SOT: Windows XP Service Pack 2 is out

Faster OS, improved security, new virus protection, new firewall, patched Internet Explorer, new Windows Update...
 
I'm running SP2 now. Seems ok so far.

However, this post was just made to say the following:

Manabyte's avatar fucking rocks! That is all.
 
I like it so far...then again, I've had to do two formats today for two laptops and all I had to do was run SP2 and not really worry about a million seperate updates.

Only thing I REALLY hate is how it keeps asking me if I want to run .exe files. So annoying when you have to install a lot of programs again. Anyone know how to turn that off?
 
So... what's the situation for like for
pirate.bmp
's? Dont know if i should take the plunge just yet.
 
The next day and just wanted to update you'ins ;) this SP2 rocks. Everything seems faster and it fixed quite a few little minor things (like some Events in the Event Viewer). Also fixed a problem I was having with a few USB devices and on one of my controllers. Also, Explorers (Internet and Windows) both seem faster.

Sweet update, I am liking it.
 
I still can't download it from Microsoft's site. May have to due with me being outside of the US. I did "upgrade" to v5.windowsupdate. There was some words about them locking out illegal copies from the new windows-update but it works fine here. Still not sure about the SP2, I'll let someone else take the plunge first :)
 
I've downloaded, but if you look at the site it mentions this is for OEM/Corportations and users should wait for a streamlined version that's much smaller. This is 272MB and I read the other version is gonna be 80MB(?). WTF. Is this propoganda to prevent people from installing it (and clogging bandwith), or is there really a lot of unoptimized shit that end-users don't need? Less Windows bloat is always a good thing.
 
so you don't need SP1 installed first, right - and if you don't have SP1 installed yet, does it download the components of that as well as the new SP2 stuff?
 
ravingloon said:
I've downloaded, but if you look at the site it mentions this is for OEM/Corportations and users should wait for a streamlined version that's much smaller. This is 272MB and I read the other version is gonna be 80MB(?). WTF. Is this propoganda to prevent people from installing it (and clogging bandwith), or is there really a lot of unoptimized shit that end-users don't need? Less Windows bloat is always a good thing.

This is done with all MS Service Packs. The version you are downloading is a COMPLETE install.. in a company you d/l it and throw it on the network so 5,000 PCs aren't raping your internet connection.

The version they release for home users is always smaller. I believe it works more like a streaming video file.. the 80 MB is what it needs to get a good start, and then it downloads as it installs.
 
Every time I install a Service Pack, my install corrupts after a few days and I can no longer boot.

Anyone know why that is?

Also, was there ever a fix for nForce2 and WinXP to acknowledge external USB HDDs on boot up?
 
SyNapSe said:
This is done with all MS Service Packs. The version you are downloading is a COMPLETE install.. in a company you d/l it and throw it on the network so 5,000 PCs aren't raping your internet connection.

The version they release for home users is always smaller. I believe it works more like a streaming video file.. the 80 MB is what it needs to get a good start, and then it downloads as it installs.

Good to know. I guess I'll give it a whirl.
 
By the way, less keys are blacklisted than MS. Their were more keys blacklisted in beta than in the final release, because MS basically said they can't keep up with pirates. They can blacklist all the keys they, but those people have already changed their keys.

That was actually all from a MS Rep.

Here we go:

blocked in previous betas. This is due to Microsoft's new approach on security in Service Pack 2 to prevent any further Windows XP machines from getting infected with viruses and malicious attacks. Microsoft's Gary Schare answers:

"There have been a number of discussions on this newsgroup regarding whether SP2 will install on non-genuine (aka "pirated") versions of Windows. Here is the official Microsoft position on this topic:

We expect that nearly all Windows XP users, running genuine or pirated Windows, will have access to the security technologies in SP2. The same users that were blocked from installing SP1 - those that have used a small set of legacy pirated product keys - will be blocked from installing SP2. We believe that there are very few systems in use today that use these keys -- in other words, the pirates have moved on to other keys which we are not blocking.

So how do we charaterize our policy?

We want to make sure that the broadest number of people can install SP2. The nature of malicious attacks on computer users is constantly changing and we will continue to evaluate how we deal with security updates for pirated versions of Windows to best protect our genuine Windows customers.

Thanks,

Gary Schare
Microsoft"
 
XMonkey said:
I like it so far...then again, I've had to do two formats today for two laptops and all I had to do was run SP2 and not really worry about a million seperate updates.

Only thing I REALLY hate is how it keeps asking me if I want to run .exe files. So annoying when you have to install a lot of programs again. Anyone know how to turn that off?

RUN > services.msc > Security Center > Right-Click Properties > Disabled
 
It's the next day for me. Some strange quirks the first two times I rebooted, and some strange slowness and refresh problems. But by the third reboot, everything was running as great as before, if not a tad faster. I probably should not have been installing/updating two other apps and downloading a torrent whilst installing the SP2 upgrade, but oh well.
 
Yikes, big problems for me.

After installing, windows wouldn't be able to start, kept getting the 'safe mode' selection menu as it attempted bootup saying it couldn't load. It just refused to even start windows outside of safe mode. I had to rollback windows to a time before I installed SP2 to get things back to normal.

Oh well...fuck it.
 
Initially MS said they weren't going to do any new blacklisting or protection against piracy because SP2 has quite a few new things that should cut down on viruses and malicious software quite a bit, and MS thought, the less of that shit on people's computers, illegal or not, the better.

Anyways, I have 2 copies of Pro I bought right from MS. Never even opened either of the boxes because I don't want to mess with the stupid activation bullshit and whatnot. I am 100% validated in my opinion.

I just let automatic updates auto download it and it works fine. But I was running 2149 before perfectly, so I never expected a problem.
 
I should add that I did procure my copy of Win XP Pro through less than honorable means as well. Win Update v5 and SP2 both installed without a hitch on my system.
 
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