Ok, let me first start off by apologizing for calling SP2 a monster. I’m sorry I offended anyone, that was not my intention and was a poor choice of words. I’m sorry.
Secondly, I was not bashing Microsoft and am not amongst those that hate Microsoft or Bill Gates. I love my XP. So, please do not include me in the Hate Group and please do not put words in my mouth that I did not say.
Third … it is a cold hard fact that Outlook versions and Internet Explorer are many times the ones the virus makers direct their passion for destruction at. If you look at many many many virus warnings - the warnings plainly state they affect Outlook versions and/or Internet Explorer. I have yet to see a virus warning that states “if you use input another email client/browser here” you will be affected. Granted viruses can affect us all no matter what we use, however the many warnings I’ve seen are most times inclusive of Microsoft products. This is not bad-mouthing nor am I making up a story or talking sentiments, I’m stating what I’ve seen. I can also tell you from years of experience, I have yet to have a virus affect/infect my email program. I contribute this to two things: 1) I do not use any version of Outlook products and 2) I keep a good anti-virus and firewall in place. Yet, I know of at least one person who had a good anti-virus program and firewall and used a version of Outlook and their email got hit anyway. I’m not saying I’m immune, but I do contribute my good fortune to the two practices I outlined that I use as safeguards.
You wish people to speak of facts and what we really know, I can tell you that I was speaking from fact and what I know. I urge you to not only bring to my attention (and others like me) that have said something derogitory (as I have apologized for already) about any product or company … but to bring to the attention of those that blatently tell people (many of whom are inexperienced users) to “install SP2 you won’t be sorry” kind of thing to temper their enthusiam with caution. I’m sure there are hundreds of thousands of people who have installed SP2 with favorable results. But yet there are just as many users who have installed SP2 with anything from minor annoyances to horrendous results. The information I provided was not a story it was fact. Installation of SP2 did render a computer at work totally useless and it had to be reformatted to get rid of all the problems. I was there, I saw the results and these results were a direct affect of the installation of SP2. They even called in a technician who worked on it for two days straight before the decision was made to reformat as there was apparently no other hope.
People who have installed SP2 with favorable results - GOOD FOR YOU! I’m truly happy for you. But please, just blindly telling people to “go ahead you won’t be sorry” do you have any idea the problems these people could potentially have? I urge you to use more caution in your suggestions to install it. You claim that the reason it doesn’t work for some people is that they “don’t know what they’re doing.” I’m sorry, I don’t agree with that and I find it offensive as well. That’s telling anyone and everyone that if they installed SP2 and had problems that they don’t know what they are doing. Many knowledgeable people have installed it and had problems with it.
It’s known to incompatible with some drivers and software programs - sometimes one has to get new driver/s which many times are not available any longer if they have older equipment. They may be faced with having to uninstall (which doesn’t always work properly) or buying new hardware and if they are not financially able to do this, they are in a world of hurt. As for software, many times one must come up with workarounds because of the affects SP2 has had on a program. I don’t know about you, but I have a business to run and I don’t need to be spending time trying to fix the software I need to run my business because SP2 or any other upgrade for that matter, interferes with the software I need to run my business.
So, instead of just blindly telling people to go ahead and install it, you might want to temper these kinds of comments telling them to FIRST check out their system, hardware and software specs and research their particular system setup before installing. Even doing this, there is no guarantee SP2 is going to work properly or not.
There are thousands of users out there who trust and believe that every tech support (and or the boards they found the information on whether posted by a product techie or not) knows it all. This is impossible and would require any tech support to be super-human. No one person or no one tech support for any product can possibly know it all. Yet, newbies and the inexperienced ones think of you (and those that post even if you’re not a tech for the product) as Gods and will just do as you tell them to. SP2 does not work for everybody else. If a user that has installed SP2 on an enthusiastic “go for it” comments and winds up with problems - is that tech/poster going to be able to provide assistance in fixing it? More than likely not because their tech support is limited only to their product and they do not support other products which is only right as they are only required to be “experts” in their own product. Plus, they are not being paid to support someone else’s product. OR, the poster of the “go get the upgrade” comments is just another user but the newbie doesn’t know this. The user is left on their own with issues they don’t know where to begin to fix and you can bet they are blaming the person who told them to “go for it.” Their word of mouth can kill off business to the company the tech works for simply because they followed the tech’s “instructions” to upgrade. If it was another user who posted the comments (many people don’t know the difference between the two) that poster is in fact endangering the reputation of the product the comments were posted on.
In this case the originator of this post had already installed SP2 and had at least one problem. She said she would rather not install it again. I admire her caution. Watching her movies was imiportant to HER and she could no longer watch them after installing SP2. I would be cautious, too. Plus I count her amongst the lucky group who only experienced one problem after installing.
The person who said that no one is twisting people’s arms to install SP2 is right. The final decision lies w/the owner of the computer. However, inexperienced users are swayed heavily by what they are told on tech support boards and what they hear elsewhere. Even Microsoft has changed their update area so that one cannot pick and choose the updates they want to select. When I go there, there is no longer a list of Hotfixes but instead one button to click which will (it appears) update me to SP2. The opportunity to make decisions about what I want installed on my computer has been taken away from me and I find that totally unacceptable. This is how many people wind up with SP2 even if they didn’t go to the Update section to get SP2. They unknowngly download a total update when maybe all they want is an update or fix for one issue they are experiencing. But their choices are gone because the list of updates is gone. Wrong wrong wrong in my opinion. What’s left is an all or nothing option. You either install SP2 in it’s entirety or you don’t install at all is what I’m seeing when I visit the Update Center. I find that unacceptable.
The bottom line here is this, I understand you do not wish people to badmouth other companies on these boards. I as a user wish that (especially for the sake of newbies) you do not promote updating to anything (SP2 or otherwise) unless it’s your own product you’re promoting for upgrade. Also, please do not tell people that they do not know what they are doing if SP2 doesn’t work for them as that is not always the case.
Thank you,
Deb
), and in a random vertical or horisontal direction. Just a few cm. Sometimes it returns to its original location. The movement is very quick, so I guess I miss several of them. I have asked forums at my computer producer (Fujitsu-Siemens) in case it is a hardware related problem, but I never know if I get an answer there. In case it is a virus, Ill ask here too. Hope someone can help me out here. I have search with Avast in vain.
). Some said it was hardware, other viruses…
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