Problems with XP's SP-2

[Gary W. Plourde Sr.]

I just purchased a new a650y hp computer with Windows XP
Home Edition. For whatever reasons, I'm having problems
with START/ALL PROGRAMS/...then not all but some, e.g.
MIRCROSOFT OFFICE/MICROSOFT OFFICE OUTLOOK 2003.
Usually, I could right-click an icon, go to SEND TO, and
then DESKTOP (Creat a shortcut), click and send an icon
or short cut to the desktop, but with some of the icons
on the ALL PROGRAMS, when I right click and try to send a
shortcut anywhere, not just to the DESKTOP, I've been
receiving this error message:

EXPLORER.EXE--APPLICATION ERROR:

(X) The instructions at "0x02394156" referenced memory
at "0x000000000", The memory could not be written.

Click "OK" to terminate program.
Click "Cancel" to debug prgram.

OK. Cancel.

I've usually opted for "Cancel" to debug the problem, but
the problem (i.e. the Error Message above) continues.
I've tried "OK," just to see what would happen and the
problem still continues. Can anyone, since this is a new
computer, can anyone tell me how to fix this?

P.S. It might help to know that I've recently, like two
days ago, downloaded and installed Windows XP's SP-2.
Also, I'm having problems with Microsoft's Outlook 2003.
Not only as pertains to the Error Message above, but I
can't get it to always download my e-mail in HTML. I
keep getting messages above my e-mail indicating the HTML
versions, such as pictures, have been withheld, and I
have to click an icon so the pictures can be included.
For Windows XP Home Edition, Outlook 2003, I don't want
to have to constantly do that. I just want my mail to
automatically download in HTML with the pictures
included. Can anyone help with that problem also?

P.S. I've posted this in "General" and haven't found a solution yet.
Someone suggested I uninstall DivX, which I tried at the folders'
"uninstall" file, and in Control/Add & Remove, and all I get is a "beep,"
"beep" from Windows XP, and on reboot, DivX is still where it used to be. I
need help with the "Error Message" listed above, with "Uninstalling" DivX,
and with resolving my problems, whether related or not, to the Error
Message, with Outlook 2003.

P.P.S. Finally, if all else fails, how can I uninstall Windows XP Home
Edition's SP-2? Please help.

E-mail your reply if possible to (e-mail address removed)

 

[Mike Brannigan [MSFT]]

SP2 is not in Beta, please repost to one of the active groups for Windows
XP.

--

Regards,

Mike
--
Mike Brannigan [Microsoft]

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
rights

Please note I cannot respond to e-mailed questions, please use these
newsgroups

 

[JJO]

I am not sure if this article will help but it's a starting point...

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;883791&Product=winxp


As far as the HTML question goes, in Outlook Express click on
Tools/Options/Security. Uncheck the box under download images (block
images....). You may also want to uncheck the box under Virus for the do not
allow attachments to be saved or opened. My thinking is that your Anti Virus
program should be monitoring the mail anyway. However too much security is
not a bad thing so your preference on this one. And you should not be
opening attachments from anyone you do not know and certainly not opening
..exe or .scr attachments from anyone. I actually do not open attachments
from anyone unless I have specifically asked for it. I have seen too many
friends passing viruses unknowingly back and forth and I am asked to clean
up the systems later. I had one friend infect the system with SKA and once
cleaned I explained how it infected through a mail attachment (Happy.exe as
some know it). A couple of months later he clicked on the attachment again
even though he knew it was a virus...sigh.

Regards,
John O.

 

[Robbie]

Mike you could be a little more civil to people and point them to the right newsgroup to
post their questions....I am sure most are looking for a XP SP2 newsgroup as the others
just don't seem to be what they need to answer their questions about this upgrade to
XP...Yes I said upgrade to XP as it isn't anything like SP 1 was/is. Most are lost and
then they get the stock answers to go somewhere else and not knowing were.
Robbie

 

[Mike Brannigan [MSFT]]

Mike you could be a little more civil to people and point them to the
right newsgroup to
post their questions....I am sure most are looking for a XP SP2 newsgroup
as the others
just don't seem to be what they need to answer their questions about this
upgrade to
XP...Yes I said upgrade to XP as it isn't anything like SP 1 was/is.
Most are lost and
then they get the stock answers to go somewhere else and not knowing were.
Robbie

Robbie I was civil to the original poster. This group should not be used for
posts on currently active products - hence the BETA in the title.
As regards the original posters post.
They have numerous problems that would require direction to other various
groups.
There are no specific SP2 groups since as has already been discussed in the
newsgroups they are not required since it is just an OS patch and as such is
just data to be provided by a poster of a problem.
There would be little benefit in forking the entire
Microsoft.public.windowsxp.* newsgroup hierarchy to duplicate the hierarchy
again buy caveat'ed by SP2, since a high proportion of posters do not post
to a relevant group now this would only make the situation worse.
You could not have a single SP2 groups as this would not provide the degree
of separation needed for the subject mater experts to focus on helping those
with issues on specific areas.

