I'm not talking about a professional IT environment. The average FR home user doesn't have your resources. ;-p
So, it's been a few additional months and I'm wondering was there ever a genuine problem with XP SP2, and if so (or not), is it now ready for prime time?
I have a remote friend (computer illiterate) who had problems upgrading from XP to XP SP2 - her MSN.com ISP support stopped working altogether. The MSN tech supp folks told her to back off SP2, she did, everything worked as before. She was told by MSN tech supp:
After 'repeatedly' calling MSN I found someone who suggested removing SP2. He told me he had countless calls with similar problems that began after they installed SP2. Off the record, he said he didn't download SP2 onto his personal computer. He did say Microsoft was addressing it's compatibility with other anti-viruses - Norton, etc. and was waiting until it was more perfectedShe previously ran Adaware & SpyBot S&D and Norton ant-virus but switched to McAfee as she was told it was more 'MSN compatible'.
She is now wondering if she should re-attempt the SP2 upgrade.
Have there been any patches to XP SP2 that ostensibly fix upgrade problems, or has it remained static since this thread was last posted, back in Oct 2004?
FWIW, I run W2K Pro SP4 with ZoneAlarm Pro & AVG, Opera, and Eudora. So most of the easy virus and Spybot holes are plugged for me. I've only had 1 virus (trapped) and 1 BSOD in 4 years. So, I'm somewhat sympathetic to the argument that there was nothing wrong with XP SP2 if one keeps their system clean and maintained, but OTOH, I don't have XP and have heard a number of problems with it (similar to the early days of W2K - when I still ran NT - I stay back of the 'bleeding edge').
Thanks for any updated advice/help.