Was wondering; were you running SP1 and up to date with all pre-existing critical updates??

I've been pretty fortunate it seems; not having any problems with the install or post-setup (which was pretty quick and simple). But having said that it is interesting to see how other people's installations and problems encounted are resolved.

Windows is *thankfully, not the only OS I run at home.

SP2 has been working flawlessly on all of my computers.

I have it installed and unlike others haven't noticed any increased performance, other than booting up.

I remain afraid to touch the thing. Seems like Pragma is trying to convince us all though for some reason. Not sure what that is all about.

I will install it when I have to. With Firefox and my firewall, I can last a little while before really needing to install this bloatware that will take me weeks to recover from if I am lucky from the looks of it.

Installed it when it was first released as the networking package or something (240ish mb download) and hadn't had any problems on this PC or the laptop I have.

Yes absolutley. While I didnt have automatic updates on; I frequented the MS site often to get updates manually. I've never had an issue.

Aside from Ie6 and OE6 going away; I dont like the way SP2 force feeds itself into quick launch. Im sure there is a registry tweak that could modify that; but it seems like MS is forcing its firewall. This service pack seems very invasive to me. I still havent reloaded it; because my system is running great- its the security leaks Im concerned about. Upon going to the MS it wont let me uncheck the Sp2 to go to other choices- that should be noted.

I was annoyed, but it only stays bottom right if there is something "wrong". You can tell it you have another firewall running, and that box is ticked. I have it set to alert me when there are updates (not automatic), so that is ticked and I have up to date anti-virus - three ticks! Havn't seen the icon in my lower right for ages!

Sun Tzu,
As spindles has indicated there are ways to identify if you wish to use the MS firewall or continue with your existing firewall/security settings.There is less to consider worrying about if you bring the OS up-to-date by install the SP. To insist avoiding installing the SP because of security leaks is like installing XP onto a new box and not performing any updates at all.

Still it's your call, do what you feel comfortable with.

Longhorn won't be available until the third to last quarter of 2006 I think.

There's still the option of going down the exciting road of Linux. :)

This is a feature. Not a "feature", but a real live Feature. The vast majority of the worlds XP users don't know what their doing. Hell, it's hard for me and I'm a Tier 1 Network Engineer. Placing nag icons in toolbar will get the masses to use a firewall, update their patches, and load a virus checker. MS has raised the baseline for security on XP, and that's a Good Thing.

As a security professional, it bugs me at a fundamental level to see people refuse to install patches :p

This will be of interest for anyone (small %) who uses VPN under XP.
------------------------------------------------------------------
XP SP2 distribution accelerated, VPN problem fixed
Joris Evers, IDG News Service

23/09/2004 08:59:48

Microsoft will accelerate the rollout of Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) over the next month and has released the first official update for SP2 to fix a problem some users had with VPNs (virtual private networks).

As of Friday, Microsoft had distributed SP2 to roughly 20 million users through the Automatic Updates feature in Windows and the Windows Update Web site, a Microsoft spokesman said Wednesday. Most of these users are home and small business users, he said.

The software maker is accelerating distribution of SP2 to reach its goal of updating 100 million PCs through Automatic Updates by Oct. 18, two months after SP2 was first made available through the automatic update service.

"Microsoft is aggressively monitoring and managing the download of SP2 and will be increasing the number of downloads over time," the Microsoft spokesman said.

Microsoft has been gradually pushing out SP2 to users via Automatic Updates since Aug. 18 and is still adding localized versions of the security-focused update. SP2 is currently available in about 16 languages, according to the Microsoft spokesman. Microsoft has said it will offer the update in 25 language versions.

Shortly after Microsoft released SP2, a problem was detected that affected users of VPNs. Microsoft last month made available a temporary fix and earlier this week released a permanent fix in the form of an update, the first patch for the mammoth SP2.

The update, detailed in article 884020 in Microsoft's Knowledge Base, fixes a problem with applications attempting to connect to loop-back IP (Internet Protocol) addresses other than 127.0.0.1. SP2 blocks all those addresses and users see an error message.

Microsoft made a network installation package of SP2 available to enterprise customers on Aug. 9 and started automatic delivery to PCs running Windows XP Home Edition on Aug. 18. Automatic delivery of the service pack to Windows XP Pro machines was postponed until Aug. 25 to allow business users more time to block the update.

Microsoft has labeled SP2 a "critical" update and urges all Windows XP users to install it as soon as possible. As of March this year, Microsoft had sold about 210 million Windows XP licenses, not counting volume license sales to businesses. There are about 600 million Windows PCs in use worldwide, Microsoft estimated in July.

More information on the SP2 VPN issue is available at:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=884020

Nice of MS to rig it with explorer-crashing clusterfuck errors if you have googlebar installed. Anyone else get this? Any solutions? My next OS is definitely not going to be a MS product.

Nope, I've put it on 4 computers with the Google toolbar, no problems with it at all.

And besides, if MS really had some kind of conspiracy to kill it, I think they'd make the toolbar itself crash (or simply uninstall it!) rather than Explorer.

I'm still thinking about installing it. I have this feeling of "don't fix it if it ain't broken", but OTOH, it's Windows, so it's broken anyway... It's the horror stories I've heard that tell me to not install, while it's the other stories that tell me to ignore the first group.

I just can't make up my mind. (I do have a slipstreamed install CD, so I could always install it from scratch if I wanted to.)

Updated this week via auto update and haven't seem to have any problems. I too have Google toolbar and it works just fine,like it always did. Time will tell if security holes continue to be found out.