SP2 is driving me nuts, how do I...?

G

Guden Oden

Senior Member
Legend
...Stop it from whining about missing/unknown certificates and shit like that when I run exe files, such as an install program by double-clicking its icon?

Also:

...Stop it from blocking files that I try to download. There doesn't seem to be any setting for this, or the setting seems to be to disable the popup blocker - obviously not something I would prefer doing as it's rather effective; just a bit overzealous at times.
 
You know, after all the things i've heard about SP2, i'm really not rushing to install it....
How does the pop-up work? Cause i've experienced some that are so aggressive that they just block everything. Needless to say, those few sites that NEED pop-up windows to work properly, do not work...
I wouldn't wanna have to stop using certain sites just because the pop-up blocker doesn't allow it to work the way it was meant to work...
 
On my system, there's a little checkbox at the bottom of the window that says "Always ask before opening this file" and I think after unchecking it when running both signed and unsigned files, it should stop asking you.

The pop up blocker is pretty much like any other. It has 3 settings, Low (allow pop ups from secure sites), Medium (block most automatic pop ups), High (block all, hold ctrl to allow). Also has a whitelist to allow pop ups on the sites want. And if there's a site that you want to allow a pop up a single time, for instance the counter window at Futuremark, you just hold down the control key while the page loads

I believe all the "download blocker", for lack of a better word, does is prevent a site from doing a meta refresh to download a binary file. To turn it off, just go into Tools -> Security tab, select Internet zone, click Custom level, find Automatic prompting for file downloads under the Downloads section and change it to Enable. Worked fine on my system.

Personally, I haven't had any problems with SP2, and I'm not sure if I'd want to risk running a system connected to the Net without it. After all, the minor annoyances are worth the added security, and they are just that, minor.
 
Thanks, I think those tips you gave did the trick. It's weird, people bitched about MacOS telling the user how to use the computer, well this is much worse. MS really went overboard with SP2, even though it may be safer for the noobs. I prefer if my pooter don't tell me how I should do things. :D
 
I updated my AMD 64 PC with SP2 yesterday.

It seems to have messed my system quite bad.

I can not access the "Control panel - System" any more
I can not do the ctrl - alt - del any more, and check the running programs and processes
I can not update the Office 2003 from installation CD any more, it just doesn't do anything if I double click the Setup icon.
I can not get to Windows update page any more, it gives some error of wupdt.exe
I get an error message for ctfmon.exe every time I start my PC or open some Office app.
I can not open the new "Security central" from the icon that appeared on the lower right corner beside the clock etc. The icon does nothing.

I haven't had much time to check if games and other software still works, Nero seems to work at least, and I have no problems accessing internet.

It must be the DEP and AMD64, as it has been reported some programs are not compatible with that combination. But one would think at least the basic Windows apps would work, as well as the SP2 security apps.

Oh well, I was going to do a fresh install of XP soon anyway, might as well do it this weekend, but without the SP2.
 
rabidrabbit said:
I updated my AMD 64 PC with SP2 yesterday.

It seems to have messed my system quite bad.

I can not access the "Control panel - System" any more
I can not do the ctrl - alt - del any more, and check the running programs and processes
I can not update the Office 2003 from installation CD any more, it just doesn't do anything if I double click the Setup icon.
I can not get to Windows update page any more, it gives some error of wupdt.exe
I get an error message for ctfmon.exe every time I start my PC or open some Office app.
I can not open the new "Security central" from the icon that appeared on the lower right corner beside the clock etc. The icon does nothing.

I haven't had much time to check if games and other software still works, Nero seems to work at least, and I have no problems accessing internet.

It must be the DEP and AMD64, as it has been reported some programs are not compatible with that combination. But one would think at least the basic Windows apps would work, as well as the SP2 security apps.

Oh well, I was going to do a fresh install of XP soon anyway, might as well do it this weekend, but without the SP2.
Click to expand...

You can disable DEP in system properties
 
But the funny thing is I can no longer access the System Properties :)
It doesn't give no error message or anything, it just doesn't open the sysprops.

Edit: At least there's something positive in this, my PC should be top secure now!
 
rabidrabbit said:
But the funny thing is I can no longer access the System Properties :)
It doesn't give no error message or anything, it just doesn't open the sysprops.

Edit: At least there's something positive in this, my PC should be top secure now!
Click to expand...

Tried "Windows" + "Pause" keys at once ?
That should open system properties panel (the one with OS version, CPU, Speed, RAM...)
 
The DEP could not be disabled, even though I was able to get in there where the DEP settings are, but there just is no option for disablin it. Only enable for essential windows files or enable for everything.
Tried enabling the DEP for everything and I couldn't execute any programs :)

So, I uninstalled the whole SP2, now everything worksa again.
 
It's in one of the boot files too. Have a search on microsoft's web site and they show you which parameter to tune. I had to do it to my AMD64 box due to an incompatibility with some of the software I use.
 
rabidrabbit said:
I updated my AMD 64 PC with SP2 yesterday.
I can not do the ctrl - alt - del any more, and check the running programs and processes
Click to expand...

just wondering if ctrl+shift+esc would work in that case, but since u already uninstalled, it's not an issue anymore
 
I've read of some incompatibilities with some software and AMD64 + SP2, but I seemed to had major incompatibility as even many XP functions were locked. I never ever got the dialog box that was supposed to ask more of would I like to give access to the software in question, just an error message of something like "something.exe cannot access memory 0000xxkjsjfs" or something like that.
Or on some cases no error message at all, just the software would not start.
I have not seen any messages on other boards with similar problems.
My PC does not have any exotic hw or sw. It's a AMD64 3000+, Asus 9600XT, MSI Neo K8T-FIS2R mainboard, 512MB ram, Win XP Home, Office 2003...

It's good that I was able to uninstall the SP2, I don't know what I would have done if the SP2 had locked it's execution too as I wouldn't have been able to run the setup on XP installation disc, phew :)
 
SP2 is just a joke. If you want a (good) firewall, there's ZoneAlarm and the likes. If you want a popup blocker, every Browser except IE has one. If you need IE to render some pages, you can use NetCaptor, which has a pop-up blocker and a lot of other nice stuff on top of IE.

The _real_ security problems, like settings for remote registry, administration etc. ("remote Everything", true MS cleverness - all wide open :devilish: ), NetBios settings etc. were not fixed. You can do this manually, but you don't need SP2 at all for that.

I'm using Win2K/XP dual boot, with ZoneAlarm, McAfee, NetCaptor/Opera. Have never caught any viruses, hacks, whatever. Pop-up blocking works like a charm as well :D
 
DEP can be disabled via boot.ini, just change the NoExecute flag do /NoExecute=AlwaysOff.
 
I installed XP Home with SP2 slipstreamed and I've got no problems. That's with an Athlon64 and DEP for all programs.
 
I'm formatting my machine when Firefox 1.0 and Trillian 3.0 are released. Going to install Windows XP, then install SP2. After that, everything else. Hopefully the clean install rather than the upgrade over all my existing crap will help it run a little smoother.

I had problems initially, but they were solved by a few hacks here and there I found on google. Definitely not an upgrade for the squeamish though.
 
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