Wow. Windows XP SP2.
 

So, I finally got tired of ZoneAlarm and installed SP2 for it's firewall. Now, Internet Explorer and even the humble Control Panel won't open. After selecting either, nothing happens for about one minute until an error message appears. Something to do with Dr. Watson or some such sh*t.

Accessing the net via Firefox works fine, however.

Way to go Microsoft.

Any ideas?

* Edit: Oh yeah, Windows Explorer won't open either. That's somewhat more critical.

Irony is a thing of beauty.

Ain't it, though? With that in mind, is there a non-MS alternative to Windows Explorer?

I will never, ever, ever install SP2.

I did once, on recommendation of Windows Update. All of a sudden my computer would hang up on power off. It would not shut down or reboot but rather just sat there lost in la la land.

The solution?

I contacted HP who said that on their website they advise NOT installing SP2 but if you must then you need to install a whole slew of drivers first. I ended having to order system disks from them and had to reinstall Windows XP/SP1. The computer was barely two months old and I lost all the data on it...

MS sucks.

Ouch! Of course if you try to uninstall SP2 I think that hoses your machine just as bad.

From everything I have heard of that damn patch I wouldn't do it if I wasn't on a fresh load of the OS.

Yeah, I simply didn't download SP2. Then again, I file share. :)

From what I have heard if you do a format and clean reinstall and then immediately upgrade to Service Pack 2 you are OK.

I am still not going to touch it.

Well, managed to uninstall that ugly b*tch. Never again.

If you are incapable of installing SP2 without hosing your system then you should stick with Windows 98.

I don't understand why people have problems. I installed it on 2 PCs and on my work PC and haven't had any troubles.

Same here. I've installed it on my 2 pc's, my parents pc's and have never had an issue.

Must be ID10t errors. ;)

I've installed it on my wife's laptop and my work laptop with zero issues. My 'home' desktop is about five years old. That's the one that had issues. The other two are two and one-and-a-half respectively.

Peh. I didn't write the fucking software. And, it's not like there are any options when installing it. The fucker just runs.

:clap:

When SP2 first came out, it was troublesome, as I saw many hosed systems in my shop. I believe that those systems, however, were most likely hosed prior to the download.

My feeling is that SP2 has been around long enough that Micro$oft has worked out the bugs and is safe to install now.

Some folks have the ability to be dangerous, and I hope they never change.

Dinny

Well, I'm glad to know I'm not the only one shunning SP2 like grim death. I had installed it once based on the constant NAGGING of Windows to do so, and regretted it immediately. I uninstalled the package and will never look back. Hello, Zone Alarm and Avast!

Z

Dude, it was a joke. Chill.

What does that part mean? I have ZA and Avast but also SP2. Not sure what you're getting at.

I've been running SP2 for months and have not had one problem.

Same here.
I've installed on it about 50-60 pc's and laptops, and don't recall a single issue.

And that's with various flavors or Oracle running on them.
You wanna talk about some flakey software......

heh, Oracle on Windows = not so good

The most important thing to do before installing SP2 is to make sure your machine is clean of viruses and spy ware. I've installed it on over 100 systems and never had any major issues. (few driver issues easily handled)

i would like to add to this comment. I also have installed sp2 on more machines than I can count. I do reloads and remove spyware for a living. If a customber brings in a machine with sp1 it immediatly gets sp2 put on it (after spyware removal, of course) I have never had a problem converting from sp1 to sp2. sp2 has been out for quite some time now and there is no reason that everone using xp shouldn't be using it now they have worked out the bugs that were in the initial release.