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Windows XP SP2 In Release
mr_tommy writes "Service Pack 2 for Windows XP has been released to manufacturers (RTM), is available to MSDN customers, and will soon be available to all via Windows Update and Microsoft sites. At ~ 250 megs, the download is big, and Microsoft will be offering the option of getting it on CDs. The much awaited Service Pack comes with many security updates (new NX and DEP protection), extra features (firewall, security center), and improvements for Windows. New versions of IE and OE come with the release, as well as improvements in the wireless networking field. So far, the service pack seems to be very stable (no known major issues) and does seem to speed up most systems. A review of SP2 Final with some limited download links is available at Neowin.net. I'd urge all users (pirate users too) to deploy the service pack and benefit from the genuine effort Microsoft have made with regards to security in this release." We did cover this recently but since this is a major deal, we figured people would want to know more.
Even as a person who owns a legal copy of XP Pro, I am pleased that SP2 will be able to be installed on almost all copies of XP that are around. Hopefully this will help slow spyware and other annoyances down!
Also, I've heard that the download is available from the new windows update site: here and several bit torrent websites(file name: WindowsXP-KB835935-SP2-ENU.exe, MD5: 59a98f181fe383907e520a391d75b5a7, size: 278,927,592 bytes)
Boxing Equipment Reviews
Use this link for the pirates info. No sense in linking to a forum that just links to another.
Daddypants agrees.
After it harassing me left and right about programs connecting to the internet. Even after letting it run for a while, it never spotted a program connecting that wasn't supposed to be.
I imagine things will continue as they have. No firewall. No spyware, no trojans, no 0wn3d machines. Just proper patches and Mozilla.
It's the top three downloads on Filemirrors.com, for those of you having problems getting working links.
-Ares
If you're using one of the two widely pirated keys for XP (XXXXX-640-0000356-23XXX or XXXXX-640-2001765-23XXX), SP1 didn't install for you, and neither will SP2. So go ahead and change your key using Microsoft's own process. Search the web for valid keys....
The MD5 hash of the real file is 59a98f181fe383907e520a391d75b5a7. If you download it, then you can check it with any tool to generate the MD5 hash, and if they match, you can be certain it hasn't been messed with.
That's the whole point of telling people what the hash of the file is.
- Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set him on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
I work with a CRM finance program named Made2Manage. We were informed by them that this service pack breaks the connection between them and SQL. We have heard the same thing from another software vendor for a sql based e-mail system. Supposedly, when MS turned on all of the security features for this SP they eliminated the way in which a number of vendors communicated with SQL. To date I have not received the go ahead for this service pack. M2M evidently contacted MS about this issue but received little or no assistance in resolving this issue.
So be warned. If you are running third party SQL based software this service pack may break it.
AbortRetry
Damn, now I need to create an account
If you have a processor that supports NX, SP2 will not be compatible with some programs, especially dynamic recompilers.
As R. Belmont pointed out to me on a different message board, dynamic recompilers allocate memory, fill it with x86 instructions, and then jump to it. NX specifically prohibits executing allocated memory, so dynamic recompilers should crash in SP2 on processors that support NX.
Expect this feature to break many current emulators (Mame will be fine.) The feature supposedly can be turned off in Windows, but since I don't have a processor that supports NX, I don't know where one would do so in the interface. The newer Athlon chips - specifically, the Athlon 64's, and future Pentium 4s, support NX, so keep that in mind when upgrading to SP2.
Holly cow, that's bigger than ALL of windows 98! I know there are a TON of improvements in SP2 but the size is kind of crazy
That's the administrative install version that covers everything - including Windows Media Center edition, Windows Tablet PC Edition, etc. If you download the client version, it'll only download the files you need.
Coming soon - pyrogyra
folks will fully understand
the 260MB download is only for the full network install...the msdn download includes tools and comes in at over 400MB.
folks using automatic updates are apparently looking at a 70-90MB download as the updater reads and downloads only what is missing.
and also point out the svc pk update cd will be mailed FREE OF CHARGE around the world.
That isn't quite accurate.
IBM is recommending that its internal people not install SP2 yet -- not because of SP2, but because IBM's web apps might be broken. Windows used to tolerate that brokenness, but SP2 now demands proper compliance with the security rules of the platform. IBM is telling people to wait until they've tested the web apps and fixed any broken ones before shifting.
For my part, I don't understand why they didn't start fixing their apps months ago. The design of SP2 was fully fleshed out by the time RC1 rolled around. One of the reasons Microsoft sent out the RC's was so that businesses and partners could update their applications.
<irony>I'm a trifle puzzled by the delay: the fixes that SP2 requires are fixes that should have been in place previously; why would anyone delay putting in necessary security fixes in their code?</irony>