Windows XP SP2 Beta Reviewed

worm eater writes "Ars Technica has a characteristically thorough review of Windows XP Service Pack 2 Beta, with plenty of screen shots. In a nutshell, it's all about security fixes, including a seriously beefed up firewall. The final release is expected this summer." The review concludes: "Overall, Microsoft has made a step in the right direction with this service pack. The increased focus on security will be good not only for the average user who does not spend much time thinking about security her system, but also for 'power users' and those who work supporting end users."

Comments

Didn't work like that with me

[TrekkieGod]

Wow...your experience with 2003 is so much different than the one I had.

I recently bought an Opteron system...and planned to use it for gaming purposes (keep the criticism to yourselves, I've heard it all). I tried installing 2003 because my school had recently given me a copy and I felt that was a good time as any to try it out, because I wouldn't have to backup everything to do a clean install with XP afterwards. If I liked it, I'd keep it.

First...I could *not* get directX working. It installed, but dxdiag wouldn't enable direct3d. It kept saying my driver didn't support hardware acceleration. Then I installed sound card drivers, and THAT was horrible. It BSOD'ed. Then every time it rebooted, the software that came with the audigy's drivers would start up pop up a screen which would cause the computer to bsod again. I went to safe mode, stopped that application from starting up automatically, rebooted, and used add/remove programs to remove the audigy software. In the middle of the uninstall, it bsod'ed. I tried again, it bsod'ed in the same place.

Given that 2003 is a server OS, I can draw two conclusions...it's a HORRIBLE server OS, because it's not frigging stable, or it's not meant to have graphics/sound because it's a server OS, and it's stable otherwise. WinXP has absolutely NO problems with my hardware at all.