XP SP2 I just went and had to try it, sigh...

[X-ray]

That could be what happened to me. I have an OEM install of XP Pro, but it is on a custom machine, not HP or Compa*.
After I installed SP2 winblows explorer refused to run. At least I have not suffered a complete disaster like others have.
I think I'll wait a while for an updated version.

[Amigaz]

Also have an OEM install of Win XP on my DELL Workstation dual Xeon machine and after I installed SP2 I lost contact with my router after 3-5 minutes after a reboot.
SP2 had somehow messed up my network card driver, a reinstall of the driver solved my problem.

[seer]

For people having trouble with networking and SP2 (or any Windows trouble), either read this forum or this or post any questions you have.

[Waccoon]

Tried it. Every system restore failed. I got one to work, from where i 1st installed the OS. But it was soo unstable.

System restore for XP is a really bad leftover from Windows ME, and I've never seen it work properly.  Backups are your only hope.

Some people I know however, have "cracked" copies of xp.

Still beats having to re-register XP every time you change something.  By the time you really need a new service pack, you're probably due for a re-install, anyway.

Also have an OEM install of Win XP on my DELL Workstation dual Xeon machine and after I installed SP2 I lost contact with my router after 3-5 minutes after a reboot.

Actually, that's a typical problem with NT-class machines.  NT4 at work did the same thing to me, and moving to Win2K didn't help, either.  I think it has to do with the way Windows caches workgroups, and doesn't tolerate machines turning on and off randomly.  If there's a way to force Windows to refresh the workgroup listing from within Explorer, I haven't found it yet (of course, I don't work there anymore, so I don't care, either).

[bjjones37]

I downloaded SP2, burned it on a CD (network install), and put it on the shelf. Since I took my XP machine off of the Internet and reinstalled it without firewall, etc, it has been working great.  Since it will not be on the Internet, I know of no reason to install SP2.

[Orjan]

Everything I have heard about SP2 is that it sucks, nothing works after the installation, and if it does work, everything works slower and stuff..

Except myself.. I installed SP2 a couple of days after it was released on my Dell machine, and I havent had any troubles what-so-ever with it... Except for the security center bugging me that I didnt seem to have any antivirus software, until I figured out how to turn off the warnings... :-)

[redrumloa]

It worked fine on my system, but a friends computer nuked after SP2 installation. Nuked as in start to boot, reboot, repeat. No safe mode, no nothing, nuked :-o

[mikeymike]

I waited a respectable amount of time, then installed it on a number of customer machines, all without any problems.

I think XP SP2 is a bit like Firefox upgrade users complaining that it nuked all of their bookmarks and similar problems - "Firefox / your computer is not intended to be installed rectally".  In short, EBKAC, but in general 'mis/use of the computer' terms.

[bloodline]

Installed SP2... Activation requester poped up... used System Restore to go back to the point before I installed SP2.

Problem solved.

[Vincent]

redrumloa wrote:
It worked fine on my system, but a friends computer nuked after SP2 installation. Nuked as in start to boot, reboot, repeat. No safe mode, no nothing, nuked :-o

That's what happened to us.  No safe mode, no previous version of windoh's, just absolute bugger all.

We had to get my bro-in-law to take it away, put the hd on his pc, and figure out what it was from there.

There were a few conflicts with SP2, none of them hardware or driver related, once those were sorted it was rolled back to SP1 and everything's been peachy since.  *knocks wood*

--edit--

Did I really just say peachy?! :-o

[Holley]

I wouldn't install it to a current XP installation, but I've installed about a dozen copies of XP with SP2 pre-installed, and it's worked fine every time.  Lots more 'helpful' pop-ups than before though :-?

It's only a dozen as most people on the WAN want to stick with Windows 2000 ...

[Nestor]

After I installed it, I turned off the FIREWALL and in the advance settings of the FIREWALL I selected EXCEPTIONS for File and Printer Sharing, and eDonkey.

On a previous SP2 install on the same computer, I had to enable File and Printer Sharing from it's properties but this did not happen with the second install.

[DonnyEMU]

If you get the product activation requester after sp2 install it's probably because you have an invalid activation or serial  number.. What's even more scarey is further updates from microsoft will go out and check that activation to be sure that the update is being installed on a legal copy of windows..

-Don