--

Regards,

Mike
--
Mike Brannigan [Microsoft]

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
rights

Please note I cannot respond to e-mailed questions, please use these
newsgroups

 

[Robbie]

But Mike a link first to the General XP group would help and from there maybe someone can
direct them to the right group. and I know that MS says this isn't a major update to XP
but it sure is when it won't work as before the update....This isn't a patch per say it is
hooking into the core of what is Windows XP. People are scared when it crashes and they
have no idea why....Even experienced Computer users and techs have a hard time with some
(not all) computers trying to apply the update. Just give them the link to the general XP
group and ask them to ask them were to post their question. We are not dealing with It
people here most are just the general public...the main stream computer users. Most don't
know h9w to find the right group to post too.
Robbie

 

[DaddyBob]

Mike, you wrote.....
"There are no specific SP2 groups since as has already been discussed in the
newsgroups they are not required since it is just an OS patch and as such is
just data to be provided by a poster of a problem."

I challenge you to ask Bill Gates if he thinks that XP-SP2 is "just an OS
patch". The information from Microsoft for the past year certainly doesn't
treat it as "just an OS patch". Anyone with any savvy at all knows better.
Microsoft has just publicly announced that Longhorn is being stripped of its
new file system because there isn't time, primarily because so much manpower
HAD to be devoted to SP2. That doesn't sound to me that Microsoft thinks of
it as "just an OS patch"???

And, you may think that a newsgroup is not necessary, but you are dead
wrong. There SHOULD be a newsgroup for SP2 as one certainly IS required.
Maybe its time that YOU got with the program.

Bob
-----------------------------------

Mike you could be a little more civil to people and point them to the
right newsgroup to
post their questions....I am sure most are looking for a XP SP2 newsgroup
as the others
just don't seem to be what they need to answer their questions about this
upgrade to
XP...Yes I said upgrade to XP as it isn't anything like SP 1 was/is.
Most are lost and
then they get the stock answers to go somewhere else and not knowing were.
Robbie

Robbie I was civil to the original poster. This group should not be used for
posts on currently active products - hence the BETA in the title.
As regards the original posters post.
They have numerous problems that would require direction to other various
groups.
There are no specific SP2 groups since as has already been discussed in the
newsgroups they are not required since it is just an OS patch and as such is
just data to be provided by a poster of a problem.
There would be little benefit in forking the entire
Microsoft.public.windowsxp.* newsgroup hierarchy to duplicate the hierarchy
again buy caveat'ed by SP2, since a high proportion of posters do not post
to a relevant group now this would only make the situation worse.
You could not have a single SP2 groups as this would not provide the degree
of separation needed for the subject mater experts to focus on helping those
with issues on specific areas.

--

Regards,

Mike
--
Mike Brannigan [Microsoft]

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
rights

Please note I cannot respond to e-mailed questions, please use these
newsgroups

 

[Mike Brannigan [MSFT]]

Mike, you wrote.....
"There are no specific SP2 groups since as has already been discussed in
the
newsgroups they are not required since it is just an OS patch and as such
is
just data to be provided by a poster of a problem."

I challenge you to ask Bill Gates if he thinks that XP-SP2 is "just an OS
patch". The information from Microsoft for the past year certainly doesn't
treat it as "just an OS patch". Anyone with any savvy at all knows better.
Microsoft has just publicly announced that Longhorn is being stripped of
its
new file system because there isn't time, primarily because so much
manpower
HAD to be devoted to SP2. That doesn't sound to me that Microsoft thinks
of
it as "just an OS patch"???

And, you may think that a newsgroup is not necessary, but you are dead
wrong. There SHOULD be a newsgroup for SP2 as one certainly IS required.
Maybe its time that YOU got with the program.

Bob

Bob,

Windows XP SP2 IS a patch with significant impact on all the areas we
targeted for this Service Pack, Security, Stability etc etc.
But ultimately it is a Service Pack not a new release of the OS. It will be
supported as the other Service Packs as part of the general engineering
support of Windows XP, and as such the newsgroups will continue to provide
peer to peer support under the common hierarchy of the base OS and the sub
divisions ads available today.

