SP2 or not?

[Guest Dr Who]

I should be receiving my new laptop soon, which is being supplied as SP1 I believe. Given the generally negative reception to SP2, should I install it. I happily run all my other computers on SP1 with very few of the recent (last 12 month?) XP updates and maintain security by not straying too far off the corporate internet path and battening down my firewall. Everything I need to work, works perfectly already. So like I say, worth it or not? (My one experience of SP2 is that it seems to lock up a laptop when surfing the internet and the battery has to come out to reset it - and it happens frequently)

[Guest ghm101]

I've not had a problem with it. got it on my LT and DT.

There are a lot of advantages - wireless network wizard etc

As is typical with this sort of thing the early adoptors faced some problems but any issues should be easily resolved with a google search now.

[Guest amo]

Hate SP2 and wish i'd never bothered. It has taken over my machine and annoyingly pops up every 30 seconds or anytime i decide to do something it doesnt want me to.

^_^

[Guest squall]

I think sp2 is a big step forward, i have xp profesional and havent had any problemsm i like the new security features etc

[Guest Monolithix [MVP]]

No problems using SP2 on a PC or laptop here - the security features amo hates can easily be disabled. Plus don't forget it installs all the latest OS patches as well, secuirty as well as general bugs. If its a freshly built machine SP2 will go on in 20 mins or so with no issues. Tech support moan about the firewall - disable it. Easy.

[Guest Palindrome]

I've been happy with SP2 but I agree with amo in the fact that the popups are increadible annoying. I've got Zonealarm 4.5 which works fine but the Security Centre doesn't recognise it and keeps nagging me, even after telling it I've got a firewall and not to alert me if it can't find one. But apart from that it's worth getting just for the security fixes.

[Guest Monolithix [MVP]]

What popups? It didnt recognise my Norton through out the beta and RC's, i said not to worry about it and it stopped?

[Guest Vector]

I have used it since the day it was RTM...and had no problems at all, i like the fact that it alerts me that my AV ins't up to date, and the new Bluetooth drivers rock ^_^

[Guest Dr Who]

I think I will give it a try and if I run into any problems I will just reset it.

As for the previous problem (laptop freezes when using IE) I remember reading about someone who had a similar problem accessing a log when XP restarts to look for what was happening at the freeze point. Anyone know what this log might be and how to access it, and what I need to look for in the log? I suspect there may be a problem with the F-secure firewall I am using and may revert to the SP2 supplied one temporarily and see if that removes the problem. Failing that I may install Mozilla and see if that is better. Hate working around problems though.

[Guest idavid]

i installed it a few weeks ago and doom3 wouldnt run. tried to do a system restore and it crashed half way through.... you can guess what that meant... cant really see any benefit in it.

[Guest Monolithix [MVP]]

Doom3 runs fine for me ^_^

[Guest amo]

Like others have mentioned, the things I mentioned in the previous post can be disabled - but its just the added inconvenience of reconfiguring my systems settings for the sake of having the security patches applied. Seems a shame really, perhaps two versions of SP2 may have been better? One with the added features such as WiFi setup, 'better' firewall etc and one with just the security updates we've been needing oh so badly.

[Guest spacemonkey]

I SP2'd my machine and I've since rolled it back. I actually liked a lot of it's improvements and features, however in the week or so I had it running my pc was noticably slower and I had quite a few crashes in programs like office.

Uninstalled it and now my machine behaves flawlessly again.