Should You Install Windows XP SP1?
Windows XP SP1 came out last Monday and I've been receiving tons of email about it. What are people saying about Windows XP SP1? It's about 40/60. Forty percent say Windows XP SP1 hasn't done anything bad to the computer and they can hardly tell the difference and 60% say Windows XP SP1 is the worst thing to happen to computers since the Melissa virus.
How bad is Windows XP SP1? Here is a sample of letters we received:
"I downloaded the patch and now all attachments in Outlook Express have been deleted. I didn't know that Outlook Express would be affected that way or I would have never downloaded the stupid, so called fix"
and another:
"I downloaded Windows XP service pack. I have more than one business email address at work. Only one email address would work. I ended up using system restore. Then I had to delete device driver for the cable modem, and reinstall. It works again. Definitely a hassle. System restore did work, even though I did not archive files -- so system restore proved itself."
and another:
"SP1 upgrade? More like SP1 Crash up. I installed this on a system with an ABIT KR7A with Athlon XP 1800 chip. I do run the RAID. The first time booting up I got the Blue SCREEN of DEATH. It dumped core memory and rebooted. I did not change anything. I could boot into safe mode but not normal. I then uninstalled the program and all was normal. I would advise doing a lot of research before installing this cr*p."
yet another:
"I downloaded the SP1 for security purposes. I got this computer in Nov. 2001 and it has worked beautifully, Since downloading that package it freezes up frequently!!! AND.....when I try to connect with my dial-up AOL, after having the computer on and not using it for a couple of hours, it will not connect with the modem and every time I have to shut it down and go through the waiting process of it coming back on. Then I can connect with AOL with no problems. I am angry that my beautifully working computer has become an aggravation!!!!! Is there anything I can do to correct this????"
And one more:
"First of all, download (cable modem) and install took well over an hour. Second, upon reboot, my ISP address and default gateway etc. were changed. None of my programs (Zone Alarm Pro, Norton Autoprotect, Web Shots, nVidia) loaded in the system tray. Cleanit refused to work, as did Style XP (I had already gotten the patch). I did a system restore to just prior to the SP1 install and most everything works well again. Webshots won't work on my son's domain now, but everything else seems to be moving quite fast. Microsoft seems determined to take the joy out of computing. Microsoft's system also doesn't recognize the new drivers that nVidia has put out for their video cards. It insists on giving me a driver update from last year. Fat chance I'll try their new media player beta so quickly. Thanks for a great publication."
And many, many more like these. I said 4 out of 10 emails had nothing but good to say about SP1, so we know it must work for some people. The problem is, how are you going to know if you're one of the "fortunate ones"?
Therein lies the rub! Some propeller heads might say "well, those people just don't know what they're doing! If they were computer experts, they wouldn't have these problems". Maybe that's true, but I'm sort of a computer expert, and I have no idea if I'd end up as one of the lucky 40 or unlucky 60. If I don't know, how will you know?
Should you install Windows XP SP1? Microsoft says you should. It contains a lot of security fixes and it has "enhancements" to the operating system that will help sustain your consumer fair use rights by locking down content on your machine so that no one will be able to take the stuff that you've paid for and use it on another computer. Just think how you would feel if you bought a B52s CD and copied the songs to your hard disk and someone copied a song and played it on another computer in your house!
I'm not installing SP1 on my computer until they come up with a fix. Microsoft has done this sort of thing before. A flawed service pack is released and later Microsoft comes out with an updated service pack to fix the first one. If you're a brave sole and like to gamble, then you might be able to get SP1 installed and even if it breaks your computer, you can use the Add/Remove Programs applet in the Control Panel to remove it.
If you do install Windows XP SP1, let us know! Maybe we can turn the percentages in favor of SP1 being good. Thanks!
this was copied from winxpnews very nice site indeed. also check out
h**p://www2.tweaktown.com/files/xpsp1.zip
for XP serial patch also very nice site. I know this will help.
