Service Pack 2 Info For XP Users
MonsieurEvil
Join Date: 2002-01-22 Member: 4Members, Retired Developer, NS1 Playtester, Contributor
Join Date: 2002-01-22 Member: 4Members, Retired Developer, NS1 Playtester, Contributor
in Off-Topic
<div class="IPBDescription">Coming sometime in the next few months</div> <a href='http://www.arstechnica.com/wankerdesk/04q1/sp2-beta-1.html' target='_blank'>http://www.arstechnica.com/wankerdesk/04q1...sp2-beta-1.html</a>
A very well-written (i.e. understandable for non-techies too) writeup on the upcoming Windows XP Service Pack 2, due out sometime between now and the summer, depending on which MS press release you believe. It's based on a late beta and covers a lot of the new features and security improvements. This is one of the more interesting SP's I've ever seen, as it's big on functionality and not just bug fixes and tweaks.
If you want to comment, please make an attempt to read the entire article (it's only 3 pages) - go back to Slashdot if you are a trolling non-RTFA penguin-poncer. <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->
A very well-written (i.e. understandable for non-techies too) writeup on the upcoming Windows XP Service Pack 2, due out sometime between now and the summer, depending on which MS press release you believe. It's based on a late beta and covers a lot of the new features and security improvements. This is one of the more interesting SP's I've ever seen, as it's big on functionality and not just bug fixes and tweaks.
If you want to comment, please make an attempt to read the entire article (it's only 3 pages) - go back to Slashdot if you are a trolling non-RTFA penguin-poncer. <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->
Comments
Good firewall, though, that's good. It has good features too, and lots of customability.
Wireless is good, although I don't personally use it.
Sweet new IE, pop-up blocker and hopefully it will stop the .jpg exploiters.
I'm really looking forward to this, it has a lot of cool new features.
Post your IP for us so we can hack you for the next 4 months until you get smoothwall working properly. <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo-->
I'm not looking forward to dealing with the issues caused by all the auto-update and ICF changes in a corporate environment. I have the feeling that I'll be writing a lot of bodged wraper code to undue many of the reg changes that would swamp the hilariously undersized WAN infrastructure here. Unless they are nice and smart about the IT-install version of the patch. We shall see; I can't put it in the labs until it goes RC.
Otherwise, the new SP looks pretty good. I especially like the additions to IE, and am most impressed with the option to "Never install software from this company". Bye-bye gator popup installers, forever! Yay.
One thing that concerns me though is the issue of speed wasn't mentioned at all in the article. All the new functionality is nice, but its useless if it makes the os even slower. That's why I don't use SP1, because XP was actually faster (and a little more stable) without it...
Otherwise, the new SP looks pretty good. I especially like the additions to IE, and am most impressed with the option to "Never install software from this company". Bye-bye gator popup installers, forever! Yay.
One thing that concerns me though is the issue of speed wasn't mentioned at all in the article. All the new functionality is nice, but its useless if it makes the os even slower. That's why I don't use SP1, because XP was actually faster (and a little more stable) without it... <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
Bah, it takes 10 seconds.
Im not getting rid of my google bar tho, love being able to search and have popup blocking in one. Hmm, 2 built in blockers, double the fun! The rest is moot for me, no wireless, already got a router, no need for their crappy firewall, but it is a step in the right direction.
But one thing that will bother me is the popup blocker.....turn it on and let my brother surf his giant pr0n list, or leave it off and let it expose him....hmmmm....
Overall though, I like what Microsoft is doing.....for once <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo-->
Actually I never was against them, it's just the....well....slow response :/
Hardware firewall's got me invisible to all <a href='https://grc.com/x/ne.dll?bh0bkyd2/' target='_blank'>ShieldsUP</a> tests, etc. so I have no need for the ICF, and I use <a href='http://www.mozilla.org/products/firebird/' target='_blank'>Firebird</a> as my browser so the IE updates don't affect me, but I run a wireless network. Updates to that functionality are most welcome.
I don't use IE, Outlook nor wireless, but I don't see anything bad with this <!--emo&::nerdy::--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/nerd.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='nerd.gif'><!--endemo-->
I don't use IE, Outlook nor wireless, but I don't see anything bad with this <!--emo&::nerdy::--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/nerd.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='nerd.gif'><!--endemo--> <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
That's the excellent point I was looking to see: even if you have done everything right and protected yourself properly, if the rest of the Internet XP users out there haven't then you're going to feel the burn when they get exploited/rooted/zombied/worm factoried/email virused/etc. Having this system square away 40,000,000 improperly managed XP workstations is quite a step in the right direction.
I might have to upgrade to Xp.
To some extent. 2K does not have a firewall, but it can use IE 6, windows update, etc. It's likely that some of the components will too.
I might have to upgrade to Xp. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
It already is, but very very marginally. XP Home sucks, tho. It's missing some important configging options, and it can make some network configs pretty freaking hard to set up.
Still, I'm keeping 2000 on every computer except my laptop (for wireless). If nothing else, I don't want to deal with XP's horrible re-install process when my family invariably breaks something.