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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.
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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.
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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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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."
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!
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.