Date: Mon, 17 Jan 2005 14:13:52 -0800 (PST) From: Matt Hanson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: [LIB] Win2000 SP4 worth it or not?
--- Philip Nienhuis <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > But it's a real problem to have to go to Windows Update to install all > of > > the 38-40 patches via dialup every time you load a new copy of W2K. > And > > the process of downloading the updates individually and figuring out > what > > order to install them is a real pain, if possible to do correctly at > all. > > 1. *That* ^^^^^ is precisely the reason that a service pack is so > practical. I surely >don't< want to install it over a network connection though, as all kinds of flakey things can happen in that process. And it's something like a 135MB download which is a real pain for a dialup account even though with a download manager you can go back and resume the download if you get/have to disconnect(ed). > 3. I tend to doubt the negative reports in the URL you provided. I'd > rather think the PC's in question were already flakey. There was one post from someone who specifically pointed out that he had problems even though he claimed his system was immaculate. But he might have ben using may an earlier version of the SP4. I think one person was proably reasonably accurate when he reported that it's wise to wait 5-6 months after a SP is released for MS to work out bugs, and issue newer versions. It's been well over a year, so the current one may be relatively trouble free. > 4. Yet it is better to slipstream a service pack into a W2K installation > CDROM and then install it, than applying SPx to an already installed > (and possibly somehow "polluted") W2K. > If you want to try Fred Vorck's IE-removal trick, you need to do this > anyway. If/when I get to tweaking that 2nd installation of W2K, I may just go that way, and start over with it. > 6. There is a trick to save the hotfixes: Heh... I remembered that the other night from a W98 WU last year. But this time things were way easier. All the W2K update folders where all right in the x:\WUTemp. No branching out at all like with W98. I did write down some of the updates as they went, but for a 3 hour process, that wasn't practical in the middle of the night. However when the process finished, the WU web page listed all of the updates it had installed. Checking against the list I'd made of 6-7 updates, that section matched. So I'm guessing the whole list was chronological. I clicked the link to see the history of the systems WUs, but that list didn't match the section of 6-7 updates I had written down as they went in. So yeah... I'll write what I have to a CD-R at this point, and test installing them whenever the need pops up. SP4 adds a lot more things to the W2K OS though, doesn't it? I had a tough time finding any information on the various MS support websites. Matt __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com
