Re: Recommendation: Do NOT install SP2 at this time.

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From: James (leushinonospam_at_yahoo.com)
Date: 08/28/04 

Date: Sat, 28 Aug 2004 08:44:36 -0700

Don Burnette wrote:

> My experience from installing SP2 and suggestions fwiw,
>
> 1: Made sure I had all the latest drivers for my peripherals
> 2: Made sure I had all available updates for my software
> 3: Did a thorough disk cleanup
> 4: Did a thorough virus scan
> 5: Did a thorough adware scan with Ad Aware and Spybot
> 6: Imaged my hard drive using Powerquest Drive Image
> 7: Installed SP2 - stand alone network install.
> 8: Did a complete defrag of my system partition
>
> System is running great, in fact somewhat more robust than before.
> I have had 1 issue to date, my flight sim IL2 Forgotten Battles w/ Ace
> Expansion Pack - cannot get it to run. I'll keep trying things and reading
> forums and hopefully eventually find a fix or workaround, in fact, I find it
> somewhat of a challenge.
>
> Any operating system upgrade, always take care to prepare - be as well
> prepared as possible, and definitely image or back up hard drive. I image
> my drive on a weekly basis anyway just in case something does happen - it
> usually is not if, but when. Hard drives do fail, bad clusters develop, but
> certainly not because of an OS upgrade. I value my data, so I make sure i
> keep an image of everything available.
>
> There's a risk in everything. I have had hard drives fail for no apparent
> reason at all. I have had expansion cards blow because of a lightning strike
> creating a power surge nearby. I had a motheboard go bad once, I had taken
> it out to put in a new processor, and somehow I must have fried it - I think
> I bent one of the capacitors enough to screw it up.
>
> But, I am not going to put my head in the sand and never upgrade my
> software, install new software, never upgrade my computer, because of a
> slight risk. In particular, if something does go wrong, I am bound and
> determined to find out why, one way or the other, rather than giving up and
> not doing it.
>
> If you wait until all known and unknown bugs are fixed, then might as well
> never install any updates/upgrades.
>
>
> Don Burnette
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> David Cook wrote:
>
>>I'm now recommending to people to HOLD OFF installing SP2 for a few
>>months, until the 'pioneers' who have been burned have a chance to
>>learn how to 'pull the arrows out of their butts'.
>>
>>Consider this point of view:
>> o Numerous people are reporting problems as SEVERE as 'the computer
>>won't
>> boot' after installing SP2.
>> o You are currently at SP1 and have all the incremental-fixes
>>applied and your
>> machine is working very well, right?
>>
>>So, just what SPECIFICALLY do you think that SP2 is gonna do for you?
>>Protect
>>your machine better? NO! SP2 is basically just all the individual
>>security fixes from
>>the past (that you ALREADY have installed individually) rolled up
>>into a LARGE
>>package, along with some new functionality (that you probably do not
>>need YET).
>>Sure, it may APPEAR to be more secure (because after SP2, it
>>automatically enables its own firewall [which you MAY or WANT at all,
>>especially if you are
>>already protected by a firewall by your router/firewall/accesspoint,
>>etc.] And, if you DO want a firewall, you already HAVE ONE IN YOUR
>>BASE WINDOWS-XP system, but you just have NOT turned it on!
>>
>>Bottom line: I can NOT see ANY valid reason to install SP2 at this
>>time!
>>Past history has shown us that when these large 'service-pack'
>>bundles were released,
>>there were numerous SERIOUS problems for the first few months! (To
>>be very fair to Microsoft, they were eventually all figured out and
>>solved. But, not without
>>leaving previous carnage along the way to the pioneers who got
>>burned.)
>>So, I assert that 99% of you out there are MISUNDERSTANDING if you
>>think you ought to install it just because it's available.
>>
>>Again, past history says that there will be a 'better, bug-fixed'
>>iteration of SP2
>>a few months from now (which Microsoft will probably just SILENTLY
>>slip into the servers at Windows-Update without ever admitting that
>>the earlier ones
>>had some serious 'lack of oversight' errors in).
>>
>>As we like to say: "I've been down this road before!"
>>
>>Chill out. Wait a while. A (new improved) SP2 will still be out
>>there a few
>>months from now.
>>
>>Just my opinion, and I'm sticking by it.
>>
>> Dave [just an educated 'user' of Win-XP]
>
>
>
>
Well... other than point 6, I did everything on your list on a
relatively new and problem-free system and I AM experiencing problems.
So while your experience may suggest that SP 2 is a stable upgrade, mine
(and evidentally that of others) suggests otherwise.

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