Anyone running Windows XP (Home or Pro) should install this update. If you have a broadband connection (or a *lot* of patience and a 56k modem), download the 250+ MB package here:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=049C9DBE-3B8E-4F30-8245-9E368D3CDB5A&displaylang=en
SP2 isn't on Windows Update yet, as Microsoft has to add a last-minute fix for using OWA (Outlook Web Access) under IE. But if you don't use OWA, the full-package download above will work fine.
Our IT guys at work told everybody *not* to download the update just yet.
We're saying the same thing here at work--we support a 5,000 machine Active Directory-based domain--but only because we're unsure how it will work with the domain and our third-party support software (Sophos AntiVirus and Altiris). Home users will only benefit from installing SP2.
When SP2 appears on Windows Update, it'll be pared down to only 100MB or so, so if you're on a slower connection, you might want to wait.
I've tried it on two computers: my main home machine, and one I use for tinkering.
So far the only incompatibility I have seen is that the agent for the free version of AntiVir does not work. The actual program works great, but the item in the system tray that monitors files will not activate. Avast! Antivirus software works great.
It was released like a week or 2 ago. I got it from the mdsn website and have played with it a bit.
Our university will NOT be installing it for at least 6 months.
Especially in the school of engineering where I work, we have too much high end software that may or may not respond well sp2. For example, we use a product called ANSYS 8.1 and we got an email from them last week telling us NOT to install sp2 since it breaks ANSYS.
I will not be installing sp2 on my home machines yet for about a few weeks or until they fix the issues with the antivirus programs. (i use norton 8.0 corporate at home).
The big issues are going to be antivirus for home users but for corporate/educational there are going to be a more potential issues.
BTW I did install sp2 on one of my friends computers and actually i really like it. It really does make the system more secure.
Don't download it! It will slow your computer and is not compatible with a lot of software. You could be in for more trouble than you realize! Many complaints are already coming out about this. I guess MicroShaft will now have patches and fixes to sell you to remedy their mistakes.
Slow your comptuer down? As far as incompatible software, its main incompatiblies are with some high end software that most all people would never use and/or some older virus programs (what you need to end up doing is opening the ports for the antivirus programs for them to work properly).
But slow your computer down? LOL. Maybe if you have a celeron 400mhz with 128 megs of ram that you running XP on, it might slow it down a tad, but on anything decent, i have yet to see any appreciable difference.
SP2 is much more secure than SP1 with patches. Do SP2 unless you use some rare peice of software that might not work with it.
I don't know exactly what happened. I let XP did an Express update and now it wouldn't boot(or rather, wouldn't finish booting. It just give a very quick flash screen after the XP screen and reboot itself). I am having a friend over to have a look at it tomorrow. >:(
you gotta restore your system. my friend had this happen.
Nope, seems to have trashed the HD bad enough that I can't even go back to the previous setting. I am putting that drive in a USB case and I'm going to see if my Mac can read it and pull the data off before I reformat it. I think it was formated FAT32
i downloaded it and it screwed my computer up. curse bill gates and his minions. yet another reason to love my mac i guess
I've had no problems with SP2 whatsoever. I have and use a good number of different programs, from graphic editing to utilities to audio editing to games. SP2 hasn't let me down at all.
I can second that, with SP2 my machine at work has been rock solid since it was installed. Photoshop chokes occasionally, but thats a plugin issue.
As far as I can tell, if you make 100% certain that your machine is free from spyware/adware/virii, then you are probably pretty safe installing it. I've put it on a few machines now and if I cleaned all that crud out first really carefully, then it went very smoothly.
If not, the XPSP2 firewall causes all that spyware to have a heart attack all at once.
I was doing tech support for a friend and installed SP2 on her 1Ghz AMD Athlon and it is considerably slower and it froze when it first restarted after SP2 setup. Seems to be a little glitch. I almost wished I hadn't installed it.