As regards Windows "Longhorn" - even though this is out of focus of these
newsgroups I would say that regardless of what you may have heard or read,
we have not completely removed WinFS from Windows "Longhorn".
The development effort on SP2 was considerable but those teams are now
working on SP1 for Window Server 2003 and the 64-bit (x64) Editions of
Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP as well and Windows "Longhorn".

If you think a newsgroup for SP2 is required please elaborate on how you
think it should be organised to allow for any possible rationalization of
the issues other then a monolithic morass of posts to a single group (?).
--

Regards,

Mike
--
Mike Brannigan [Microsoft]

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
rights

Please note I cannot respond to e-mailed questions, please use these
newsgroups

 

[Robbie]

Mike, for now at least four newsgroups would be needed for XP SP2.
1) A general group where simple answers can be provided and links to other groups given if
the person needs a more detailed answer.
2) A Hardwear group where information can be provided for any hardwear issue...We know
there are many and more are likely to surface as time goes on.
3) A software group were software issues can be asked and hopeful answered. there are
quite a few issues here and they need to know what they can do.
4) A combined OE/IE group dealing with the new security issues for both programs.
These need to be listed as XP SP2 groups so that people can find them. What I am finding
right now is people will try XP SP2, but if they run into problems they are then restoring
and/or uninstalling XP SP2 as they can't find the answers they need. I don't think this
is what MS wants to have happen, but people will if they can't get their computers to run
as smoothly as before.
Providing them with a common group (s) they will then try to solve the problem not get rid
of XP SP2.
Robbie

 

[Nathan McNulty]

See inline comments

----
Nathan McNulty

Mike, for now at least four newsgroups would be needed for XP SP2.
1) A general group where simple answers can be provided and links to other groups given if
the person needs a more detailed answer.

Already exists. The same one used for Gold and SP1 works just fine for
SP2. It simply helps if the poster mentions that they are using SP2.
There are still many people out there without a service pack at all on
their computer and are wondering why they are running into problems
mainly dealing with things Microsoft has fixed already (such as security
exploits, etc.)

2) A Hardwear group where information can be provided for any hardwear issue...We know
there are many and more are likely to surface as time goes on.

This group also exists. We have seen just a handful of extra posts each
day in there directly dealing with SP2, but no flood. As it stands
right now, the number of hardware related questions to SP2 are not large
enough to even require a separate newsgroup. Also, generally, hardware
problems surface at the beginning and wear down the longer the product
has been available. This can be seen with the Prescott issues for example.

3) A software group were software issues can be asked and hopeful answered. there are
quite a few issues here and they need to know what they can do.

Do you mean like Software Compatibility? It isn't really the
responsibility of Microsoft in the first place. Microsoft simply
provides the tools for software developers to make their software work
on Windows, not the other way around. This part is more the vendors'
responsibility and you should be seeking tech support from there. I
don't know how you could try to tackle software issues when there is no
way to even count the number of software programs out there that support
Windows.

4) A combined OE/IE group dealing with the new security issues for both programs.
These need to be listed as XP SP2 groups so that people can find them. What I am finding
right now is people will try XP SP2, but if they run into problems they are then restoring
and/or uninstalling XP SP2 as they can't find the answers they need. I don't think this
is what MS wants to have happen, but people will if they can't get their computers to run
as smoothly as before.

There are already OE/IE groups in place as well. These groups have been
providing support for SP2. Those who do run into problems and don't
know how to find and post to the proper newsgroups would never have a
chance at finding SP2 specific newsgroups in the first place. People
can simply post to the same newsgroups as they always have. SP2 is
nothing more than a Service Pack which added some new things to
troubleshoot, but nothing big enough to require a whole newsgroup
devoted to it.

 

[Robbie]

Ok I can see all is falling on deaf ears...Shame that MS is willing to spend millions on
getting the upgrade of XP out to people and not spending time/money on helping people want
to keep the upgrade. This is way more than a "patch" SP 2 has fingers all the way
through the core of XP and this is a known fact...Most of the information or help on some
of the "regular XP groups" is giving them the link to the "White Paper" not the best thing
in the world to give a none "It" person, as a lot of "It" people didn't understand it, how
is a non tech suppose to understand it.
The ability to find the right group to ask one's questions on is very hard and if there
was something in the name of a group called XP SP2 then newbies would find it a bit easier
to find.
It may not be MS responsibility to help with software problems but would be a great PR to
do so or to help direct people to where they should ask.
I am not bashing MS, but do believe they aren't taking advantage of what they have in
their hands to help more people switch and stay with XP SP2.
Robbie