Service Pack 2 Now Available

Well, I think the key there is the word can, not will.

 

My eyeballs ache.

The tighter memory handling requirement is a GREAT thing, and has been available to, and recommended to 3rd party vendors to use for years, and SHOULD have been made mandatory when XP first came out. Is anybody NOT sick of buffer overrun exploits? It was NOT made mandatory because of just these headaches, with software that would choke on it. Mandating its use makes SP2 more like an operating system upgrade than just a "patch", as it's a significant change. But it's long overdue, however many programs have problems with it.

Spyware and viruses can cause problems with SP2. (shrug) They can cause problems even without installing SP2, but most users don't even know what spyware is, and don't pay attention to viruses, and many don't care about them unless their computer chokes. Getting all users to clean up their machines before installing SP2 is impossible. They won't do it. But these days security is more important than convenience (finally!) and this will force some of the clueless to get things fixed. Spam and DOS attacks both rely on zombie computers out there, and anything that forces some of the zombie computer owners to clean up their systems is a good thing. No matter how much they scream.

In an ideal world, MS would post a notice that you MUST clean up your system, review a long list of apps that won't work and either patch them or throw them away, get rid of the malware, download or order the disk, shut off all running programs and non-system services, and THEN install SP2. Wouldn't happen. Windows Update is the closest a lot of users ever get to system maintenance. And they just LOVE their cute little Weather Bug.

But security is the number one headache out there right now, worldwide, and SP2, while far from perfect, is a step in the right direction.

 

i downloaded the service pack 2 from windows update. but while installing, it stops while taking inventory saying the registration is not correct.

i tried to install it many times. but could not succeed. how to proceed now?

can u help?

 

Hey, you old dog! I didn''t think you were looking! Thanks for the referral. I only hope that with all of the help available on the Web, fewer people will screw it up by having no clue what they're doing. We're here to help, and TOO OFTEN they don't check us out and don't pay attention.

This is not like updating your anti-virus data files, people. Read about preparing, think about preparing, and THEN install SP2 on a mean, clean, up-to-date machine.

You'll be laughing all the way to the bank.

 

I've been lurking, more than posting

Thats a great link, I couldn't pass up using it

 

MT: "Anyone notice the Blaster/Nachi Removal Tool being launched with the latest SP2 download? I don't think this was included in the original release."

Which "latest SP2 download" do you mean, MT? The Network Install (270 MB) download didn't have the IT tools, as I recall, but the CD did have them. Are you saying that there's a NEW Network Install download available that has TOOLS?

Just asking for a little clarification.

 

SP2 review and benchmark with discussion.

http://www.hardcoreware.net/forum/archive/index.php/t-18661.html

 

well i finally downloaded SP2 im not having any problems with it yet!
but took forever to set up

 

Re: Deleting SP1

Hi Major attitude, I've just managed to download SP2 took about 9 hours on dial up, no probs though, with the exception once loaded my computer crashed first time with an error message on a blue screen stating WIN 32K.sys PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA, however after logging off and on again no further problems have arisen so far, anyway I'm digressing I've searched your site and can find no reference to deleting SP1 and its Hotfixes, can I do this now that SP2 is loaded or must they remain?

 

Thanks for that NICK, just a couple of other questions, I've noticed today that when I'm on the net in particular accessing my email that sometimes the page loads with errors on it that never happened before SP2 could it have something to do with it, also there seems to be about 188Kb of internet history that will not delete after I run norton system works, I dont seem to be able to get rid of it, however will try crap cleaner etc, I was wondering if this is also down to SP2?

 

Hi Nick will restore defaults when I get home, as for the internet history I had tried that and it didn't work, will give it another go when I get back, thanks.

 

Thanks MasterTech, sorry about that a bit slow on the uptake.

 

Hi Nick, have just tried to post this problem and was thrown out of the forum, this has happened before but only after installing SP2, so this is just one of the problems I have encountered, the others are; I am still having errors in my Lycos email and also on other sites, even after doing all of the things that you and Master Tech had suggested, one other thing thats just started to happen is additonal browser windows open when I click to go to other sites, I'm totally baffled, have tried running various fix programs such as Norton system works etc

 

Hi Nick, ok I thought I was getting somewhere, I followed all of your instructions and managed to get rid of the errors when logging into my email account, however now everything has started to slow down and the majority of time, page cannot be found comes up, I have www.google.co.uk as my homepage and indeed it goes to this page, however for some reason I pressed restore values and another page was the default, something to do with microsoft, I pressed restore old value and the window re-opens again asking what value I want, eventually it closes, the next time I did this another value was selected, this was res://C:\system32\shdoclc.dll/dnerror.htm, I use a dial up connection on XP Pro, dont know if I've been hijacked or not, seems like it, I have to be honest, I did try Hijack this, maybe I've deleted something I should'nt have.

 

Thanks Nick will do that as soon as I get back home.

 

Hi Nick, I went over all of the instructions you gave me again, I had made a few mistakes when following them re: downloads not actually downloading spyware properly, everything seems to be perfect now, not a trojan or any spyware on my system, so thanks once again for your expert help.