Windows XP Service Pack 2

[Spookster]

So I went ahead and installed Windows XP service pack 2. Is it just me or is windows and Internet Explorer running faster now? Overall I have seen a general noticable increase in performance.

[oracleguy]

Prolly just you ;)

You should feel proud as one of the elite few who were lucky to successfully upgrade to sp2. :)

[Spookster]

Prolly just you ;)

You should feel proud as one of the elite few who were lucky to successfully upgrade to sp2. :)

Well it wasn't completely error free. I used the windows update feature and it took a few trys and took a long time even on my incredibly fast broadband connection.

But ever since I got it installed things run faster now I swear.

[VietBoyVS]

Prolly just you ;)

You should feel proud as one of the elite few who were lucky to successfully upgrade to sp2. :)

you got that right..

I got to formatted my HD and started fresh again since I could not boot again after installed SP2 on my laptop.

[Celtboy]

heh, slower on my comps. I think.

Never really benchmarked.

SP2 forced me to switch to Firefox anyway, so *of course* it seems faster....and more stable.....and generally better....


;)

-Celt

[Roy Sinclair]

Actually the "security review" that MS did between the release of XP and Server 2003 had a lot of performance improvements show up as a side effect of the "safe practices" MS made as a part of the review. Many (but not all) of those changes were back-ported to XP as a part of SP2 so you're not mistaken.

[sweenster]

i upgraded to SP2 and have had no problems whatsoever. (possibly because i did a clean install of XP beforehand)

you can order a CD with SP2 on it free from microsoft:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/updates/sp2/cdorder/en_us/default.mspx

i have noticed these SP2 CD's getting sold on e-bay for a few quid. might be a nice little earner...


one other thing I have noticed is that the IE pop up blocker tends to automatically block a lot of javascript and active-x code. (as an example: http://www.whatsinmypocket.co.uk/virus/newsite/index.htm) Aside from creating a non javascript page, would there be any sort of workaround to make a website idiot proof whereby the user would disable script blocking if asked??

[canadianjameson]

i upgraded and now seem to get a weird internet death for 10-15 seconds randomly every so often... its like my wireless cards lose my router signal completely, then randomly pick it up again...

anoying, and enough to kill some irc dl's

[Willy Duitt]

I think one of the problems with installing SP2 thru the automatic updates is that it is trickled to the end user and while some users have a good connection, others suffer from the download being interrupted for one reason or another and there are some files which may be corrupted and causing problems... (JMHO)

What I have done is visit Microsofts developers download site and downloaded the Network SP2 Release (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=049C9DBE-3B8E-4F30-8245-9E368D3CDB5A&displaylang=en).... And FWIW: this is a quick download, I got mine in less than 10 minutes for the entire 266MB and burned it directly to disc.... and have updated several pc's with this disc without any problems....

.....Willy

[canadianjameson]

good thinking kind sir! :D

[Roy Sinclair]

Given the state of the net these days you should always have the latest Service pack available on a local CD for use whenever you re-install. On some networks (college campuses) an unpatched (and un-firewalled) computer will be compromised faster than it can download and install the patches it needs to keep it from being compromised.

[canadianjameson]

does installing SP2 include all updates prior to it?

or would i need to download X small updates
AND SP2 to a CD

[Willy Duitt]

The full version of SP2 which now stands at 266MB includes all updates up till the date that particular file was released....

One of the advantages from downloading the file from the link I posted above is that that file will be continually updated as patches/updates are released.... The ones you recieve by ordering or from magazines will not reflect any additional changes and these will need to be gotten from their update site seperately....

As Roy recommended, an up to date Service Pack is essential to have available on disc so that any newly formatted pc can be updated prior to ever being placed on the network and exposed to the internet.... It is currently reported that it only takes 20 minutes for an unpatched/unprotected pc to be compromised once exposed to the internet.... Which means there is a good chance that you will be compromised before you could completely download the updates from Microsoft's update site....

.....Willy

[canadianjameson]

sexy, thanks

[raf]

It's not like you have much choice : Internet Explorer users must install SP2 to be able to use the 'new updated safer IE' version --> will only run on Win XP SP2. (older Win version will need to buy an upgrade to XP to be able to use the 'safest' IE version, so the new Micro$oft strategy is starting to show: the next IE-version will almost certainly be an integral part of there next OS-version.)

Luckily, you can always choose a better browser instead of the upcomming IE Patchwork versions ...

[Skyzyx]

You should feel proud as one of the elite few who were lucky to successfully upgrade to sp2. :)

I heard a lot of bad things about the "Express Install" from Windows Update. I downloaded the complete "Network Install" the day after it came out, and had no problems whatsoever with the upgrade.



does installing SP2 include all updates prior to it? or would i need to download X small updates AND SP2 to a CD

No, SP2 includes all of the fixes from SP1 and everything in-between.

