Sarasota PC Monitor
Tech Talk (11/04)
Installing Windows XP Service Pack 2
by Brian K. Lewis, Ph.D.*
Member of the Sarasota Personal Computer Users Group, Inc.Last month I discussed some of the things you should consider before installing Microsoft's Service Pack 2 (SP2) for Windows XP. This month I am reporting on my experience in installing this update on three different computers. Let me say at the outset that I had no major problems with this update on any of these machines.
The first installation of SP2 was on a desktop unit with a 2.4 GHz Celeron processor and 512 MB of RAM. I did not do the update from a download. Instead I used the CD I ordered from Microsoft. At the time I ordered it, the web site indicated that it would be 4 - 6 weeks for delivery. I actually received it in less than three weeks. And, it was totally free, no shipping costs, no charges whatsoever. That's one "thank you" to Microsoft.
Before I started the installation I did a complete backup (image file) of my hard drive to an external hard drive. Always a good precautionary measure when you are making any kind of a major change to your computer. SP2 is very much a major change. After the backup, it was a simple process to insert the CD and let it autorun. There were several interesting messages that occurred during the upgrade process. One was that the installer created a "Restore point" prior to making any changes to the system. Secondly, it backed up all "third party drivers". That would allow the system to identify hardware devices and re-install the required drivers, if needed, after the upgrade was completed.
The upgrade on this computer took less than 20 minutes to complete and then it wanted to reboot the machine. The reboot process took much longer than a normal boot-up. Once the Welcome Screen was up, I selected the Administrator mode and entered my password. It then took more than 3 minutes before the first window appeared. The question in that window was did I want to setup up automatic updates, which I declined. I prefer to be notified and then get the updates I want. Then my regular screen came up. Entering the Control Panel I found the new Security Icon. Clicking that brought up the Security Center Window. Windows had found my Zone Alarm firewall and consequently did not activate the Windows firewall. So the firewall setting was just as I preferred it. Windows also identified my Avast Antivirus and that was reported as being up-to-date, so no change was needed there. The only thing it didn't like was that I hadn't selected automatic updates. But, I just left it that way.
After closing out the Security Center I tried to go on-line but my browser was not able to connect to the Internet. Even though everything appeared to be correct, there was no connection. Just as a check I turned off the firewall, but that didn?t help. So I went to a command prompt and tried "ipconfig". This indicated that there was no connection specific DNS suffix and the IP address was the local one assigned by Windows. Using "release/renew" didn't make any change. Finally, after much checking, I reset my router to the factory defaults and then went into the router setup. After finishing that, I had my Internet connection restored. Why a problem occurred with the router settings, I really don't know. It didn't reoccur when I updated my second computer on my home network so it may not have been related to the SP2 update.
So, after finishing my first computer, I turned to my laptop to get it upgraded to SP2. Again, the first step was a complete image backup. I used an external USB 2.0 hard drive for this backup as well. Next, insert the CD and let it autorun. The backup process took about the same time as on the desktop. The laptop has a 2.6 GHz Pentium 4 CPU and 512 MB of RAM. So it is similar in hardware to the desktop. The interesting thing in this installation was that Window did not recognize the Sygate firewall that was installed. Instead, it activated the Windows firewall. I had to turn off the Windows firewall in the Security Center and select the choice to manage the firewall myself. That's fine because I have had no problems updating the Sygate firewall. I just found it somewhat surprising that Windows did not recognize it. The antivirus program on this computer is also the Avast program that Windows does recognize.
Other than the initial problem with the Internet connection, I have had no problems with any of the peripheral devices on either of these computers. The network printers, scanner, external USB hard drive, USB card reader, USB 2.0 hub are all working without any problems. I have had no problems with any of the software installed on either machine and that covers a wide range of applications. I can't say that I have used all of the installed applications, but at least I have had no problems up to this point.
The third machine that I updated was one on a client's network. The primary machine had been updated as a result of the auto-update function. Two other computers hadn't been updated because no one had gone into Administrator mode where the notification would have occurred. So I did the update with the SP2 CD. In this case the computer has a 2.2 GHz CPU and 512 MB of RAM. The update took exactly 20 minutes. Windows installed the Windows firewall and recognized the TrendMicro antivirus program. There appeared to be no problems with the local network or the Internet connection.
There was one problem that occurred that I suspect was the result of the SP2 auto-installation by the Windows update over the Internet. The reason I was called in was they had found that the network hadn?t been backed up since mid-August. That would have been about the time that Windows XP Professional was being updated by SP2 through the automatic update program. Their backup program is Retrospect and the network computers use a Retrospect Client. It seems that the Windows firewall blocks the Retrospect Client response so no backup occurs. I found this same problem with the TrendMicro firewall. However, we were able to work around it by using a straight network file share and the backups resumed.
All of the computers I have upgraded were running Windows XP Professional. I have not worked with any running the Home edition, so I can't comment on that upgrade. However, although there are many reports of various problems with the SP2 upgrade, my problems were minor. Considering that this upgrade does contain many recompiled components and improved security, it is well worth while spending the time needed to install it. However, don't do it until after you have done a complete backup. Just remember that Windows restore points do not restore your data or applications. It applies only to the operating system files. So, as I've said before: BACKUP, BACKUP, BACKUP!
*Dr. Lewis is a former university & medical school professor. He has been working with personal computers for more than thirty years. He can be reached via e-mail at bwsail@yahoo.com.
Copyright 2004. This article is from the November 2004 issue of the Sarasota PC Monitor, the official monthly publication of the Sarasota Personal Computer Users Group, Inc., P.O. Box 15889, Sarasota, FL 34277-1889. Permission to reprint is granted only to other non-profit computer user groups, provided proper credit is given to the author and our publication. We would appreciate receiving a copy of the publication the reprint appears in, please send to above address, Attn: Editor. For further information about our group, email: admin@spcug.org/ Web: http://www.spcug.org/The Sarasota Personal Computer Users Group, Inc. has 1,100+ members and was established in 1982. We are members of the Assoc. of PC User Groups (APCUG), the Florida Assoc. of PC Users Groups, Inc., and we are members of the America Online Ambassador Program.
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