For the last few days, I've been asked (when switching on my computer) if I want to install updates as windows xp service pack 3. The thing is that I've heard about alot of people who have had nothing but trouble installing this update and some advise strongly against updating.
So my question is : What is so special about updating.....my xp service pack 2 seems to work fine for me.Is it really going to cause me problems if I update ?

What is the experience that you have had ?

Has anyone upgraded and finds that things are not as good ?

Has anyone upgraded and found that things are significantly better and it really is a good idea to accept the update ?

thanks for any advice you can give me.

Well, its hard to answer Jack. I updated to SP3 and kept getting a weird error message. I'm sure something I had loaded didn't like something in SP3. (Note that I had already been fully updated with the stuff on the windows update site per SP3)

I then uninstalled SP3 by "restoring my system to an earlier date" and things are back to normal.

I also know a couple of people that have installed it and have not had any problems. So I am not sure what the issue was.

So, google on restoring your system for a "how to", make sure you can do it (you have to have system restore turned on to have had an earlier image saved). If you do, go ahead and update it. Try it out for a day or two and then if you are happy you can keep it. If you start having issues, uninstall it.

I'll probably go through my running programs and see if I can find something that needs to be updated and then try again.

Sorry. I am an Apple man and use Mac computers. I do have a Dell laptop sitting around but it has Vista installed.

I too have updated my PC a few days ago; there's nothing new, neither better or worse ...

I installed it last night (desktop) & at first it seemed OK. It installed without any problems. This morning I used the Internet Explorer & it's so slow I'm either considering a restore or downloading firefox. I really hate to do a restore because of the security issues which were included in the update but I can't stand waiting for a newspaper page to download.

I installed it at home and it works fine, so far. But at work I had problems with some of the programs we use through the network, so I had to restore my computer to get rid of it.

I have it downloaded, but haven't installed it yet. I have IE7 and Firefox. I mostly just use Firefox for here and other boards. I'll install it and see what happens. I'll be right back..I hope.

Dwayne

Wow! That was the longest update ever. I have installed the entire Windows operating system quicker than that. I got an error on the initial re-start (that took forever). I re-booted again, and all seems ok so far. I've only just started this test drive though.

Dwayne

Islandcruz- My wife was trying to use the ie 7 last night & it was so slow she had to give up & use the laptop which has Safari. Let us know how yours is after the update is installed.
Good Luck, I'm almost ready to do a restore.

After fighting with my IE7 this morning I finally downloaded Firefox. It's definitely faster than IE7 but when trying to import favorites, cookies, etc. it crashes. I finally got it to bring in my favorites without cookies & passwords so I'll have to manually do so.
IslandCruise - Let us know how you make out.

Rich, I will. I don't have anything imported to Firefox. I just use it on the boards for the automatic spelling alert feature. I just opened IE7 to my Yahoo home page at the same time I have Firefox in another window. So far so good.

I'll give Penny a "ping" to see if she knows what the problem is.

Dwayne

Usually, I don't install a service pack for a couple of months or more after it's release. It sounds like you might have had some spyware on the computer before you installed SP3. Since SP3 has tightened security, it might be fighting to take over from the spyware. If you have Spybot or Adaware, update the programs and run them. If not, download them from lavasoft (Adaware) or CDNet (Spybot S&D). Be careful downloading Spybot, there are some cleverly placed ads that look like you're downloading Spybot, but you're really downloading spyware. Make sure your download says Spybot S&D 1.6.x. Hope this will help.

quote:

Originally posted by penny3333:
Usually, I don't install a service pack for a couple of months or more after it's release. It sounds like you might have had some spyware on the computer before you installed SP3. Since SP3 has tightened security, it might be fighting to take over from the spyware. If you have Spybot or Adaware, update the programs and run them. If not, download them from lavasoft (Adaware) or CDNet (Spybot S&D). Be careful downloading Spybot, there are some cleverly placed ads that look like you're downloading Spybot, but you're really downloading spyware. Make sure your download says Spybot S&D 1.6.x. Hope this will help.

I installed Firefox this morning & it's great compared to IE7. I didn't do a restore since I'm sure there must be some security items that I would rather leave in place.
I'm running a check with Spybot S&D right now but I only expect to find the typical cookies & nothing more. I also run AVG which seems to be highly rated.

AVG is very good. Spybot searches for trojans and spyware and adware. They're even worse than viruses any more. I had a nasty one the other day that kept recreating itself. I finally got it off by copying it over to a jump drive and I threw the jump drive away. It hid from everything. I watched it recreate itself and couldn't take it over even in DOS. It was masked by calling itself XP Antivirus 2008, I've also seen XP Antivirus 2009 which does the same thing. Of course, it's not antivirus it redirects you to a website that wants to sell you a product for $49.95. It isn't a real product at all, it installs a back door to steal your identity. Nasty little booger, not detected by any antivirus, because it's spyware-an imbedded zip file with a .fp extention that will change to a .dp extension or anything but a valid extension. Took me all day to get rid of it. It probably would have been faster to rebuild, but it was a faculty machine with tons of data on it.

Thanks, Penny! I knew you would come to the rescue.

The only odd thing I've noticed so far is on my Yahoo home page. My mouse pointer turns into + magnifying glass for my "Top Stories from Reuters" section, instead of the hand link symbol.

I'm only running CA Security Suite, which I just found out is far from the best. It did detect 87 spyware/cookies on my computer. At a detection level of 56% I just read, that is scary!

I did shut it down, and the Windows Firewall before I installed SP3. It's working fine so far other than the Yahoo pointer issue. I'm just glad it didn't mess up my WiFi settings. It has been like heck trying to keep weekly renters off of it. It's sorta funny in a way, the neighbors that were hacking my wireless now have their own..un-secured! I should cancel mine, and connect to theirs.

Dwayne

I re-started my computer again, and now everything is back to normal. I was worried all night it would mess my worksheets up. For some reason it needs 3 re-boots so far to get itself right.

IE8 Beta 2? I don't think so until they get it right this time.

Dwayne

No Beta for me, thank you very much. Even when they do a general release, it's scary!

DON'T install the IE8 beta! From looking around trying to figure out whats wrong with SP3, I found out that SP3 and IE8 beta don't get along well and to back away from IE8 you would have to uninstall sp3 and ie8 and then reinstall sp3 and SP3 to get things back to normal...

You would think after all these years Microshaft would have learned to test things a bit better before release.

quote:

Originally posted by Jim C.:
DON'T install the IE8 beta! From looking around trying to figure out whats wrong with SP3, I found out that SP3 and IE8 beta don't get along well and to back away from IE8 you would have to uninstall sp3 and ie8 and then reinstall sp3 and SP3 to get things back to normal...

You would think after all these years Microshaft would have learned to test things a bit better before release.

I finally gave up trying to get IE7 to work properly & downloaded Firefox.

quote:

I finally gave up trying to get IE7 to work properly & downloaded Firefox.

Rich, both are working fine now for me. I don't know what is going on with IE7. Penny helped me get it straight when I first started using it. I had a phishing blocker and something else turned on that was messing things up. I've had IE7 for a while now though. I hope you get everything straightened out.

Dwayne