Is SP2 for XP a good idea
First off I put this in the games section, because my concern is directly related to running SP2 on my game machine. However if the mods feel it should go into everything else I will humbly submit myself to a lashing.
So, for the last couple of weeks my pc has been whining and nagging me to death...
Week 1 "Pardon me you have an update available"
Week 2 "That update is still available"
Week 3 "Come on you're killing me here, Mr Gates wants SP2 installed and he is getting very angry"
Week 4 "Failure to install SP2 will result in immediate deletion of core files"
Week 5 "I know your address, Microsoft swat teams are on route. You will be assimilated"
How many here have upgraded to SP2? Any problems with performance while gaming. Specifically has anyone been running SP2 with WoW, since that is my highest gaming priority at this time.
Thanks
Garrad
"My motto is, if it's not strong enough to release bowel control, it's not strong enough!"
Morrolan
I haven''t bothered. I don''t do the auto-update thing. I go run WindowsUpdate when I hear there''s a patch/update that I need. Turn that garbage off, IMO. Unless you don''t frequent IT news sites or work in IT so that you are up-to-date.
I use ZoneAlarm+AdAware+non-MS Browser and Mail client as security measures and am just fine. I haven''t found a compelling reason to update to SP2. The No eXecute bit thingy for Athlon64 is tempting. Cool&Quiet not so much, since it seems to cause problems with my board. The Firewall? That''s what ZoneAlarm is for.
"And my son, too, thinks everything is a launchpad, every bug a meal, and every sunny day a reason to take all your clothes off and roll around in the grass." - rabbit
SP2 was a problem for me.
I think the reason was the Zonealarm pro did not like it - but I could be wrong.
I recently installed it again and now it seems to work okay.
-Xino
I have had no problems with SP2 other then havign to turn off the firewall (I was goignt o do it anyway) because of conflicts. Ran WoW fine, as well as any other game.
Unfortunately, if I slash my wrist with my lightsaber it cauterizes instantly. - PurEvil on emo Star Wars plots.
I upgraded and I haven''t had any problems. I think I had to re-install The Politcal Machine, but that seems to be it. Seems like people have already found a way around the pop-up blocker, as it worked for a few weeks, but I''ve started getting pop-ups again.
Would I rather be feared or loved? Easy - both. I want people to be afraid of how much they love me.
http://social.zune.net/member/editorcook
I updated SP2 and have not had a problem.
I did turn off the firewall that comes with it though.
I don't think I've ever said this sentence before, but man would I love to hump that butterfly.-- KrazyTaco
One phone call and you're melting like butter over my kettle pop. -- Edwin to Mex
2005 GWJFFL2 Champion
Worked fine for me. If you can try it out on a test machine first.
XBox Live|Tshirts|My Music|GameFly|xfire
My, my, such lack of conformity. Haven''t you learned? You will be assimilated into SP2. It won''t hurt, much, and will only break a few things.....You''ll also buy longhorn when it comes out.
It''s 2004, the year of conformity (tm, Microsoft).
Buy? Hah. Haha. Hahaha!
Unfortunately, if I slash my wrist with my lightsaber it cauterizes instantly. - PurEvil on emo Star Wars plots.
If you love Freedom Force and intend to play it again anytime in the near future - don''t update. I don''t think there are many other ganes that refuse to work under SP2, no guarantee though.
My machine came with it installed and I havent had an issue yet with any game. I turn off the firewall that comes with it because I go through a home router and was told it should be fine for my security needs... If anyone knows diff let me know, but as far as SP2 tech issues - I havent had a problem....
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When it comes to service packs I usually won''t install them until I format and start fresh. There are too many things to go wrong otherwise.
Got it on my freshly formatted laptop though, seems fine so far!
Yeah, it's scary. I'm staring into the abyss right now, and it's staring into me, which I think is kind of a dick move on the abyss's part. - Nyles
Lots of people saying ""I didn''t have any problems"" but not many saying ""It''s so much better"" or ""Things are faster"" or ""Man, I''m glad the firewall works now"". In short, lots of ""it didn''t break anything"" but no ""it fixed a lot of stuff that was important to me"".
"And my son, too, thinks everything is a launchpad, every bug a meal, and every sunny day a reason to take all your clothes off and roll around in the grass." - rabbit
No problems here either. I like to be up to date. Firewall needs to be off though. =)
k thx all
Hey Edwin, I have it my second computer, but that is not really used for playing any games, other than spiderman and Stuart Little
"My motto is, if it's not strong enough to release bowel control, it's not strong enough!"
