XP SP2

[LoogieChiken]

I havent finished reading this yet, but at first look it would seem that connectivity is going to be a problem for a lot of people once they apply SP2. The reason is because it will turn the Internet Cnnection Firewall ( the built in firewall fro XP ) on by default. This limits inbound traffic only but will, I suspect, mess up some peoples home networks etc.

Simple to fix though just go back into the network connection and disable the firewall. The other option is to reconfigure it using the 2003 style tick boxes.

The rest of the document is fairly straight forward, nice bit about pop ups in IE.

http://download.microsoft.com/download/8/7/9/879a7b46-5ddb-4a82-b64d-64e791b3c9ae/WinXPSP2_Documentation.doc

[CluckerChiken]

MS sucks when they pull stuff like that :(

Otherwise i luc them though ;)

[LoogieChiken]

Its a good thing to do... MSBlaster etc. but it will be important that they document it for users at the time of release.

It also fits into the 2003 approach of being more secure by default.

[LoogieChiken]

*BUMP*

If you can get a hold of Release Candidate 1 for SP2 I recommend installing it at your earliest convenience. If it causes problems then it is easily removed.

I am led to believe from my days worth of sitting on my bum at a Roadshow that SP2 seriously messes with some games and other applications using Direct X.

I have not installed it yet at home but I have at work and it has broken some applications which I will need to get fixed. I will install it at home over the next few dats and let you know how I get on with HW2, MW:Mercs, AA, BF1942 and any of the other games I have that you folks play.

More info can be found here:
http://www.microsoft.com/sp2preview

I was told there is a list of identified applications and games that have an issue with SP2, but I can't find it right now.

Other than that SP2 looks real good - from a security point of view and some other bells and whistles that are there too.

[LoogieChiken]

OK, tried it with Mech4:Mercs and it worked fine, but didnt get a chance to try anything else as I noticed it broke McAfee VirusScan 7.0.

It is manually fixable but not very satisfactory - I can only assume there will be a fix released for VirusScan.

SP2 is a huge Download... around 270MB and takes a very long time to install. Other than the first two restarts performance seems to be pretty similar though I have not run any benchmarks etc.

[LoneStarChiken]

...but didnt get a chance to try anything else...

Well, get to testing....we need to know that America's Army will work. Hop to it!

[LoogieChiken]

Well... I restored my system from a backup I took once I noticed McAfee was broken. I may get round to using a test system and installing AA but not in the near future.