Should I get SP2??

[Arch4ngel]

They said they were having problem with ZoneAlarm. Try uninstalling it and watch if your computer go faster.

 

[samsmithnz]

Actually Pent guy, we have experienced this problem at work, and found that it was two .NET applications we wrote that start on startup. Strangely, uninstalling them and then reinstalling them (or waiting until weve applyed SP2 and then installing the apps) seemed to fix the problem...

Are there any applications like this that may have caused the problem for you?

Personally I installed it yesterday and it keeps asking me if I want to block or unblock an application that wants access to the internet, but I cant find the application and I have no idea what it is (so blocked it stays for now). Must search the registry tonight and find more clues...

 

[ThePentiumGuy]

Going to msconfig and unchecking everything on the list seemed to help . Zone alarm worked with SP2 lol.

Pent

 

[Robby]

ZoneAlarm made a mess of things when they relseaed 5.0 (Or 5.5), this was the first time I jumped on a product without first waiting for reviews, This was back in May.

It causes IIS and Apache servers to not work as expected, I have since re-installed ZA 4.0 . BTW, I only use Win2K, no XP for me

 

[sjn78]

My projects wont compile, using VS 2003. Although the program Im trying to build shows in task manager, its only using 56k of memory. devenv is constanly using about 3-17% of the cpu though. Its been doing this for about 10 minutes now. I didnt bother killing off the process so I could see if anything happens.

Also found a few icons in the task tray dont appear anymore, sqlmanager for one, but it is running.

Bad time to upgrade...have a programming uni assignment to finish in a few days....looks like a rollback for me!!

It takes my pc ages to load up. To get to the desktop is fine, just the computer must be doing a lot of thinking, as when you hover the mouse over the taskbar, its a busy cursor. This lasts about a minute. And I have a P4-3.2 with 1 gig of ram.

 

[Arch4ngel]

Well... I hope they arent incorporating Avalon and Indigo by SP2 !

But Im curious to know what the hell they had modified so that so much application stop working properly. Did they drop a hammer on the head of Windows ? Violence and comptuer doesnt make good things.

 

[Volte]

Nothing really stops working, its just if you leave the firewall configured to block all incoming traffic.

 

[neodammer]

I have experienced conflicting firewall issues in sp2. Solution is of course simple..use one or the other

 

[Derek Stone]

What the heck are you people doing? Throwing the machine down a flight of stairs while SP2 is installing? Ive deployed it to over 75 machines now, manually, via Ghost 8.0 and through SMS. Absolutely no problems.

 

[Denaes]

One thing I remember reading about SP2 was that it turned on a lot of features in XP/SP1 that were off previously.

Things like auto update and the XP firewall. Rollback... things that the average user could make use out of because thats what hackers exploit - what they expect to be there. Unfortunately game makers exploit the same things because they expect certain services to be there or not.

I think some people on SP2 could really use a trip to www.blackviper.com - pretty much a site devoted to windows processes and what you should kill and why. usefull things like killing printer services if you dont have a printer, windows messenger - what hackers and spamers use to cause an IE window to pop up with an ad in it when you dont even have IE open.

It explains what the services do and why you should use them or disable them and for most, what the ramifications are.

Personally I gained back about 60mb of RAM and my startup time went from 2 minutes to 25 seconds.

SP2 goes through this list and turns a LOT of things that MS feels you should have on... well, on. constantly. even if you dont use it.

I might use SP2 when they finish the beta testing on it

 

[ThePentiumGuy]

Woah!!!
Lemme try this and get my start time down below 5-7 seconds :-D!!!!!!!!!

 

[pelikan]

noticed that too - real slow down on start up. didnt turn on the fire wall (probably noticed ZoneAlarm) - the only real groans of agony seem to come from the malicious
hacker corner.

 

[Denaes]

Im really honestly surprised by the number of people having firewall problems and NEEDING XP Firewall.

I dont know a single person by name who doesnt have a Router of some sort. Everyone is doing it for sharing internet connections.

Then again I only know one person on dial-up and theres something like 40% of all users still using it.

I personally use two routers. My Linksys is wired only, but has a much faster connection. I have a wireless Netgear plugged into that which gives our home wireless. Ive learned how to manage my routers to still use Apps which firewalls screw up through portforwarding.

I honestly dont know if using a router as a firewall is as secure as a software or other hardware though. I dont get viruses and rarely hacked. Mostly screwed over by IE and spyware installing all sorts of crud on my machine.

The commotion with XP Firewall is understandable, but catches me off guard.

 

[Denaes]

XP SP2 seems to have fixed my Alarm Clock into NOT working!

I know its ghetto, but I use Task Manager to play an MP3 file to wake up. At the given time it runs the mp3 through its associated program (WMP normally).

Well now it gives me the error - even if I browse for the file "Cannot find file" after I select it and its in the path. Its there, but it wont play it.

It looks like - as a "security" precaution they will only let you run applications. Its a shame because I only used it for mp3s and .swf (flash files).

I guess I could write a .net app to startup and execute an mp3... probobly easier than what Im doing right now - trying to get Outlook to play an mp3 at a scheduled time...

>>edit<<

Seems Outlook will only play .wav files...