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Is it Safe to Use Win XP SP2, Yet?
An anonymous reader asks: "I have to run Win XP for work. However, I have not had the urge to download and install SP2 due to all of the problems that I've heard. Are lots of people still having problems with it? I know I don't have any viruses or spyware, and no, Linux is not an option. I am a consultant and my hardware has to match the client. I have done plenty of searching, but nobody has really followed up and shown what is currently happening with SP2, just what was happening when it was released. Did M$oft release any patches for SP2 yet to fix some of the reported issues? I do use a wireless network, and heard it messes up the connections. Is that true? Thanks for any help." Update: 09/18 04:15 EDT by C : Apparently there may still be some performance issues with XP-SP2, as this later article illustrates, however it may not be so bad as the article makes it out to be. Some readers are suggesting that the performance hit is due to bounds checking in the code, so it begs the question: Would you prefer a slower app that has more security, or a faster app that suffers from typical vulnerabilities that might bite you big-time, later?
M$oft? And here I thought this was going to be a serious question.
Is that a real poncho? I mean, is that a Mexican poncho or is that a Sears poncho?
I have deployed XP SP2 fairly widely (50 odd machines) with no ill effects. The majority of "problems" are due to the proper functioning of the firewall, so understand what a software firewall does and how to open ports for programs.
One thing that is broken is loopback addresses other than 127.0.0.1: they don't function correctly, but I don't have any software that this affected.
As far as wireless goes, we did have one machine connected via a Linksys internal wireless card and a couple of notebooks. None of them were affected by SP2, but I was already using XPs native networking so you probably will want to test that if you are working with third part networking tools.
Sig under construction since 1998.
See if any of your applications will have issues
But to be honest, i've dealt with over 1000 PCs and not a single one have had any issues with SP2. I say go for it, it may have some problems, but it sure is better than what it was before....
A survey (sorry, don't remember where, IIRC it was posted on NTBugTrack) said there's about 90% success rate, or 10% of computers have problems after installation.
Corporate respondents reported about 6% failure rate, and small bus & induhviduals were close to 12%.
Nothing to see here; Move along.
We use Windows XP on a few machines primarily used for research, and we've patched with little difficulty. All of our hardware has worked fine.
However, the machines run a very specific set of programs with little "internet" contact. XP-SP2 seems mostly to provide "buffer" for Netziens surfing around on unprotected machines having little 'net experience, which, lets all be fair, is a disasterous situation.
Bottom line, however, is that Windows XP, or any other operating system, can't stop people from doing ignorant things. Most of these things are *ignorant*, and not stupid - people who don't know proper procedures can't be expected to suddenly abide by them.
...but it totally screwed me over because of this problem. I have an Intel Pentium 4 (Prescott Core) and a Shuttle SB61G2 that I bought about five months ago. It just so happens that this particular processor/mobo combo causes WinXP to totally hang.
And as an added bonus, when I tried to update my BIOS to fix the problem, it appeared to work, right up until I restarted and got nothing but a black screen. Thankfully it was all still under warranty, and NewEgg is replacing the Shuttle (with the latest version). All I was out was the $6 for shipping and the week without that computer. Still sucks, but it could have been worse.
You probably shouldn't click this.
I'm a consultant as well, however I run Debian linux as my main distribution, and VMWare which has Windows XP installed in it. This way I can make copies of Windows XP at different phases (no patches, full patched no SP2, full patch with SP2).
VMWare is not cheap, but it's well worth the money. What's bizarre is I still have Windows lockup and crash, but my computer is a lot more stable. In fact I've never had linux lock up and crash on me.
Clients are really impressed when they see the "computer" still working (Linux), while Windows is sitting at a blue screen of death. You can have 2 or 3 copies of Windows XP, and setup a samba server on the host as a background server to store your files. No data loss, no worrying about viruses or spyware, no concern about whether to use or not use SP2 (use 'em both).
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More complex than that. To use SP2 effectively, you need to become the master of the Windows Firewall. For most things it's fine- for just about everything else patches have come out already. There is a solution for every problem you will run into- so yes, it's safe as of now.
SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
22 Computers, and aside from the annoying icon in the system tray that is always complaining, nothing bad yet. It does, also, take away the indication when loading if you are using XP pro or XP home.
