I was reading this AP article which got me thinking, will the new release of this SP2 really be worth all the effort of upgrading my systems?

Mahalo nui loa for all your thoughts. From the article, it makes it seem like SP2 will be a good thing. It just seems like it might cause more headaches than before.

aloha

I coudln't read this article since the link took me to a general AP page, but to give my answer. For some people, non-tech, maybe office or home users I this upgrade will be a welcome addition to trying to combat spyware and viruses. In that it will turn on the ICF FWall automatically, and set it up. as well, it will offer a more seamless Windows Update for all those damb updates that pop up becuase of security issues.

for someone who is fairly up on tech and software, they will already have a FW installed and be downloading the updates regularly so there will be no change. I for one have been using mozilla Thunderbird and now Firefox for more than a year and it is a much better browser. Just because MSFT introduces a pop-up blocker (and the implimentation of such is not very good) doesn't really help make my experience any better like FF does.

For some mobile users, there are some wireless configurations additions that will make configuring wireless for various hotspots easier, but IBM and SONY and DELL have had this on their LT's for years, so it won't make a differance there.

I have been using SP2 for about a month, took it off my day to day machine and now have SP2 2169 loaded which seems to be the best. I think this is the final one if you are looking to download and install. but, if you are one of the more tech savy users described above there really is no need.

I concur with your assessment nmenaker. I can tell you SP2 rc2 (2149) blessed me with my first ever XP bluescreen. asnttdi.sys if memory serves.

Like most MS "improvements" this is aimed at lowest-common-denominator risk mitigation. Keep the newbies and "I'm too busy to worry about this" customers from soiling themselves.

I've tried 15 different SP2 releases as an official beta tester, and not a single one worked, and to make matters worse the rollback was also a total disaster.

I'm probably going to stay away from it when it's released...

hmm, I haven't had these problems, but have only used versions since March of this year, 2149 and 2162 being the latest two. So, probably two version beforehand. the original SP2 RC1 and another supposedly more stable build.

Didn't have any install problems on about three systems, and no unistall problems, everything including HD space went right back to where they had been before, os I guess YMMV. Try only if you like to try things, or need some of the func listed above I would say.

Although, 2162 has been running quite nice on my home XP home system for about a week now. I'll probably just leave that one on.

Im wondering how this SP2 release will be announced, and how IT bozos like myself can avoid it getting installed onto our systems through Windows Update without us knowing. Will the upgrade be through the usual Windows channels (ie. Windows Update) or will this have to be shipped via a CD or something...?

Ive had my fair share of issues with Windows and Office lately, more problems and blue screens are the last thing I need....

Big updates, this one is 256 MB, or there is a 172MB version and some others, don't usually come through windows updates. One will have to head to the windowsupdate site and download it dreictly. Or, there is going to be a CD release to all vendors, so you can get it through their sites and from them.

downloading is pretty painless though, on high speed it should take about 10 minutes tops

When this comes out, I'll install it on a spare machine and let it go for a few days, then take my laptop and do a complete reinstall of everything from scratch and all should be good.

So, how does this thing configure the ICFW if I'm on a LAN behind a real firewall? Am I going to have to tweak the settings on each machine after downloading and installing this bloatware? Will machines keep complaining to users if we decide not to install it?

As for bloatware, I found that I was about even, since it pulled most of the windows updates I had downloaded for the past 1.5 yera, and replaced them with new code.

One can turn them back on to view, but they were pretty much all gone.
My hit total, after deleting all the files was bout 85 MB.

we generally deploy MS patches through MS-SUS.. i have SP2 RC2 running on a test machine and I haven't had any major problems with, but I definitely plan on reading all the white papers, etc., before I deploy it domain-wide.

Good enough for me. ^

Since I live dangerously, I will download it the moment it comes out and install it. Of course, I will try to post a running commentary so if there's any major issues, you may all laugh at my misfortune.

As announced today, IT Folks should be aware of the effect the release could have on thier SUS and auto-updating systems. http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/040806/microsoft_update_8.html

That said, as much as it's going to be a major pain for IT orgs to deal with this SP, I believe it's worth it in the long run.

There were a lot of issues around XPSP2 in it's earlier stages, but I believe based on my testing recently, it's gotten much more stable and cleaner. As always for IT folks, one should be testing this first for app compat. But for home users, I see no reason to wait in installing this. Worst comes to worst you can uninstall it.

SUS can't distribute service packs AFAIK.