Home Office: Ready for the XP Service Pack? Read This

Steve Bass

"It's not a request, Bass. You have to do it." That was my editor emulating a drill sergeant suggesting I install Windows XP Service Pack 1. "Shall do," I said into the phone, snorting silently and wondering what he did before he had me to run interference.

Before You Do the Upgrade Shuffle

You know my upgrade rule? Of course you do: Back up your PC before you do anything of substance to it. And let me cut you short before you start whining about how difficult it is to back up.

Probably the easiest way to do a relatively quick and dirty backup is with a utility that dumps a copy of your hard drive onto a CD-ROM. Symantec's Norton Ghost is the favorite of many corporate users, and it's just as good for home-office workers.

Don't like Symantec's program? Okay, then check out Handy Backup v3.5, a $30 backup program from Novosoft. You can back up to a myriad of spots--an FTP site, another hard drive, a CD-RW, or another PC on your network.

You're still feeling some backup resistance, huh? Well maybe our "Ultimate Backup Guide" will get you moving in the right direction. Robert "Uncle Roberto" Luhn, one of my many mentors, put together a nifty article that's written to reduce all your backup anxieties.

Dig this: IMHO, next to WD-40, duct tape is the most versatile product available to power users. Think I'm kidding? Check out the Duck Tape Guys Wall Taping Gallery and decide for yourself.

Doing the XP Upgrade

Before you dive in, spend a few minutes with Internet Tips Guy Scott Spanbauer as he talks about the XP service pack, some of its enhancements, and the changes in the Windows Product Activation scheme. Read "Windows XP Service Pack Now Posted."

Here's what happened to me: Things were a bit rocky at first. With everyone trying to get the service pack, the download took four hours--and that's with a fast 1.2-megabytes-per-second DSL line (Covad's DSL operating through XO.COM). But once I downloaded and installed it I had nothing important to kvetch about, sorry to say. I noticed nothing remarkably better or worse. I did discover that the Windows Update link in Help wasn't working, something others also experienced. I'm guessing it was a problem at Microsoft's end because it cleared up a day later.

And not only should you pay attention to the service pack problems, but you might also want to worry a little about Internet Explorer: It seems as if there are deficiencies you need to know about. For the full story, go to "IE6 Fix Is Incomplete, Security Experts Say."

BTW, if you're a glutton for punishment, you're probably thinking about installing the Office XP service pack, too. (Hell, you might as well go whole hog and kill the rest of the week). But first read the pertinent who, what, and where in Peggy Watt's news story, "Microsoft Posts Office XP Update."

Dig this: Want to spend 30 minutes with some Web weirdness? Try this flashback to the 70s--it's a bit mind-bending, but fun. My favorite? First row, last button on the right. (With thanks to K. Zachary Abbott.) Fair warning: With so many buttons to try, you may run into a few words you've seen before but may not like.

Not Ready for the Service Pack? Read This!

I realize many of you are resisting the service pack. You may have good reasons: It takes forever to download and $10 for the CD is too much; or if XP is working fine, I'm not upgrading. Listen, there's a critical reason for you to upgrade. There's a major, seriously significant security problem in XP you need to know about. Rather than my having to say it all again, you'd better read "XP Service Pack Said to Fix Major Flaw." Do it soon, okay?

Once you realize how much damage you can face if you don't plug the exploit, I'll give you some good news: You can put a cork in the security breech without installing the service pack right away. Stuart Johnson, our Bugs & Fixes columnist, did some digging and learned about a utility you may want to try. Stu provides the details in "Patch Plugs Win XP Hole Without SP1." The story explains how the third-party patch works and where to get it.

And now the bad news: That same service pack is giving some people grief, causing crashes and PC slowdowns. Stu Johnson has the gory details in "Win XP Update Crashes Some PCs." Take two aspirin and read the article.

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