Is the average Windows user knowledgable/concerned enough to secure his insecure (yes, even with SP2) home or otherwise box, or at least give security a second thought?
;P
No.
Oh, if anyone cares, I installed SP2 on my dad's home box right after it hit Windows Update. Turned on the firewall, and left Zone Alarm on. Walked in to use the said box a few days back and found both firewalls disabled and Kazaa running. He had also managed to pick up Gator -- whatever they're calling it now, and a few other things I care not to mention.
So I did what any sane geek would do. Turn the monitor off and safely retreat to my room, pretending I didn't see a thing!
"An infinite number of monkeys typing into GNU emacs would never make a good program."
There's three of us in my office, and I'm the one smacking my colleagues if they don't run Windows Update in a timely manner. The day SP2 came out, I told them to hold off until those on the front lines had installed it and reported back via some web forum or other. Later that week, the shit hit the fan, and I acquired a sagely aura (which can be kinda awkward in a small office) for sparing us the pain.
So as far as I'm concerned, SP2 has convinced those around me that the things I say (and often scream, spittle and all) about Windows are to be obeyed promptly, which means that SP2 has already made the XP boxes at our organization measurably more secure.
Thanks, Microsoft!
Quantum materiae materietur marmota monax si marmota monax materiam possit materiari?
Windows XP SP2, on one hand, does indeed break LOTS of things, but from what I've found, if it was atleast designed for Windows 2000/XP it should work flawlessly, but otherwise maybe. I've had some old (NT4 and Win95) apps break, but thats about it. On the other hand, there are tons of security bugfixes and to top it off, it makes IE more useable (though I perfer Firefox ;-). Some of these security things can be annoying (security center), others good (IE warns before running downloaded files), and others bad (SP2 breaks NMap and other port scanners).
All in all, I'd suggest installing it on a nonessential computer (or VMWare machine) and see if you like/need it. But remember, either you adopt it now, or you adopt it later, but you will eventually have to run it!
the machines i deal with at work are a broad mix of laptops administered by their owners, mostly college students who have no idea what the %^$#^%^%$ they're doing. i've had good results putting SP2 on them ... it hasn't hosed a single one. i would highly recommend installing it.
I heard that if you install SP2, "M$oft" kills a kitten. Also, I heard that it ate someone's mom. I'd be careful.
Just to add to the general feeling here, we knock out 50 - 100 machines a week with SP2 and have very few reported issues apart from with the list that MS give. WiFi is just a bitch anyway, but third party software generally complains more under SP2 than SP1. The most common issue there is with third party software starting on boot, and then users trying to config their connections through windows.
I installed SP2 on my TabletPC. Other than the firewall working like it should, it's been just fine. No stability problems. It's nice getting a little thing saying "Are you sure you want this program hitting the internet?" etc.
For you TabletPC owners out there, you'll probably like some of the nicities that pop up. Now when you hover your stylus over a text input field, an icon indicating an On-Screen-Keyboard appears. If you click it, a miniature one appears. This means you don't have to keep the OSK on all the time. Kudos MS.
"Derp de derp."
Error Messages received when loading SP2:
Title of error message: migrate.exe - Entry Point Not Found
Error message 1: The procedure entry point GetIUMS could not be located in the dynamic link library MSDART.DLL.
Error message 2: The procedure entry point GetTextExtentPointI could not be located in the dynamic link library MSDART.DLL.
Resolution: There is a new MSDART.DLL in Windows XP Service Pack 2. Apparently, SP2 sometimes tries to use MSDART.DLL before it has copied it. If you happen to have an old version of MSDART.DLL on the system you are upgrading, it crashes and destroys your entire installation of Windows XP. After the crash, one machine would still boot, but the initial boot screen said "Windows Media Center" instead of "Windows XP Professional". This particular machine has been used by a very responsible office manager for two years without problems, and has never been near Windows Media Center. Very weird.
The newest version of MSDART.DL_ is in the random folder name created when running SP2, in the i386 sub-folder. This folder is deleted after SP2 finishes.
Run the command: EXPAND.EXE msdart.dl_ to unpack to MSDART.DLL. Then copy the new, SP2 version of MSDART.DLL to the C:\winnt\system32 or C:\windows\system32 folder, whichever is correct. (The second may be correct if you upgraded to Windows XP from Windows 98.)