Morrolan
I tried it on one of my spanking-new Dell PCs at work and it choked and died. Had to uninstall it.
Don't be saucy with me, Bernaise. - Count DeMonet
FalseGravity - My first blog.
I finally bit the bullet a couple months back, and installed it on all my machines. I even left the firewall on (which I was sure I wasn''t going to be able to do), and other than having to explicitly allow the occasional app through, haven''t had a problem with it. The firewall is probably a bit of overkill sitting behind my router, but it hasn''t caused me any grief, and I''m a big fan of security in depth. Caveat emptor, ymmv, and all that.
Joedeth
Ironjoe
Updated to SP2 within a few weeks of it coming out. Once I had heard reports of people having little issue with it. I had no problems.
In fact I''d say its well worth doing for the security tweaks. Unless you''ve been dilligent enough to (for example) turn of the silly-services you don''t need.
It is the habit of every aggressor nation to claim that it is acting on the defensive. - Jawaharlal Nehru
The only tangible benefit I''ve noticed is that the amount of spyware I''m getting seems to be a lot lower. I used to routinely turn up 19 or 20 hits with Adaware...now its usually fewer than five. There might be other improvements, but I haven''t noticed them.
Would I rather be feared or loved? Easy - both. I want people to be afraid of how much they love me.
http://social.zune.net/member/editorcook
I''m running the internal firewall with Firepanel XP, backed up by AVG, Stinger, Adaware, Spybot, etc....Zero problems, with games or otherwise.
It slowed my machine to a *crawl* after the first few times rebooting after install, and I had to immediately defrag my machine to restore HD performance, but now it works exactly as it did before. If you already have a firewall installed and are happy with it, there''s no point in downloading it that I know of.
SP2 since about Mid September and no problems with those games that I play alot (T:V, UT2k4, R:TW, Dawn of War).
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Mythos Player ID: cejansen
No worrries here either. Using zonealarm in preference to the MS firewall though
A little zen...... Headed your way........
Funny, there was an article on this over at BETANEWS. Hang on....
http://www.betanews.com/article/Microsoft_Windows_Exec_Talks_IE_Firefox/...
There''s the link.
Lot more going on than just the firewall. If you use IE I''d say D/l it....
Well, and now for an identical post. I already like my free Sygate firewall, and it already knows what programs I want to communicate with the internet, and which ones can mind their own damn business.
So I did install it, shut off the firewall, and shut off the pop-up blocker (I like my free Earthlink one, cause it has an orange fist that comes up and a sound file plays a little, ""Blam"" kind of sound. Which still amuses me to no end).
And no problems. So far.
I''ve been running XP SP2 for weeks now (since day one) at home and it runs fine... My advice is go ahead and install it BUT be sure when it asked that you make backups so it can be uninstalled. All in all it seems to run great for me. I haven''t had a single program fail on me since the install....
WOW: Bounce
I installed it on three different computers, and had no problems at all on any of them.
And I will say I like it, because it does what it needs to do quietly and transparently. Like the new IE security enhancements. Or the firewall, which has a much more intuitive interface than ZoneAlarm or Kerio. (If you have a second user on your computer, and had to explain what to do with the little ZA pop-ups, you know what I mean
)
I have had it running isnce the week after it was released, and it runs everything great.
I keep the firewall turned on and up. I recommend anyone who uses the internet to do the same, whether they have a hardware firewall or not. It is very easy to tell the software firewall what applications need to be able to use the internet, and it will then allow any/any traffic for that application only (unless specified differently).
I also have a hardware based firewall running on my router as well, since I have a home network with 5 computers (I call it my living room heater). Every one of my machines has the firewall turned up as well. Even with the multiple firewalls, the SNMP protocol traps I receive still show many people attempting to break into my machines, or proxy scans, or other things of the like. It never hurts to have multiple points of failure for idiots who have too much free time. DISCLAIMER: I''m a network ops engineer and eat too many bits for breakfast.
No problems for me. I do like the new wireless network management interface. I generally don''t install SPs in an already running system. I prefer to put the update right on the install CD, or at least reinstall windows and install the SP right away. My gaming machine is reformatted every 3-6 months anyway.
Codexica - GWJ Alliance