[squirellplaying]

I have no been able to download sp2 on either of my computers. This one I try again every once and a while. The other one now dual boots xp/mandrake and I use mandrake so I don't care. :D

[Basscyst]

I had no problems at all with the install, Nortons 2002 did not care to be updated post SP2 however, so now I'm sitting with 3 year old virus definitions. :eek:

I'll also add that the automatically blocked content in IE is a bit alarming, I can understand Active X controls, but any JS on a page at all and the user must authorize the content for the code to run. :mad:

On the pro side the integrated firewall has made great strides. Still not that great but definetly better than the previous joke of a firewall.

Basscyst

[jkd]

I downloaded the massive network install file at about 1500 kb/s (go college pipe!) and installed it the other night. No issues at all. Haven't opened Internet Explorer in ages though, so I couldn't tell you about anything new in that.

[Willy Duitt]

I downloaded the massive network install file at about 1500 kb/s (go college pipe!)

JKD;

At that speed the download must have been about 3 minutes....
I'm quessing since my time of 10 minutes was based on an average download speed of 500kb/s.... :D

......Willy

[kwhubby]

Ive had some issues with sp2 that made me to use system restore. I regularly play various directx games and when I installed sp2 halo ce stoped working. I relize now that it was an issue with my graphics card having 256 megs of ram, and that a patch is out. I also found sp2 added a security service which considerably slowed down my bootup (was easy to turn off though) and it made internet explorer behave anoyingly (anoying prompts and blocking of popups). I find sp2 to be un user friendly to todays average computer user, and containing too many bugs. Ive found various people that have caused problems to them selfs with the built in firewall that installs.
I am going to wait a little while until I reinstall sp2, just to see what more issues arise and are solved.

[Willy Duitt]

kwubby;

This is getting a little off topic but if you are going to be running SP1 the following information may help protect your pc from the recently exposed JPEG buffer overflow exploits....


For those XP users whom are still using SP1...
(or whom are not qualified to recieve SP2)...

Microsoft has released a Critical Update KB833987
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/...n/MS04-028.mspx (http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/MS04-028.mspx)

And a detection tool which is suppose to indicate if you are vulnerable to the GDIPLUS exploit... However I found this tool to be so lame as to be useless....
http://www.microsoft.com/security/bulletin..._jpeg_tool.mspx (http://www.microsoft.com/security/bulletins/200409_jpeg_tool.mspx)

However, the Internet Storm Center has also released their own tool which shows which folders these vulnerable GDIPLUS.DLL's reside in and their current version....
http://isc.sans.org/gdiscan.php

Now here is where the fun begins...
I had found that I was still vulnerable to exploit even after installing Microsofts Critical Update KB833987 (I downloaded and installed KB833987 no less than 10 times).... And according to ISC's gdiscan tool, the vulnerable GDIPLUS.DLL resided in:
C:\WINDOWS\I386\ASMS\1000\MSFT\WINDOWS\GDIPLUS\

The GDIPLUS.DLL version I found there was 5.1.3097.0 and the one that is included with SP2 and is reported not to be vulnerable to the exploits currently in the wild is 5.1.3102.1360 (it should be noted that this version was actually released May 4, 2004)... After a little searching over at MSDN, I found this latest GDIPLUS.DLL version for download here....
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details...&DisplayLang=en (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=6a63ab9c-df12-4d41-933c-be590feaa05a&DisplayLang=en)

Aye but the fun does not stop with the download....
To install you will need to first set a restore point and create a folder... Save the Microsoft download to that folder (it is not advised to save to your desktop. I used the same folder I downloaded the two scanning tools too).... Once saved, click on the self extracting executable and insure the contents are saved to this folder...

Once extracted, open whatever folder(s) the ISC gdiscan tool revealed to hold the vulnerable version of GDIPLUS.DLL and rename them something else (I renamed them GDIPLUS.DLL_Vorig) and then copy the new GDIPLUS.DLL into these folders... DO NOT OVERWRITE THE CURRENT VERSIONS!!!

I have done this myself well over a week ago without any ill effects... My system is still running good if not better.... Additionally, Windows Media Player Scripting ability is also susceptable to these exploits... a malicious site could trick a user into viewing an mp3, avi or movie file and run arbitrary code on their machine, including downloading a backdoor trojan... It is advised to turn off Media Player Scripting and an easy to use tool to turn on/turn off can be found here....
http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/wmpscriptingfix.html
(by the makers of Spyware Blaster)


.....Willy

[kwhubby]

Interesting information Willy. I think it would be interesting to see an actual example of how a jpeg could do such (not that i would attempt to use the exploit).