I talked to someone at MS Tech support about this, who correctly identified that it was a problem with MSDART.DLL, but told me to download MDAC_TYP.EXE from Microsoft and install it. This did NOT solve the problem. MDAC_TYP.EXE has an old version of MSDART.DLL that does not contain the needed entry points, apparently.
The MS technical support representative spoke very slowly and said a lot of inappropriate things. I think it a big company like Microsoft could give its employees a better grade of weed.
After you have this problem with SP2, if you fix SP2 while it is running by copying the new version of MSDART.DLL, you MUST load SP2 again. Otherwise some users may have inoperative icons. Very weirder.
If you use the words "Microsoft" and "Quality" in the same sentence, does God strike you dead? Apparently not.
You can call Microsoft about SP2: Call 1-800-936-5700. Choose 1. Wait until the recorded message gets through trying to get you to go elsewhere and press 5. It was free for me, at least. The two support representatives to whom I talked did not help me. However, they were pleasant and conceivably might help reduce a feeling of loneliness.
Other issues:
SP2 may not be able to run on an infected system. Run virus checkers and spyware checkers before trying to load Windows XP SP2. I recommend Grisoft's AVG free personal virus checker.
For spyware removal, run both the free AdAware Personal and the free Spybot Search and Destroy. One may find things the other doesn't.
Virus Checkers: Disable virus checkers and non-SP2-aware software firewalls while loading SP2.
ZoneAlarm software firewall: Upgrade to the latest version of ZoneAlarm, if you use it, before trying to install SP2. Disable the Windows firewall; ZoneAlarm Pro provides much better security. For example, ZoneAlarm Pro renames the file name extensions of attachments that have file name extensions that signify an executable file. There are 44 of those, if I remember correctly. ZoneAlarm provides outgoing protection, as well as incoming protection; the firewall in SP2 provides only incoming protection.
Disable harassments. After you load SP2, there are two new entries in Control Panel: Windows Firewall and Security Center. Go to Security Center/ Change the Way Security Center alerts me/ to disable the messages that haras
I live in a country in the Middle East that blocks all kinds of internet access, and I used to get around that by tunnelling out through SSH.
Till I upgraded to SP2.
Now my machine can't connect to loopback addresses (the entire 127.0.x.x space), not can it connect to localhost. I can't uninstall SP2 either. I'm seriously considering reinstalling XP (No, I can't use Linux. My company's product requires Windows)
Also, I have a Wi-Fi network at home that uses a USR9106 ADSL Gateway & Router and a Linksys WRT54G as a repeater. Since SP2, I have difficulty logging into the network when both are active. If I switch off the Linksys, it works. Weird.
I have 3 Windows desktops and a Powerbook with a Linksys wireless G+B router. One of the desktop PCs (AlienWare with notebook wireless PC card) was updated to SP2... totally hosed the wireless network. As long as the updated Desktop was turned off and the router was reset, the rest of the network was fine. AS soon as the SP2 box booted up it would mangle the network and all other connected devices would lose access.
After about 8 hours of testing the network and changing settings and turning off services on both the SP2 PC and others we decided it had everything to do with the new BroadBand Connection control panel and zeroconf service.
Apparently SP2 was broadcasting an adhoc network of it's own, not recognizing that a network already existed and somehow DOSing the router. We tried turning off the service but then the SP2 PC couldn't connect without 3rd party software...
In the end we just reinstalled Windows XP Pro on the AlienWare PC, turned on backup/recovery so we wouldn't have to reinstall again if a future patched version of SP2 still caused this problem and went on with our lives.... making sure to turn off auto updates.
At some point we will attempt to apply the service pack again but not until we have plenty of free time to deal with collateral damage.
--my story
A fool throws a stone into a well and a thousand sages can not remove it.
"the performance hit is due to bounds checking in the code, so it begs the question: Would you prefer a slower app that has more security..."
NO, IT DOESN'T:
beg the question
to beg the question - definition by dict.die.net
How to (and how not to) Beg the Question. From "On Language: Semantitheft," by William Safire. The New York Times, May 13, 2001