I've just finished upgrading both my TabletPC and XPPro Desktop home PCs and my the XPPro desktop in my office with Service Pack 2 (sp2) so I thought I'd share my experience since I'd yet to read anyone else's online and I know that there are plenty of folks out there waiting for the guinea pigs to report before doing it themselves. Downloading I got impatient and didn't wait for the "automatic update" feature of WindowsXP to download sp2 for me. Instead I stumbled over the Network Installation Package for IT Professionals and Developers version and downloaded it myself. This version is designed for those who will need to update multiple computers. (i.e. a library full of staff and public computers.) The only difference between this download and what you'll get via the auto update is that this is the complete package while the auto update will download only the files you need for that particular system. This version downloads all the files and the installs only the ones you need. At 272.391MB it's a hefty download. On my cable-modem it took about 20 minutes. For those using this version, download it once, place it on the network somewhere and install it from the single location on each machine. (That's what it's designed for.) Installation The installation itself took a total of just 16 minutes on my desktop. The uncompress and install itself took 11 minutes while the reboot and post-install functions took five minutes. (I forgot to time the install on my Tablet but it wasn't much longer than that. The additional time would be a result of the fact that the Tablet gets a few more updates than a regular desktop.) Not wanting to interrupt the update, I only took one screenshot of the install process. Watching the screen it went through many predicatable steps: After reboot the post installation steps were transparent with one exception. I was asked whether or not I wanted to turn on Automatic Updates. Of course, turning them on was recommended and leaving them off was not. Those familiar with Automatic Updates will know that there are different settings for this feature. Turning it on at this point sets it up to automatically download and install all critical updates on a schedule, sans any user input into the process. This is now the default where previously the default was off. This is important to be aware of based upon your setup. Whichever you choose, the options are easily changed via the new Security Center discussed later. In both cases, the sp2 installation went smoothly and caused not a single problem on either machine. Changes to XP In this section I'll talk about the changes to XP that effected both the desktop and the Tablet. (i.e. what everyone can expect.) In the next section I'll describe the TabletPC-specific changes for those interested. The first thing I did was go into My Computer's properties to see how the OS was now identified. The only change was to change "Service Pack 1" to "Service Pack 2" after the name and version number. (Unlike the TabletPC update which listed a completely new version.) The Security Center After the installation reboot and post-installation procedures the new Windows Security Center will appear on your screen. This is an interesting feature. I'd heard of it previously but was a little dubious about the whole concept, expecting it to be difficult to use and impossible to control by someone who know what they're doing. Boy way I surprised. In fact, on my Tablet, this was immediately helpful. Here's the screen I received. In the Firewall category it noticed that I already had a firewall running and worked me that I shouldn't run more than one. Since it did recognize my third-party firewall (ZoneAlarm) it did not turn on the Windows Firewall automatically. (It would have had I not installed my own firewall.) With Automatic Updates it warned me that I needed to "check settings" and offered me a button to turn them on. This is the report you'll receive if you have any other setting for automatic updates than the default of "download and install automatically on a schedule". Since this is my laptop and it's not always connected to the Net I have my automatic updates set to notify me of updates and let me choose when to download and install them. (For example, I tend not to download and install updates while on the road since that's the last time at which I want an update to cause problems on my computer. I'll save that for when I'm home thank you very much.) The Virus Protection section instantly alerted me to a problem. It recognized that I had AVG Anti-Virus installed and that my virus signatures were out of date. This notification instantly impressed me. Again, since this was my laptop, I don't have automatic updates turned on. With this reminder in hand, I went and updated my AV software. The security center didn't automatically notice that I was now up-to-date but upon the next reboot and opening of the security center I was presented with revised information showing that my particular firewall was active and that my Av software was current. The links at the bottom of the Security Center take you to the appropriate windows instead of having you go into your computer's properties or back to the Control Panel. Again, no major changes to the functionality of either the Automatic Updates or Windows Firewall but as with other changes, the interface is cleaner and the options are better explained. I've got to admit I like the security center. However, after this first time, it will not automatically run and is available via the Control Panel. From the perspective of the novice user, I'd like to see an option to have it run all the time and automatically minimize to the system tray. With, of course, the ability to turn this off for experience users and situations like public access computers. There were significant difference between the security center on my home PCs and the one at my office. The basis for this difference is the fact that my office PC connects to a Windows domain where my computers at home do not. Because of this, Microsoft assumes that when you connect to a domain, users are not responsible for these options on their individual PCs, a network administrator is. (It even says this right on the screen.) In this situation you are not prompted to turn on auto updates after reboot and you have the security center with it's links to the appropriate settings but it does not give you the choices regarding and information about the firewall, auto updates and anti-virus programs. I'm not sure I like this last "feature". Granted if you're running a domain you should have a responsible sysadmin to take care of these things but it hardly encourages the individual user to take some responsibility for their own computer. Internet Explorer IE is not my default browser; I prefer Firefox so there may be additional changes that I've not found yet. Version I did a quick check of IE's version