I've been putting this off and probably shouldn't, but I have yet to update XP. Has anyone with that update experienced and program compatibility problems? If so, which progs? Thx

none whatsoever, and i've had it for a month now (has it been a month? i basically updated the next day it came out).

it's useful, as in it brings a number of updates:

1. an annoying firewall for windows that is a bit difficult to disable.
2. popup blocker and plugin integration features for internet explorer. i use firefox so i can't really be bothered with those, but they're somewhat useful.

the rest of the stuff is under the hood and hasn't posed any problems for me :)

drac

Message edited on: 10/14/2004 23:29

I've also had it since soon after it came out. Drac's right in a way, the firewall is easy to disable, but Windows kept asking me if I was sure everytime I rebooted, until my firewall was updated for SP2. If you're on broadband, you can get the full 250Mb (or so) file and streamline your XP setup CD, so next time you reinstall, it comes packaged with SP2. Overall, it's probably worth getting. Hasn't broken anything on my computer yet...

you can get the firewall thing to stop annoying you. the little shield thingie that shows up in your task bar has a hyperlink type thing in its menu (first or second from the bottom on the left) where you can tell it to stop annoying you about the firewall/antivirus/automatic update drac

I have it but haven't installed it, I've heard horror stories about it crashing everything, critical files go missing, can't get the computer to boot, things don't load into other apps correctly, etc. so I've been hesitant to load it up. I have Zonealarm Pro with Anti Virus, seems to do the job very well....The system I using is qiurky at best, don't need to lose everything 'again', although I've been backing up to a Seagate external drive......

there was talk about the XP Professional edition having something like 80 major software and hardware bugs, but I seriously doubt anything would happen with normal home computers (and/or for the Windows Home version). drac

I have never had a problem with it. It is annoying when it asks if you want to run a program but everything works the way it should. I don't know when it came out but I know it wasn't out very long when I got it.

Just go to the windows update site and do the update from there, it'll only update the files that need doing instead of you having to install all the update. By the way i don't use xp but i know people that do and they haven't had any problems with doing the update at all or anything on their computers after doing it.

There is no reason to Upgrade to SP2, please trust me on this one, before you know it you will be reformating your HD. I have not only heard horror storys, but I have also seen them happen.

Attached Link: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=811113

There are reasons to upgrade. SP2 brings some critical updates and patches. I upgraded without problems. But the situation was certainly made easier by the fact that I installed XP (Pro) on a brand new disk and then immediately applied SP2. There could be problems with computers that have lots of stuff isntalled. If you have Norton Ghost, create a backup image and then go about installing SP2. Rhino, Photoshop, Poser, Grass, Universe, Plant Studio, DAZ Studio, Cinema all work without a single problem. Bryce does that annoying taskbar thingy, but that's XP problem, not SP2. And if you install SP2, turn off the Security Center in the System Tray and install something like Zone Alarm.

My XP was preinstalled on my laptop, so if I had to reinstall it, it would wipe my HD, thus I was reluctant to install SP2. I guess I'll mull it over a while more...

MY PC refuses to update to SP2 dunno why... but singe it's working with SP1 and since I'm lazy.. I'll continue in with SP1. :)

My pc told me it had automatically updated itself yesterday morning (I'd been online for awhile), and kept demanding a restart. I find it's very cheeky lately, getting very bossy and spoiled :^( How do I know if it's installed SP2? It never asks my permission about anything any more :^(

Right click on My Computer then click on Properties. It'll say what SP it is.

Message edited on: 10/15/2004 03:10

My laptop slowed down after SP2..have no idea why. other than that..no hassles. had a bit of trouble with spybot and adware..so my comp tech chap told me to de-install them both, as SP 2 did the trick. I kept adware. I have XP. Nuke..even my laptop came in with XP preinstalled..but downloading the service pack didn't affect it. It dwnloaded just what it needs. How is firefox with sites, drac? Saw it for the first time today on someone's comp..looked really neat..dunno about the features.

quite decent. works with 95% of sites (minus windows update). but now that internet explorer has come with popup blockers and stuff on it (read: it copied firefox completely, and i do mean copied it), there's really no reason to get it. the only extra thing would be the ability to open up more than one page in the same window (tabbed browsing). drac

Internet explorer is highly risky, that's where most of the security holes are located. Firefox is a great replacement. And Service packs are definitely important they plug some of those security holes and it's RARE that they will mess up your system. If it does, then most likely you already have an existing issue and needed to reload anyway. My husband is a computer/network/security expert, so trust me on this. I don't use XP because it's so bloated, switch to 2000pro if you can. All the computers in our house now are on Linux, except mine because Windows is just getting worse and worse.

I use windoze 2000prof/sp4. No probs except when the hackers manage to get in which isn't very often, thankfully. I wouldn't touch XP with someone else's bargepole attached to a 400foot crane with a startrek forcefield protecting it at full power, and you can tell 'em I said so.....!!!

My god, do they have a slow server. One hour 12 minutes for 75 MB!?! Anyone know where to download the files one by one? Problem with these service packs are, that they usually comes with a lot of crap. (the last one did) I want to choose myself what to install on my machine.

Slow server? I downloaded SP2 in about 10 seconds. That was before the campus e-mail servers crashed and messed everything up and before I installed Professional(I had Home). After the reformat and e-mail crashes it took a whole minute to download. The fastest downloads I have done were from Microsoft. Please ignore the horror stories. Just go to download.com and start reading user reviews on any program and every one will have at least one horror story from somebody that doesn't know what they are doing when it comes to computers. If you take care of your computer bad things are a lot less likely to happen.

Normally, downloading 75 MB takes me about a minute and a half, and the SP2 would take me over an hour. And the reason for wanting to download the files separatly, is becuse of earlier experience with MS updates/SP1. Im not downloading one of their packages again. Ive already downloaded the security patches, and i already have a hardware firewall+software firewall, antivirus and a pop-up blocker that works well.

I updated last week and had problems, certain programs such as my internet browser, firewall, virus scanner, control panel, my computer and even the recycle bin wouldnt function. Had to uninstall it for these programs to work properly.

something definitely screwed up, pryme. I've got Opera, Zone Alarm, EZ AntiVirus... all of them function properly. Although I'll change to Bitdefender for AV and we'll see.

"you can get the firewall thing to stop annoying you..." The checkbox saying ignore this kept resetting itself. That got really annoying. One other thing, it takes many hundreds Mb of free space to install, making things difficult as I have XP on a separate partition.

I installed SP2 on a clean install of Windows with no problems. I disabled the Windows Firewall and the Security Center services, so they dont annoy me anymore. You can also get rid of that VERY annoying information bar that pops up in IE by going into Internet Properties, then selecting the Security tab and enabling automating promting for Active X controls. Also enable automatic propting for file downloads. In the pop-up options uncheck "show information bar when a pop-up is blocked."

I ordered the SP2 CD (FREE and said 4-6 weeks to get it, it arrived in 2). Re-formatted the drives to get rid of orphaned DLL's, reinstalled XP and SP2 and haven't had any troubles running any of my 3D programs. (Cinema, Bryce, Rhino)

I use XP pro with SP1 slipstreamed. Post intallation, I have all relevent hotfixes stored on a CD. I run the baseline security analyzer regularly to keep up to date (it replaces MSSecure). SP2 breaks some of the apps we use at work (MS agreed that this is true BTW).