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NDak

Windows XP Service Pack 2 Update

37 posts in this topic

 

We just got this in our student E-Mails, thought I'd let everyone have a head up about not downloading it.

Windows delayed the release of the XP Pro service pack 2 because it can cause compatability issues, including disabling some programs, commonly used on coroporate machines. The service pack itself is safe to download and use for users of XP home or people using XP Pro at home. In the off chance that you don't like it, there is an uninstall feature that will let you roll back to your previous configuration.

 

I've installed, used and explored SP2 on my XP Pro machine and have had no problems with it. Overall its a great update that includes many sorely needed security improvments.

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::sitting at his computer, wondering if his update has downloaded yet . . . he clicked the download button but the dialogue box disappeared . . . thinking about tea now . . .::

 

I'm supposedly downloading it right now, then I have to install it . . .

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::sitting at his computer, wondering if his update has downloaded yet . . . he clicked the download button but the dialogue box disappeared . . . thinking about tea now . . .::

 

I'm supposedly downloading it right now, then I have to install it . . .

managed to get my hands on a CD..no waiting for the 25th to download the pro update :)

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Now I know why it didn't work . . .

 

Today I tried downloading SP2 for my Home XP system. We've got automatic updates, so I clicked "Download" in the dialogue box. But all the box did was disappear without a word . . .

 

So I've spent the last two hour agonizing over it and talking on the phone with my father, wondering if we downloaded it, and if not, how we could . . .

 

Now he just told me that he asked the tech guy at his office, and apparently Microsoft withdrew it from download because they got too many complaints (that it wasn't working!).

 

So we're going to get a CD, but will probably hold off on the install for now . . . by the time we're ready for it, we'll need SP3 . . .

 

 

 

Microsoft has done it again!

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I had a similar problem with the Automatic Updates a couple months ago.

 

At home I use a Linksys wireless connection hub, and Linksys issued a driver update that was distributed (at least to me) via Automatic Updates page.

 

The only problem is it didn't work. When I tried to install the Linksys device stoped working - right in the middle of a sim, too! I've always had an unstable connection but now I wasn't able to connect at all. I had to uninstall the driver, use the old version, and configure my update settings to ignore that update.

 

Since then, however, the problem has been corrected and now I don't even have the unstable connection problem I had before. :P I don't know if the problem was with Microsoft or Linksys but at least it's fixed now.

 

Of course the Qob crew probably wishes I still had those problems so they at least had a few seconds without my wisecracks. :)

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Windows delayed the release of the XP Pro service pack 2 because it can cause compatability issues, including disabling some programs, commonly used on coroporate machines. The service pack itself is safe to download and use for users of XP home or people using XP Pro at home. In the off chance that you don't like it, there is an uninstall feature that will let you roll back to your previous configuration.

 

I've installed, used and explored SP2 on my XP Pro machine and have had no problems with it. Overall its a great update that includes many sorely needed security improvments.

::nods::

 

WVU OIT has told us to hold off on it becuase the student e-mail and scheduling systems (MiX and STAR) have major issues with the SP2, although they note in a latter email that those problems are being resolved and that we should be able to D/L it in about a week or so.

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I disagree with that. WinXP SP2 is an important security update that fixes basic design flaws (not "bugs," which are introduced inadvertently, but actual purposeful design flaws) in the operating system and some of its components. One of those was including a firewall, but deactivating it. Another was defaulting Outlook Express to run any attachment that came in email. Another was allowing IE components to be added without the user's knowledge. Other design flaws in XP: Windows Messenger... ActiveX... The "Universal Plug and Play" server (used by few, on by default). All of this from a company that patented the insecure web browser (I'm not kidding, go to The US Patent and Trademark Office, look up patent # 6,662,341).

Most of those you listed are security fixes, and I agree. It won't stop spyware. But, it will stop most Microsoft-oriented virus attacks.

 

And, Atragon, I guess we are double-geeks.

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And Finally, if you want a good OS, go with Mac OS X and X.2, because they will give you a better performance and maximum compatibility. Plus, Gates hasn't touched our school yet :).

Hey there,

 

A Mac'in'trash? Na. That's alright. :P

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Whenever I hear about Macs I think about my mom for two reasons.

 

First of all, in the mid-80s, my mom received job offers from Apple Computer and this tiny upstart organization called Sun Microsystems. She picked Apple. If she had gone with Sun she would have been a millionaire from the stock options alone. (This was back in the days when stock options were rare.) To this day I won't let her forget how rich she - and I from the inheritance - could have been.

 

Second, one day she visited me at college and I gave her a tour of the computer lab. Our computer lab was (at the time anyway) the largest academic computer lab anywhere in California. She took one look at the huge lab that, despite it's size, still had less computers than students and wondered where the Macs were. I then pointed her to the "Mac lab" which was in a separate, much smaller room off to the side. There were maybe 7 or 8 Macs there in total, all of them unused despite the line of students in the next room. She asked me why they weren't being used, and my answer was a simple "Macs suck."

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Hey there,

 

A Mac'in'trash? Na. That's alright. :)

Fricking OS wars, pet peeve I hate the OS Wars, use what fricking works for you and stop ragging on people who don't use what you use. Christ. its not like its a fundametnal philosophy of humanity its an operating system get over it.

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Heh, Funny story Vanroy. At the end of the year, in May, our school decided to upgrade their computers and such, and also to get rid of the old Mac lab.

 

(The sole purpose of the mac lab, was a place to send naughty children who missused the normal computers. lol)

 

Anyways, being the scimaritan that I am, I offered to take them off the schools hands. Next week, debris from about 15 computers lined the local highway. I'm still paying off my loans from friends and relitives I took to pay the fine...

 

It was worth it.

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