# Xp Sp2 **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 7, 2004, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xp-sp2/263496 "2004-09-07T16:34:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Joe\_Mahma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@Joe\_Mahma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joe_Mahma)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2004, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xp-sp2/263496/1 "2004-09-07T16:34:49Z")
Has anyone installed SP2? Any problems ? ---
**Author:** ![SlickRoenick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e68b1a/32.png) [@SlickRoenick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlickRoenick)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2004, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xp-sp2/263496/2 "2004-09-07T16:43:36Z")
I’ve done it on 3 computers at home. And at work at the hospital an entire floor has it also. The only problem there was that the firewall blocked a McKesson application, but nothing severe. But check out: [http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/ptech/09/06/windowsupdate.ap/index.html](http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/ptech/09/06/windowsupdate.ap/index.html) ---
**Author:** ![Meeko](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e495f1/32.png) [@Meeko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meeko)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2004, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xp-sp2/263496/3 "2004-09-07T17:51:20Z")
My power scheme was shot, and I got MSN messenger again. but other than that… A lot of pop ups from MS talking about security threat this and that, and one program wont work anymore, Active X/Visual Basic concflicts. ---
**Author:** ![Spezza](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a698b9/32.png) [@Spezza](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spezza)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2004, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xp-sp2/263496/4 "2004-09-07T18:11:24Z")
I had installed it, though was not able to connect to the internet anymore. After several futile attempts to fix problem had to remove SP2. Anybody had a similar problem? ---
**Author:** ![Chairman\_Pow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/838e76/32.png) [@Chairman\_Pow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chairman_Pow)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2004, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xp-sp2/263496/5 "2004-09-07T18:39:05Z")
Unfortunately, I seem to be the only person that didn’t have a problem installing it! Then again, I’d only been running XP for a few weeks, so I didn’t have much time to let the deretus collect… ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2004, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xp-sp2/263496/6 "2004-09-07T19:09:24Z")
> [@Spezza](#): > > I had installed it, though was not able to connect to the internet anymore. After several futile attempts to fix problem had to remove SP2. Anybody had a similar problem? I did. I installed it, got the software working so I could connect from home. Everything was fine. I shut down. Started up again on Saturday morning, and could not connect to the Internet, no matter what I did. I had to do a system restore. Then it worked. The next time I rebooted, it hijacked my browser and tried to re-install the service pack. No freaking way! Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![ticker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d07c76/32.png) [@ticker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ticker)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2004, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xp-sp2/263496/7 "2004-09-07T19:46:25Z")
The only problems I have so far are: - takes much longer to boot up. Still investigating. - IE had all sorts of annoying messages about how great it was doing stopping pop-ups. I preferred the subtle icon change of the Google toolbar blocker I was using before. I have now gone to Mozilla Firefox which is a much better browser anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2004, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xp-sp2/263496/8 "2004-09-07T22:54:35Z")
I have installed it successfully at home (on XP Home, as it happens\*) - no problems, except I had to tweak the firewall settings and a few other things. I’ve tried installing it on several XP Pro machines at work and it fails even to download. - oddly, it has removed the ‘home edition’ reference from the startup splash screen and the progress bar thing is now blue, like XP Pro. ---
**Author:** ![SlickRoenick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e68b1a/32.png) [@SlickRoenick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlickRoenick)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2004, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xp-sp2/263496/9 "2004-09-08T21:25:49Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > I have installed it successfully at home (on XP Home, as it happens\*) - no problems, except I had to tweak the firewall settings and a few other things. > > I’ve tried installing it on several XP Pro machines at work and it fails even to download. > > - oddly, it has removed the ‘home edition’ reference from the startup splash screen and the progress bar thing is now blue, like XP Pro. I run XP Professional and it removed the Professional part from the splash screen also. It’s just Windows XP now! ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2004, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xp-sp2/263496/10 "2004-09-08T22:21:38Z")
The change is only cosmetic though, isn’t it? - the service pack can’t possibly have levelled the differences between home and pro, can it? (well, of course it _could have_, but what I mean is it _won’t have_). The XP Home trim still remains elsewhere, such as on the start menu. ---
**Author:** ![theckhd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/cdc98d/32.png) [@theckhd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/theckhd)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2004, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xp-sp2/263496/11 "2004-09-09T01:27:37Z")
I’ve installed it on 3 machines at work and this laptop, with no apparent slowdowns or conflicts. I’m holding off on the installation on my other 4 home systems until i’ve flexed it in as many ways as i can think of. There’s [another thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=275181) in GQ about this, in which somebody mentioned a problem with Bittorrent, though a fix exists. Also there was a news [article](http://www.hardcoreware.net/reviews/review-237-1.htm) linked to from [hardocp.com](http://hardocp.com) this past week that claimed to see performance increases after applying SP2. Admittedly, i turn off the firewall and auto-updates as soon as i install the service pack, since all of the machines i look after are behind hardware firewalls. I haven’t noticed the splash screen changes, but i’m sure that they’re only cosmetic, as **Mangetout** suspects. If the patch actually disabled things in XP pro, it would be noticed (and there would probably be a public outcry from the online community). And it wouldn’t be like Microsoft to add functionality to XP Home to level it with Pro, because that would mean they’re giving you something for nothing. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Ed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Just\_Ed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Ed)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2004, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xp-sp2/263496/12 "2004-09-09T02:14:57Z")