number to see if we'd actually earned a real upgrade to the browser. Unfortunately not. The previous version of IE on my computers was "6.0.2800.1106.xpsp2.030442-1633 / Update versions:;SP1;Q…" but as you can tell from this screenshot it does acknowledge sp2 but we're still on IE version 6. Downloading Due to the fact that I was downloading a software upgrade what I did quickly notice was the File Download dialog box had changed. In keeping with their "more and better security" features, the box offers more and more clear information about the file you're attempting to download. I didn't click on "what's the risk" link but I'm assuming that takes you to a page about security issues. Since I picked the "Run" option, once the file downloaded I was given an additional "security warning" forcing me to accept the risks of running this unknown program. Again, this is not exactly a new feature but the redesigned dialog box is much clearer than the previous version. Windows Marketplace Not being able to keep out of marketing completely, sp2 left a new favorite on my links toolbar to the Windows Marketplace. The funny part is that the URI you're sent to, redirects you to another link with one of those "we've moved, please wait five seconds" pages in the process. It's like Microsoft put a link to a site then decided to move it after it was too late to change the link in the service pack. Popup Blocker Finally, IE has a built in pop-up blocker. Having not using IE long enough to test, nor even planning to, I don't know if it's any better than the others out there but a quick test implied that it works as expected. By default it's turned on and you can turn it off and access it's settings under the Tools|Pop-Up Blocker menu. The available settings include creating an exceptions list, options for playing a sound and/or showing an "information bar" when pop-ups are blocked, and setting the pop-up filter to either high, medium (the default) or low. Windows Update Once that was done, I decided to take a look at the updated "Windows Update" site. The changes here were of no surprise to me since I'd been beta testing this version (v5) for a few months on my office PC. Like with most changes to sp2, the functionality hasn't changed but the interface is cleaner and the descriptions are clearer. Gone are the "Critical updates", "Windows XP", and "Drivers" categories. Replacing them are "high priority", "optional software", "optional hardware", and "optional beta" update categories. (Don't worry, the beta category can be turned off in the settings.) The desktop version of Windows Update (what's used for the automatic updates) also looks different but getting screenshots of that is difficult since it's only available when updates are available. At the moment I'm completely up-to-date so getting into that is impossible. Media Player 9 I had previously updated the Windows Media Player to version 9 so I am not clear whether or not it was included in this update for those who had not previously upgraded. However, I have a feeling it was because the first time I ran the program after installing sp2, it forced me through the program's short setup process as if it had been installed fresh. If there are any additional features built into this program I wasn't able to find them with the brief glance I gave it. Wireless If you're on a computer with WiFi you might notice one small change, the icon in the system tray. It looks a little different and while you're connected the little yellow ball moves from left to right to indicate an active connection. Changes to XP TabletPC Edition The concept of this service pack is very intriguing to me. It updates the OS but since there is the normal XP Home/Pro versions along with a different XP TabletPC version, the folks at Microsoft decided to use this update to fix problems and change features in Home/Pro and to completely upgrade and add feature to the TabletPC version. So, when it comes to TabletPC, once you've installed this service pack you officially have a new version of the OS; Tablet PC Edition 2005. The first thing I notice was a slightly redesigned input panel on the login screen. I'm not sure I like it, it's too blue for my taste. This redesign carries through to the on-screen input panel which, instead of just a writing and keyboard inputs now also features what I can only describe as guided writing input which gives the writer markers for character spacing, baseline and descenders. The single major change to the TabletPC version is the addition of a floating input panel with context-sensitive features. For example, when I use the pen and tap in the address bar of IE, I get an input panel icon. Once tapped on, the floating input panel appears, on top of the application within a centimeter of where my pen already was, removing the need for me to move my pen to the bottom of the screen and writing in the docked input panel. Additionally, the input panel has noticed that I'm in an address field and will most likely want to input a URL. Based on this assumption I've been given several buttons for quick entry; in this case "http://", "www.", ".com", ".org", "." and "/". The floating input panel also expands to allow for longer input, even adding new lines as necessary. It also offers a redesigned keyboard-based input selectable on the left of the panel for those who wish or need to "type" via the pen. The only complaint I have about this new floating input panel is that it doesn't work in all programs. I've not tested it across the board but it doesn't appear in Firefox. My guess is that it only works with Microsoft products. I can still use the docked input panel but that's not as convenient; hence the creation of the floating one. Conclusions WindowsXP service pack 2 should be installed ASAP on your own personal and staff computers. Granted, if you have any problems where I did not I can't be held responsible. As for public access computers, there's no rush. You should do it eventually if for no other reason than to take advantage of the revised Windows Update but there's no rush as all of the new features are designed for computers where the user is responsible for keeping the computer up-to-date and secure. ©2004, Michael Sauers
Occurrs in reverse alphabetical order for some reason.
On my office computer it set 31 processes for post-reboot.
Optional at this point but changes will not take effect until after reboot.
Last Updated: 16 August 2004 19:47
Written to the Natalie Cole's Ask a Woman Who Knows
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
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| Installing Windows XP Service Pack 2: One Librarian's Experience |
Should you install the new Service Pack for Windows XP? What problems can you expect along the way? Michael Sauers of the Bibliographical Center for Research shares his insights.
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