Thread: SP2 is a pain in the ***

Thanks for the lovins. Heh.

BTW, Frodo, you were right about the firewall on dialup... Forgot about worm attacks... Hehehehehe....


*bows in apology*

Originally Posted by frodobaggins

Software Vendors were warned, more than a year in advance, what would need to be
change for compliance with SP2.

Geez, with talk like that one would think you worked for Microsoft. Still doesn't make sense to say everyone fix your software to work with ours, I could understand that if this was an entirely new version of Windows that people would knowingly install but not a ****in' ServicePack that gets downloaded automatically on everyone's computer that has Automatic Updates turned on. Attitude like this is all the more reason why MS rules the PC world, oh well Micrsoft says fix my software guess I'd better listen.

Originally Posted by dodgetimes2

...oh well Micrsoft says fix my software guess I'd better listen.

Love to! Lemme know when you get a hold of the source!

Originally Posted by frodobaggins

I'm sorry but most of you don't know what you are talking about... A lot of you guys problems is you guys like to tinker and **** with things you shouldn't, and when you install patches, it ****s up...

I am going to have to weigh in an disagree as well. I am the IT Manager (read: sys admin, dba, webmaster, postmaster, programmer, desktop support,WAN admin, etc, etc..) at my work and I will relate my SP2 story. Boss' computer is Dell special running XP Pro SP1 (purchased before my employment)

There are only two machines in the company running XP, the CFO's and the Payroll managers. The CFO, my boss, is the only person other than me to have domain admin rights because he was the sys admin before I was hired. Phone rings at 9:15a about 3 months ago:

Boss: The software for the security cameras does not work. I cannot connect to them.
[Ethernet based scurity cameras in all three retail locations]

Me: Did anything happen recently?

Boss: I installed SP2.

Me: Ok, i'll "poke a hole" in the firewall. Probelm solved.

Phone rings again at 1:00p:
Boss: Ok now my email does not work.
[MS Outlook - local MS Exchange 2k server]

Me: Did anything happen recently?

Boss: I used my computer like I always do...
[surfing Cnn.com, email and inhouse telnet app... which appearently was not affected by the SP2 firewall, humm]

Me: Ok, well we can still get on the internet so it is not network problems. Lets check out the security center again. Oh, the firewall is not running, ok lets start that back up.. "an error occured processing your request. The firewall service cannot start." Ok so I log off and log in as the domain admin and the open a command prompt and try to run ipconfig and am greating with the image below?!? OK, the computer is non-existant on the network as far as ALL other workstations and the domain controller are concerned. Ok, lets just uninstall SP2. Open Add/Remove blah blah applet and click the remove button beside SP2. receive message box with text: "This action is not valid" WTF!!! After trying everything I know and "goggle"ing We finally get SP2 to uninstall by right clicking on the uninstall button. <sarcasam>I think to myself "Every technician knows your supposed to right click duh!" </sarcasam> It is now 5:50p:

So we head to the house while the service pack uninstalls (Store is closed no-one has access to pc, it is in locked office and only CFO has key) We come back the next morning to a message that says the computer must be rebooted to complete the un-install process. So I reboot and am greating with... "Big Black Nothing!!" Ok, you know where the cute flashing windows logo is supposed to appear after CMOS finished with the POST? Nope, nada, nothing. Dead pc num lock is on and will not go off, no response for any keyboard activity. Thats right folks ctrl+alt+del does not work.

Needless to say my boss spent the rest of the day using a Knoppix CD and accessing MS Exchange though the web interface. I used knoppix to mount my win2k shared folder so I could back up his files so I could spend the next day reloading his PC from scratch. And I am really pleased when he says "Hey this Linux thing is cool! You can leave it on my PC if you want."
evil laughter ensues...

BWAHAHAHAHAHAAA!!!!!! AWESOME!!! Farking MS... Look, I love Windows, when it's doing what it's supposed to do. BUT, this is NOT what it's supposed to be doing, installing **** behind my back that unexpectedly takes me right the hell out of being able to even use the machine. I suspect MS will be dealing with a class-action lawsuit real soon, thanks to all the business hours that their "improvement" has cost people.

Sure, we can turn off Auto Updates, but dammit, if the product isn't right yet, 1st of all, WHY WAS IT RELEASED AS FINAL, and 2nd, WHY THE HELL CAN I NOT RELY ON EVEN THE FIXES TO WORK?!?!

Plain and simple, I don't give a frigging crap what anybody anywhere tells me, MS doesn't have anybody doing beta testing there. They are straight up using their customers as guinea pigs, even though they pay good money to use their software, and can ill afford to be down as much as this latest turd, er, "Service Pack" is taking them. How about "No Service Pack"? Total crap.
Until I see some evidence that that company is making any effort whatsoever to secure their new products, I won't have anything to do with them. I will secure my installation the way I know it needs to be done, and their little "auto updates" can kiss my ***!

As for those folks who think Win2k3 Server is da bomb, my co-worker was using a legit MSDN release (registered beta tester), which was sent to him as a final product. Now, remember all the hype about how secure and safe that thing is? Check this out, he installed it, enabled ONE service, so he could run a base FTP server on it, and by the time he got home 10 hours later, after work, there were about 5 different warez FTP sites running from his system, on non-standard ports. Right, real secure, that turd. Funny how I can do the same thing on XP and not have a single problem for months.

Whatever. Just needed to vent again. Sorry folks, just had another long day listening to people tell me our PCs are crap because they tried to install SP2 and it broke their installs.

*Hates putting out the frigging forest fires MS keeps starting*

I'm gunna have to go with frodo on this one,

I think that some poeple shouldn't be fooling around with stuff in the OS that they dont completely understand. These are generally the first poeple to complain that SP2 took down thier machine. Putting the blame anywhere but in thier own laps.

SP2 did however take down somemachines on its own mainly because it didnt like certian 3rd party drivers... These 3rd party software companies WERE warned 2 years ago that this might happen...


I never had a problem installing SP2, I turned off all of its warnings, I welcomed it to my machine and have lived happily ever after.

The thing is, I don't CARE if the driver writers were warned. What kind of crap is that? It still feels to me like MS is trying to enforce their policy of "pay to be included in the certification club".

Plain and simple, what the hell good is this crap pack if it won't play nice with my nice expensive Radeon All in Wonder 9600? So now, if I were running a biz machine, I would be screwed until ATI came up with new drivers, because MS felt their drivers were somehow a risk (which I don't for a minute buy). When was the last time we saw a virus or worm propagate through a fault in a 3rd party (major name brand) manufacturer's drivers?

Straight up, MS screwed the pooch on this, and they know it. That's gestapo thinking to expect everyone to conform to their new ideas and directions, even if it brings down many many people who absolutely rely on their uptime to make a living. It's beginning to feel like MS WANTS me to go to another OS...

Best way to use SP2: fresh install from a slipstreamed CD. I did this to my grandpa's computer and he says it runs MUCH faster now.