> [@ticker](#): > > The only problems I have so far are: > > - takes much longer to boot up. Still investigating. > > - IE had all sorts of annoying messages about how great it was doing stopping pop-ups. I preferred the subtle icon change of the Google toolbar blocker I was using before. I have now gone to Mozilla Firefox which is a much better browser anyway. I had the same problem with start-up time, but it went back to normal after a defrag. As for the annoying messages of IE’s new pop-up blocker, you can turn off the “information bar” so that all you see is the status bar icon (I use Firefox too, but was curious about the “new” IE.) As for the firewall problems I see people mentioning, I didn’t have any problems there - the new Security Center recognized my ZoneAlarm firewall and turned the native Windows firewall off; I had no connection problems. ---
**Author:** ![Spezza](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a698b9/32.png) [@Spezza](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spezza)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2004, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xp-sp2/263496/13 "2004-09-09T02:24:46Z")
> [@Quixotic](#): > > As for the firewall problems I see people mentioning, I didn’t have any problems there - the new Security Center recognized my ZoneAlarm firewall and turned the native Windows firewall off; I had no connection problems. I too was running ZoneAlarm when I installed SP2, and figured any internet problem was associated with that. However, no matter the change in settings I attempted nothing corrected the problem. It seemed that SP2 was attempting to connect me with some network. For the moment I have given up of SP2; at least until it becomes mandatory for me to install it. ---
**Author:** ![WolfpackJeep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpackjeep/32/2921_2.png) [@WolfpackJeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WolfpackJeep)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2004, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xp-sp2/263496/14 "2004-09-09T03:14:40Z")
> [@Spezza](#): > > I had installed it, though was not able to connect to the internet anymore. After several futile attempts to fix problem had to remove SP2. Anybody had a similar problem? Yes! It identified my Roadrunner connection as a security threat, eliminated Norton Firewall, prevented StyleXP (a desktop theme program) from running, and kept throwing pointless security-related information boxes at me. I uninstalled it, then did a system restore just to be safe. No further problems, other than Windows Update begging me to re-install SP2 every other week. ---
**Author:** ![Maxxxie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f14d63/32.png) [@Maxxxie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maxxxie)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2004, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xp-sp2/263496/15 "2004-09-09T06:26:04Z")
I’ve installed it on a handful of laptops in an enterprise environment. So far so good, no real hassles. We’re only just starting the evaluation process, but first impressions are good. Minor issues with McAfee AntiVirus V7.1 Enterprise. Mostly to do with the firewall blocking ports so the AV client couldn’t receive wakeup calls from the ePO server. Until I get time to mess about with it, we’ve disabled the firewall feature on LAN interfaces. We can tweak the firewall using group policy, and in general I think it will benefit our roaming users. I was previously using SP1a. SP2 seems to have made boot times somewhat quicker. I haven’t had any stability problems. Max. ---
**Author:** ![spingears](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ebca7d/32.png) [@spingears](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spingears)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2004, 10:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xp-sp2/263496/16 "2004-09-09T10:53:32Z")
> [@Joe Mahma](#): > > Has anyone installed SP2? Any problems ? 1. I do not use Outlook nor IE. 2. SP1 has been installed via online upgrade connnections. 3 SP2 ? Not till I am forced to. Much dissatifaction has been reported. [Microsoft extends block to SP2 auto update](http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-5355050.html) Microsoft is doubling the number of months that corporate customers can block automatic delivery of Windows XP Service Pack 2. ---
**Author:** ![Brutus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@Brutus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brutus)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2004, 11:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xp-sp2/263496/17 "2004-09-09T11:04:24Z")
VPN problems under certain configurations. [Addressed here](http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;%5BLN%5D;884020). The filthy b\*\*\*\*\*\*\* make you call or email support to get the fix. ---
**Author:** ![TommyTutone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c4cdca/32.png) [@TommyTutone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TommyTutone)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2004, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xp-sp2/263496/18 "2004-09-09T13:49:58Z")
I broke down and installed it, but it repeatedly gave me a blue screen of death whenever I tried to run ITunes. I don’t know that SP2 was the SOLE cause of this, but after removing SP2 and reinstalling Windows, ITunes was happy again, making me happy. ---
**Author:** ![Amp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Amp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amp)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2004, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xp-sp2/263496/19 "2004-09-09T14:05:51Z")
It identified my RR connection as a security threat and disabled it. After fiddling around for a few I was able to get back on line but it still labels my RR connection as “Disabled”. It is not a big deal but I can’t right click on the connection icon and get my IP address anymore. Also my PC fails to acquire an IP address whenever the lease is up on the old every now and then. Also not a big deal, All I have to do is unplug my router and plug it back in and it fixes the problem. ---
**Author:** ![ouryL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ouryl/32/6067_2.png) [@ouryL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ouryL)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2004, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xp-sp2/263496/20 "2004-09-09T21:36:05Z")
> [@Joe Mahma](#): > > Has anyone installed SP2? Any problems ? If an imperfectly installed version of xp is installed with the update, little problems become big problems. The only laptop that was updated that went screwy was the one that was a bit luney already…eg. embedded webpages featuring quicktime or WMP which were slow, no longer loaded. The new windows security page keeps warning you that your computer ain’t safe, even after following the instructions on correcting this. All the problems seen to center on giving permission to access. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xp-sp2/263496.md?page=2)