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XP Service Pack Does the Impossible
Peyna writes "This article over at C|net discusses the upcoming Microsoft Windows XP service pack, which will contain the normal bug fixes, but more importantly, will make XP more modular, allowing you to override their default products. I assume this means Internet Explorer and possibly some other apps as well."
Oh, it's still bloated. IE, OE, Messenger, etcetera aren't uninstalled, most likely because XP still depends on their DLLs. It seems like you could accomplish nearly the same thing by deleting the relevant icons from the Start menu...
It sounds to me like the update is really just allowing Windows to be shipped with third party applications links on the desktop. I guess Microsofts packaging tools used to remove these links (which would suck no doubt) and part of SP1 will change that "functionality".
:-)
. asp and take a long hard look at some of the cool shit MS is doing.
As for it making Windows more modular - thats a load of crap. I love how the editors and the submitters around here intentionally embelish just so they can get more pageviews and comments. Oh well I guess they suceeded today...
Whats really going to rock in SP1 for XP is the new Mira technology stuff. If you dont know what that is - I suggest you cruise on over to http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/mira_preview
J
I love idealists not because I am one, but because they make life bearable for pragmatists such as myself.
This SP does NOT make Windows more modular. It simply is a convenient interface to override default applications.
You can't uninstall IE or its libraries - they still will load on startup. What you can do is associate URLs to Moz or whatever.
This can all be done now, just not very conveniently for the average user. All the SP adds is a Control Panel applet to facilitate the association changing.
Marc
According to this article, XP SP1 doesn't remove the apps, it just hides them. One of the FEATURES of the middleware hiding app is that other programs need to register themselves through a new API to be the default web browser or email client or media player etc... My question is will the API documentation have the same "Anti-OpenSource" clauses that MS has grown so fond of recently??? Would this prevent Mozilla from being the default browser??
------- Assumption is the mother of all f$#@ ups.
All this does is HIDE the icons for internet explorer and outlook express and windows media player.
I can already do that. Tweak UI does it. And as for file associations, who here thinks that if you accidentally start up windows media player even after this service pack, that it will still redo all your file associations without asking...
This is not a plea of guilt on Microsoft's part, hell this supports their case, they aren't removing anything, they are just hiding it (since of course, windows would stop functioning if you removed it)...
---
Programming is like sex... Make one mistake and support it the rest of your life.
Well, I thought it was quite funny.
But, as several commentators have already pointed out, this isn't really modularising Windows at all - MS have been using the word "hide", which strongly suggests that all their stuff will be installed, it just won't have icons (rather like NetMeeting in XP).
So far so redundant.
But I was interested in the bit at the end of the article where it mentions "freezing" copies that have been activated with a known pirate key. I thought most pirate copies of XP were the corporate edition, that doesn't need activating, and should therefore be indistinguishable from legit copies? Or do they really mean the Product Key, which you enter when you install Windows? In which case, what's to stop you simply changing it in the registry - or, very worst case, simply finding a working Product Key on the net and reinstalling? Still far far easier and cheaper than going out and buying XP.
While this is a welcomed change for Microsoft to open up their operating system and play nice with third party companies, what has Microsoft done with the EULA for SP1? That is the real reason not to use XP -- not because it doesn't play nice with RealAudio. The XP EULA is affront to an individual's right to cpu privacy.
Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.
Don't know why
Please press OK to continue.
This program has performed an illegal operation and will be shut down. No changes will be saved.
Outdoor digital photography, mostly in New Engl
Well of course.
How else am I, as the operating system, supposed to know that this completely unknown executable you've just stuck on the drive handles foodlewidgets unless you tell me that it handles foodlewidgets?
No conspiracy here people. Move along now...
Cheers,
Ian
Quite useless really, there has been keygens on the net for quite some time now.
They are fighting a battle they cannot win, for each key they disable 10 more will pop up on the net.
(mod me down if you wish, this not intended as a troll/flamebait.)
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I agree.
The simple fact is software, music, art, etc, can only be free if we live in one of two types of societies:
1. Communism/Socialism: If the government has the ability to support people who are furthering the minds of the people/state, then art, music, and software can be free to us, even if we are not free oursleves.
2. Social Democracy: This concept is much harder for Americans than others, as it is contrary to pure capitalism. We would have to support those who make a contribution to our state, but whose contribution should be free. In this model, the government funds artists, music costs are virtually non-existant (you would still have to pay "cost" for physical media, and a "artist tax") and we can get all the music and software for nothing.
The US is a social/capitalist democracy, and very often we are living in the No Man's Land between the two sides.
Sorry for the rant.--
Freedom of Information doesn't mean that information is free.
That what was all this school was for... to teach us how to solve our own problems. -- janeowit
Pirated? I dunno about that, I have a shared copy of WinXP Pro, probably with one of "those" keys. I'll pay for it when my refund arrives for the OEM copy of Win98SE that I was forced to pay for on my laptop (now running SuSE), i.e. the 2nd of Never.
If any Microserf are reading, the only reason that I still boot to Windows is to play games. Offer me a stripped down OS that presents an API subset limited to DirectX, OGL and enough of the WinAPI to let me install and start a game, at a reasonable price ($30) without any idiotic licensing or activation crap, and I'll buy it. Short of that, forget it. Every dumbed down "Telletubbies" new Windows version, every curate's egg upgrade, every bluster and threat and waved MicroFist just brings me closer to the point where I'll wipe the Windows partition and take my chance with WineX. When that happens, you lose any chance of getting any more money out of me, ever.
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
Offer me a stripped down OS that presents an API subset limited to DirectX, OGL and enough of the WinAPI to let me install and start a game, at a reasonable price ($30) without any idiotic licensing or activation crap, and I'll buy it.
You just described the XBox.