Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2, RC1 review

[David]

I'm in Microsoft's Beta program and have had Windows XP SP2 installed for the past few weeks. I thought I'd review it here and maybe help some people decide whether or not to make the upgrade when it is released.

Test machine specifications:
AMD Athlon XP 2600+/2.3GHz
1.00GB DDR400MHz RAM
Windows XP Professional Service Pack 1 integrated, V 2002 (5.1.2600)

I upgraded via the express install to Service Pack 2, build 2096, the upgrade process was successful.

Problems I had:

* Lag on connecting to Windows NT local domain
* Intital boot lag (Although I'd consider this normal)
* ATI drivers were not working properly when trying to run games, drivers had to be reinstalled.

The Windows Firewall:

I'm not sure id it's just because this is RC1, but the firewall actually 'doesn't work', when I select BLOCK a program, the program still freely accesses the internet. This firewall does nothing but say 'hey, this program is accessing the internet, but I'm not going to stop it". I see no use for it at all.


For me, XPSP2 has already failed it adds nothing but security updates to the OS (Okay...I'll use WindowsUpdate, thnx!). The firewall is basically useless, and it will kick you out of games when they attempt to connect to the internet. *The* most annoying thing that has been added is the alert that you need to restart for the updates to take effect. It gives you a dialog box every 10 mins or so that says 'You need to restart...blah blah.' -Restart Now- -Restart Later-, Restart Now is selected by default, so if you are typing an IM and press the space bar, you'll reboot and loose anything you were working on.

*sigh*, this is what we have grown to expect from Microsoft.

[Someguy03]

Me and Dave both went through some fun times with this once we teamed up and figured out how to navigate the beta site and download SP2.

The first time I downloaded it, my entire computer stopped working right. My ATI card wasn't compatible with this versions of windows, my attempts to adjust internet properties crashed windows, my games would crash 10 minutes into the game, System restore stopped working, Norton stopped working, I couldn't install microsoft office updates becayse I was missing a DLL, and finally, my computer would crash and go to a screen, saying I had placed a incorrect version of some DLL file that was required to run windows properly, and had to install the correct one with my network.

Then I uinstalled it, and waited for a new version to come out. After I installed the new version everything was working correctly until I noticed my account took almost a minute to log in. I tried uninstalling it, but then a whole bunch of problems resurfaced. I tried reinstalling it, and everything went back to normal except for everything going slow. Then I had to uninstall it because in order to trouble shoot the slow login because none of the microsoft tech guys had ever "touched" it before. They ended up running out ideas after we used msconfig and tried system restore. So tried to reinstall it again to eliminate the problem, and it placed a DLL that was needed to use windows, So I got a blue screen on startup, and had to format the HD.

Conclusion: Don't use it until its out of beta stages and is supported by MS technical support.

[Dale]

well.. I tried Windows XP Service Pack 2 RC1.. I did have one problem. but its not to big of an issue.

Windows XP Service Pack 2 does not recognise Norton Antivirus 2004 at the moment but that will be probably subject to change in the near future..

Speed.. no issue with my start time. its exactly the same as it originally has.

Compatibility.. the only non-compatible program with Windows XP Service Pack 2 that I ran into was K-lite 2.6, I am sure there is more. but for now compatibility is fine..

Firewall: well.. thanks for the heads up david.. i'll truly have to see if it stops oncomming connections..

quote:For me, XPSP2 has already failed it adds nothing but security updates to the OS (Okay...I'll use WindowsUpdate, thnx!). The firewall is basically useless, and it will kick you out of games when they attempt to connect to the internet. *The* most annoying thing that has been added is the alert that you need to restart for the updates to take effect. It gives you a dialog box every 10 mins or so that says 'You need to restart...blah blah.' -Restart Now- -Restart Later-, Restart Now is selected by default, so if you are typing an IM and press the space bar, you'll reboot and loose anything you were working on.

For me SP2 works as smoothly as Service Pack one.. I havn't bothered to try games on it as it isn't a game machine.. i'll truly see if it isn't compatible with games when I get my new graphics card.

i guess.. my moral of the story is..

dont expect too much out of microsoft betas..

if you expect lots, you will be disapointed...

quote:*sigh*, this is what we have grown to expect from Microsoft.

hehe quotes like that make me glad I have a dual boot linux