The careful 1
Windows XP SP1 came out last Monday and I've been receiving tons of email about it. What are people saying about Windows XP SP1? It's about 40/60. Forty percent say Windows XP SP1 hasn't done anything bad to the computer and they can hardly tell the difference and 60% say Windows XP SP1 is the worst thing to happen to computers since the Melissa virus.
How bad is Windows XP SP1? Here is a sample of letters we received:
"I downloaded the patch and now all attachments in Outlook Express have been deleted. I didn't know that Outlook Express would be affected that way or I would have never downloaded the stupid, so called fix"
and another:
"I downloaded Windows XP service pack. I have more than one business email address at work. Only one email address would work. I ended up using system restore. Then I had to delete device driver for the cable modem, and reinstall. It works again. Definitely a hassle. System restore did work, even though I did not archive files -- so system restore proved itself."
and another:
"SP1 upgrade? More like SP1 Crash up. I installed this on a system with an ABIT KR7A with Athlon XP 1800 chip. I do run the RAID. The first time booting up I got the Blue SCREEN of DEATH. It dumped core memory and rebooted. I did not change anything. I could boot into safe mode but not normal. I then uninstalled the program and all was normal. I would advise doing a lot of research before installing this cr*p."
yet another:
"I downloaded the SP1 for security purposes. I got this computer in Nov. 2001 and it has worked beautifully, Since downloading that package it freezes up frequently!!! AND.....when I try to connect with my dial-up AOL, after having the computer on and not using it for a couple of hours, it will not connect with the modem and every time I have to shut it down and go through the waiting process of it coming back on. Then I can connect with AOL with no problems. I am angry that my beautifully working computer has become an aggravation!!!!! Is there anything I can do to correct this????"
And one more:
"First of all, download (cable modem) and install took well over an hour. Second, upon reboot, my ISP address and default gateway etc. were changed. None of my programs (Zone Alarm Pro, Norton Autoprotect, Web Shots, nVidia) loaded in the system tray. Cleanit refused to work, as did Style XP (I had already gotten the patch). I did a system restore to just prior to the SP1 install and most everything works well again. Webshots won't work on my son's domain now, but everything else seems to be moving quite fast. Microsoft seems determined to take the joy out of computing. Microsoft's system also doesn't recognize the new drivers that nVidia has put out for their video cards. It insists on giving me a driver update from last year. Fat chance I'll try their new media player beta so quickly. Thanks for a great publication."
And many, many more like these. I said 4 out of 10 emails had nothing but good to say about SP1, so we know it must work for some people. The problem is, how are you going to know if you're one of the "fortunate ones"?
Therein lies the rub! Some propeller heads might say "well, those people just don't know what they're doing! If they were computer experts, they wouldn't have these problems". Maybe that's true, but I'm sort of a computer expert, and I have no idea if I'd end up as one of the lucky 40 or unlucky 60. If I don't know, how will you know?
Should you install Windows XP SP1? Microsoft says you should. It contains a lot of security fixes and it has "enhancements" to the operating system that will help sustain your consumer fair use rights by locking down content on your machine so that no one will be able to take the stuff that you've paid for and use it on another computer. Just think how you would feel if you bought a B52s CD and copied the songs to your hard disk and someone copied a song and played it on another computer in your house!
I'm not installing SP1 on my computer until they come up with a fix. Microsoft has done this sort of thing before. A flawed service pack is released and later Microsoft comes out with an updated service pack to fix the first one. If you're a brave sole and like to gamble, then you might be able to get SP1 installed and even if it breaks your computer, you can use the Add/Remove Programs applet in the Control Panel to remove it.
If you do install Windows XP SP1, let us know! Maybe we can turn the percentages in favor of SP1 being good. Thanks!
this was copied from winxpnews very nice site indeed. also check out
h**p://www2.tweaktown.com/files/xpsp1.zip
for XP serial patch also very nice site. I know this will help.
The careful 1
