Am I the only one *without* SP2 installed?

[DavidNZ]

Was going to upgrade to Trend Micro Internet Security 2006 when I noticed it requires SP2 for XP. The tech support guys at the University I work for were amazed that I hadn't installed SP2.

Well...

1. Haven't had a virus since, literally, 1993, when a boot sector virus rendered my Masters supervisor's brand new 486DX in his lab unusable until I could get a fix the next morning from a mate (to this day, he doesn't know it happened).

2. I sit behind a harware firewall at home (wireless D-Link router) and a hardware firewall at the office. On the road, I tend to stay away from public WiFi spots and use an RJ45 or dial-up (and use the Trend Micro software firewall if I do).

3. I regularly patch XP, although it does keep saying "let me install SP2".

4. I don't browse 'seedy' sites, if you know what I mean, but I am all over the net for research purposes.

5. I use Firefox, Adaware, Spybot and the MS Antispyware beta.

6. All email is scanned twice - once server-side and once when it reaches my X40. I handle all kinds of attachments from people (academics and students) and I've never had a problem.

Am I just extraordinarily lucky or am I missing somthing?

[AndyL]

The main things in XP SP2 were the improvements to IE/Outlook Express and the firewall. If you don't need or use either of those then there may only be marginal benefit in it for you. (However bear in mind that lots of things other than the web browser tap into IE's rendering engine.)

That said I think the arguments in favour of installing SP2 probably outweigh those against. Of the vulnerabilities Microsoft has revealed since the release of SP2 most have affected XP SP1 and SP2 equally; but there have been some that were mitigated or prevented by SP2. And sooner or later MS will stop releasing patches for SP1.

[s0larian]

Some software already needs SP2 installed as a requirement. Sooner or later you cannot avoid it if you want to stick with XP.

[dsvochak]

There is a Microsoft Support article that details the list of fixes in SP2 at
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=811113
If you read through it, you might find something that would be useful to you.

[bill bolton]

> were amazed that I hadn't installed SP2.

So am I!

XP2 is about a whole range of inplace enhancements to Windows XP, not just security.

See the link referenced previously.

Cheers,

Bill

[BruisedQuasar]

The tech support guys at the University I work for were amazed that I hadn't installed SP2.

3. I regularly patch XP, although it does keep saying "let me install SP2".

5. I use Firefox, Adaware, Spybot and the MS Antispyware beta.

6. All email is scanned twice - once server-side and once when it reaches my X40. I handle all kinds of attachments from people (academics and students) and I've never had a problem. Am I just extraordinarily lucky or am I missing somthing?

I do not think "luck" is the explanation. Cut & Paste crackers & Virus Kooks do not spend time on academic related sites. They love porn & political discussion sites & they particularly love to infect AOL users.

You may already be aware (but most XP users are not) that by not installing XP SP2 you can still reinstall XP with your recovery disk(s).
MS doesn't bother to warn people that Service Packs reset the version ID of XP, making your PC maker recovery disks useless. SP turns XP into XP SP1 or XP SP2 & XP is prgrammed to not allow installation of earlier versions.

I would not (and did not) install the MS firewall. It is a bad joke. If you want the added security of an additional firewall and virus scanner, why not install the top of the line, Avast (virus) & ZoneAlarm (firewall)? For excellent malware-adware protection, I recommend a scanner (why not stop them from infecting your system?) Spybot Search & Destroy is superb for that. The threat today to home computing is malware, adware, spyware, especially mallicious programs like CoolSearch.

I set up novices, who get older PCs & older O/S with older virus scanners, Free spyware software and in 10 years none have been shut down. Hackers are not insterested in wasting their time or skills on home users. Their enemy are punks called crackers who do not know what they are doing. I call them cut and paste knuckle heads. Older (inexpensive to free virus software) will keep them at bay. At least that has been my finding & experience.

