XP-SP2 - Few things to consider while installing

[Guest]

A few things to remember when installing XP-SP2:

1. Make sure that you have disabled any firewall and or spyware removal s/w
that you run prior to installation. I have observed that SP2 does not gel
very well if the installation happens with these softwares up & running. It
causes a potential conflict with the Windows firewall that XP2
installs/upgrades as a prt of windows security. Once the installation is
complete, you may choose to run these software on as default at startup.
Before doing so, you would need to disable the default Windows firewall. DO
NOT RUN WINDOWS FIREWALL WITH ANY OTHER FIREWALL AT THE SAME TIME. This will
render most of your tools (Eg. Task Manager, Events Viewer, Administrative
panel etc) and some programs, notably IE & MS Office non functional. A
careful fine tuning of firewall software is needed once the installation is
complete and the machine is re-booted.

2. If you have external USB/firewire HDD attached to your machine, please
disconnect them physically before installation. Keeping these disks attached
to you system may cause XP to malfunction. You may not be able to run quite a
few of the tools and programs. You may re-attach these devices once the
installation is complete and you have sucessfully re-booted the system.

3. If you use customized scripts for IE or other programs, please disable
them prior to installation as Windows Security will block these scripts from
running once SP2 installation is complete. You may have to reconfigure your
security settings to exclude these scripts once you have successfully
installed SP2 and re-booted the system.

4. You may experience network latency issues once the SP2 install is
complete. In certain cases it might be >=10 seconds. Higher latency may be
observed if you try to open certain URLs (best example is Yahoo mail and
CNN). I am yet to understand why this happens. ANy thoughts/suggestions and
workaround would be greatly appreciated.

5. If you use multiple pop-up blockers, Installation of SP2 might accentuate
the blocking action and may result in incorrect display of web pages. You may
have to do some fine tuning with you pop-up blockers, firewall and the
browser settings to get this right. SP2 allows exclusions. You may want to
try that. Expect hardware issues as well.

6. Antivirus softwares are not affected and it is a good idea to keep them
running while the installation is happening. SP2 recognizes the default AV
s/w on your machine and sets it as the default AV in Windows Security Panel.

7. As a rule with any installation, make sure that all other programs are
closed while you install SP2.

 

[Paul]

Only disable your firewall if you have downloaded the SP
to HD or are running it from CD as downloading it from the
internet without your firewall on will almost certainly
result in your computer being infected with something
(unless you are current with absoulty all pathes +
updates).

 

[Jack]

So much for the 'Automatic Update' feature - huh?

I just read another post wherein the MVP posted a link to three pages of
convoluted instructions on how to install sp2.

At least you only used 1½ pages!

Either all these instructions are a joke or sp2 is one!

 

[Torgeir Bakken \(MVP\)]

A few things to remember when installing XP-SP2:

(snip)

6. Antivirus softwares are not affected and it is a good idea to keep them
running while the installation is happening. SP2 recognizes the default AV
s/w on your machine and sets it as the default AV in Windows Security Panel.

Hi

Actually, installing a service pack with antivirus software can cause
problems for some. The common advice is to disable antivirus software
and 3rd party firewall products when installing SP2 (and you should
of course not be connected to a network/Internet during this time as
you are vulnerable without it).

 

[Guest]

Here is my version ...

How to successfully install Windows XP Service Pack 2:
http://www.fixyourwindows.com/winxpsp2install.htm

 

[Alex Nichol]

Actually, installing a service pack with antivirus software can cause
problems for some. The common advice is to disable antivirus software
and 3rd party firewall products when installing SP2 (and you should
of course not be connected to a network/Internet during this time as
you are vulnerable without it).

You can though install with the original Windows Firewall in action, if
you do not want to disable a permanent broadband connection on a Lan
connector