[Fury]

So it was "out" last weekend already but now its downloadable from MS download servers.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=049c9dbe-3b8e-4f30-8245-9e368d3cdb5a

Details and everything is available through the link. I've heard SP2 will be available in WindowsUpdate on 25th. Even if I had a modem, I would download the network install and burn it to a CD, or make a slipstream. Would save a lot of time when there is no need to download it every time after a reinstall.

[Fineus]

Installed several days ago - happy with it now that the themes issue is solved.

[IceFire]

Anyone else with any experience.  I'm not switching till I know its not going to mess something up.  My system runs smoothly....added protection is a great thing (and I've read what it does and doesn't do) but I already run a very tight ship.

[FreeTerran]

what should i do if i'm already installed the beta version, uninstall and install this package ?

[Zarax]

Officially you should do a sysem restore rollback...
Unofficially i simply installed every release on the top of the other with no problems at all...

[FreeTerran]

ok unofficially sounds much better ;D

[Zarax]

I cannot guarantee the unofficial way will work for everyone, especially with such big system updates...

[FreeTerran]

who can guarantee the official way

[Zarax]

Not me for sure, but if you ask for assistance tell them you used the official one, or they will simply say to reinstall correctly...
I've beta tested it and worked always pretty fine for me...
If you got a bluetooth phone you can also have fun with that feature

[Kamikaze]

Originally posted by IceFire
Anyone else with any experience.  I'm not switching till I know its not going to mess something up.  My system runs smoothly....added protection is a great thing (and I've read what it does and doesn't do) but I already run a very tight ship.

Don't know how reliable one anecdote is, but some info from Slashdot:

1) Broken Thief III such that when I load levels, my computer crashes.

2) Screams bloody murder when an app opens a port - except for loopback - but even when I explicitly wanted that port opened it still raises a dialog.

3) Messed up MSN Instant Messenger's hotmail addin so it now links to Outlook and Outlook Express even though I don't even USE Outlook.

4) Messed up my MSN Instant Messenger buddy list by trying to group them into random categories I didn't even want

5) Installed more gooblygook into Windows Media Player that asks for copyright protections etc that I don't want and makes me go through the configuration screen all over again

6) Added a popup blocker I didn't want - that I can't easily turn off - into IE - that conflicts with Google Toolbar - instead of one easy click to get a popup on a site that you were expecting to pop up (such as a separate chat window for customer support), you now need to go into the options to turn popup blocking off, then click the google toolbar... twice the hassle.

Number six sounds pretty annoying, seems like IE's popup blocker sucks. I suggest sticking with Mozilla/Firefox or Opera.

By the way, you can acquire the SP using bittorrent as well. Microsoft's servers are fairly quick so I'm not sure if it'll be necessary.

http://sp2torrent.com/index.php

For those among you who're paranoid, make sure to check the md5 hash and MS's digital signature. MD5 Hash: 59a98f181fe383907e520a391d75b5a7

Edit: Here's another thing to watch out for

If you have a processor that supports NX, SP2 will not be compatible with some programs, especially dynamic recompilers.

As R. Belmont pointed out to me on a different message board, dynamic recompilers allocate memory, fill it with x86 instructions, and then jump to it. NX specifically prohibits executing allocated memory, so dynamic recompilers should crash in SP2 on processors that support NX.

Expect this feature to break many current emulators (Mame will be fine.) The feature supposedly can be turned off in Windows, but since I don't have a processor that supports NX, I don't know where one would do so in the interface. The newer Athlon chips - specifically, the Athlon 64's, and future Pentium 4s, support NX, so keep that in mind when upgrading to SP2.

[StratComm]

FreeTerran, you should back up and be prepared to reinstall from scratch.  Just in case.

Number 6 isn't quite correct, there should be a warning that pops up when a popup is blocked which you can click on to let it through.  Somewhat similar to Mozilla/Firefox I believe.  That may have been disabled though; it was in the RC's but I think they scaled back a bit to prevent widespread failures.

[Fury]

Alcohol 120% or 52% users should know that there is slight incompatibility during SP2 install which was noticed back in RC2 but apparently the problem's not in MS's end...

Anyway, SP2 cannot copy atapi.sys when you have Alcohol installed, regardless of it being currently running or not. You need to go to \Windows\System32\drivers and delete atapi.sys, then hit retry until SP2 continues installation. SP2 creates a new atapi.sys which is the same as the one you deleted, at least sizewise.

I've been testing both RC1 and RC2, I can say that SP2 is pretty good. Definitely a recommended install regardless of how good your system is. Like with any software out there, installing it may screw something. But MS had quite a long testing period and such occurences should be minimal at least.

It is true that SP2 may break some apps and games but patches will be out soon. And people who are annnoyed they need to do some setting changes after installing SP2 are just bad whiners. Big deal, just do the setting changes and be done with it. Everything can be turned off if necessary, including XP firewall and IE pop-up blocker.

[Bri_Dog]

Should I DL this release? Or wait for the smaller one?

[Fury]

In my opinion it would be for the best to download this and then burn it to a CD-R or slipstream it.
Slipstream is the best choice, then comes burning the SP2 network install to a CD-R, then comes express installation.

[Xelion]

I'm assuming the network install is just SP2 in one file. right?

[Fury]

Network install = 272 Mb package containing the whole SP2.
Express install = Downloads only whats needed, ~80 Mb possibly.
Slipstream.

While network install is big, benefits really outweights it. If you slipstream the network install package or simply burn it to CD-R for later use, you can then install it whenever you want to. Without the need to download it again should you need to install it, most likely after you have reinstalled XP.

Slipstreaming is really good, basically if you install XP with slipstreamed SP2, you have SP2 installed out of the box.

[Bobboau]

ok, ok I'll bite,
what's slipstream?

oh, and aparently after sp2 this sound gets emmbedded into every sound that gets played

[Fury]

Bobboau, how about clicking the slipstream links?

[Zarax]

Most issues should have been fixed, really.
XP SP2 had at least 1000 MVPs as testers, and many of them are some of the biggest nitpickers i've ever seen...

[Arc]

AFAIK sp2 will show up on the Windows Update site on the 25th, but users with Autmatic Updates enabled will start to see it from today. MS are rotating the ip ranges though to prevent their servers getting hammered, so it won't be everyone straight away.