Back to Win XP. It is my suspicion that the frequent, often large, "upgrades" MS sends XP owners are mostly original parts of XP. MS, I think, did not ship them in the beginning because they made the OS huge and slow. How many XP users noticed their PC get slower each month for several months. Mine still runs at original speed as I install NONE of the "upgrades" unless I find a specific need to do so.

The many Internet and Messenger & Outlook security patches are meaningless to me as I use none of them. I have been a Mozilla and Thunderbird user from the start & an Opera user before that.

Of course, this is all just my humble opinion

[bill bolton]

> It is my suspicion

Sounds more like a superstition.

[Kyocera]

.

[Goetterdaemmerung]

Intertron forums in general need more replies like that.

[Lokk]

I keep XP SP1 on my T42p all the time, even after reformatting. I will never give in to the evils that are SP2!

[christopher_wolf]

I really can't see at all what is that bad about SP2.


I use a bunch of OSes for work (OS X, BSD, Linux, Windows XP/2000); it seems as if the latest rollout is just another security patch. As a sidenote, see; http://www.theregister.com/2006/01/18/w ... sp3_delay/

I personally try not to meddle too much in the "What-ifs" of patched vs. un-patched systems. Most of the issues that they are trying to patch are security related, so I just patch them and move on...I don't see it as introducing any evil DRM clauses (they already did that to you with the EULA )

[DavidNZ]

You may already be aware (but most XP users are not) that by not installing XP SP2 you can still reinstall XP with your recovery disk(s).
MS doesn't bother to warn people that Service Packs reset the version ID of XP, making your PC maker recovery disks useless. SP turns XP into XP SP1 or XP SP2 & XP is prgrammed to not allow installation of earlier versions.

I missed this the first time around. So what this means is that I cannot use my X40 recover CDs anymore *after* I install XP2 for the first time? I don't get it. I thought the whole idea of the recovery CDs was that it wipes your hard drive? I must not be following.

[d lehmann]

You may already be aware (but most XP users are not) that by not installing XP SP2 you can still reinstall XP with your recovery disk(s).
MS doesn't bother to warn people that Service Packs reset the version ID of XP, making your PC maker recovery disks useless. SP turns XP into XP SP1 or XP SP2 & XP is prgrammed to not allow installation of earlier versions.

I missed this the first time around. So what this means is that I cannot use my X40 recover CDs anymore *after* I install XP2 for the first time? I don't get it. I thought the whole idea of the recovery CDs was that it wipes your hard drive? I must not be following.

Of course your cd's will work. You will just have to update any patches, service packs, progs that were not on them.

There are no downsides to putting on any sp's on a thinkpad that came with xp. You paid a premium for a tried and true system. Sp2 certainly won't cripple or slow down a TP. Just tweak your system a little if needed, regardless of sp's.

Remember the vast majority used to say how they would never update from 98, my, how that has changed.

[dr_st]

I was reluctant to upgrade to SP2 when it first came out, because it often caused problems. But it has stabilized now, and so I installed it on all my computers running XP. Works pretty well.

[GomJabbar]

No, you are not the only one *without* SP2 installed. The other one lives in Papua New Guinea.

The Product Recovery Disc Set that IBM provides completely erases your hard disk and restores the ThinkPad to Factory State, software wise. So having SP2 will make no difference if you use the Product Recovery Disc Set.

What Bruised Quasar was referring to I believe, is that you cannot do a repair Windows operation with a Windows install CD that has a lower service pack level than is on the machine. The Product Recovery Disc Set does not do a repair Windows operation anyway. Also if you wanted to reinstall Windows to a lower service pack level, you may have to wipe the existing Windows installation first (AFAIK, this does not apply to the Product Recovery Disc Set). If all you have is a Windows Upgrade CD, then you would be stuck I guess.

[DavidNZ]

Right-o. That's what I thought, cheers for that.

I told myself I would do a full re-install in January at some point, so that'll be the time SP2 gets loaded up. And then there's SP3 in 2007...