640x480. If I left my boss' laptop in that state my ass would be fired.
Then I tried to put it on some crappy 700/900/1200Mhz PCs. The funny thing is it worked. On all of them. /me shudders.

So, i conclude, old hardware (PC/Laptop) works (for me :P) , but new hardware (especially laptops) sucks.

.....so a question for you. If you install SP2 accross the network with the network install, how the hell do you make the firewall turn off as standard? Coz every time you install it on a corperate network you cant ping any pc coz the firewall is on. (handy for a home pc but not in work).

To finish up, if your putting it on your parents pc, its worth it. Because it does a not-so-bad job of keeping people safe. But, for corperate rollout, STAY AWAY. Freaking things does alot more harm than good.

PS. If you want to go around a few hundred pcs to turn off the firewall your more than welcome.

mikiemov

You can configure the firewall settings by GPOs ??