Doug's Mailbag: The Death of XP SP2

With Microsoft pulling the plug on XP SP2, here's some reader thoughts on those hesitant to make the upgrade switch:

Service Pack 3 was released over two years ago! (A year after Windows Vista shipped and FOUR years after Service Pack 2 shipped.) Anyone who is serious about their computing environment has long since upgraded to XP Service Pack 3 (or to Vista, or to Windows 7).

Just because you changed the oil in your car the last time it was recommended doesn't mean that you shouldn't change it this time. Nor do you expect to get the oil for free!

Microsoft has offered free updates to Windows XP for 9 years now and has promised to continue to do so for four more years. Microsoft is not forcing anyone to do anything but when you disregard the manufacturer's recommendations, you take unnecessary risks with your investment.

If you are a consumer, the risks are yours and yours alone. When you are a business, failure to observe Microsoft's recommendations place all of your business data and the personal data of all of your customers at risk. The potential impact of a loss of this data can be profound.

I just don't see that anyone still running Windows XP (for whatever reason) has any right to gripe because Microsoft asks them to upgrade to SP3 in order to continue to receive support. (Nobody gripes at Apple for having the same attitude about far newer code than Windows XP SP2.)

Sooner or later, Microsoft has to pull support for old code and six years after XP2 first hits the streets strikes me as more than reasonable.
-Marc

We are in the software business, and although the situation is a bit different, we build development systems that run on Windows, Linux, Unix and VMS, so we support a lot of OS platforms. We have yearly releases of our products to resolve problems, add features and to support new ports of the different OS platforms. Being pragmatic, supporting a lot of old OS platforms is problematic from a support point of view -- it is not feasible in the long run.

The upgrading to XP SP 3 is relatively painless, at least in all the XP SP2 to SP3 upgrades we have done, as it is not destructive and does not require a clean install like going to Win 7. Sooner or later the SP2 guys are going to need to suck it up and move-on, and going to XP SP3 is about as benign as you can get. That is my opinion.
-Mark

We've had multiple occurrences on the retail side of our business where customers bring in old PCs. When we put SP3 on them USB ports stop working correctly. It's not an uncommon issue (do a quick Google search and be shocked at the number of results).

I'm not sure that this attributes the large percentage of SP2 computers in your article, but it doesn't keep the number down by any means. We've been pushing Windows 7 (and Vista before it) but sometimes its either support the customer or lose the customer. And I'm the one these issues get escalated to.
- Chad

Posted by Doug Barney on 07/14/20101 comments

Win 7, Server 2008 R2 First Service Pack En Route

Many wait for the first Service Pack before moving to new software. In the case of Windows 7, I found the Release Candidate a zillion times better than XP, so I didn't give two hoots about a Service Pack.

Still, the impending release of SP1 for both Win 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 is good news (how confusing to an outsider is Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1?) for IT.

Posted by Doug Barney on 07/14/20101 comments

XP End of Life Means Trouble

Microsoft is in the process of winding down support for Windows XP SP2 and after tomorrow will apparently stop releasing patches. If Vista wasn't such a dud, I'd have no problem with this, but given the choice between Vista and XP, the wise chose is the latter. That means millions of corporate customers will remain on XP.

The news is not all bad. If you are on XP SP2, all you need to do is upgrade to SP3 and you'll have all the patches you can handle.

Posted by Doug Barney on 07/12/201015 comments

Last XP2 Fixes Out Tomorrow

As mentioned before, tomorrow will be the last time Microsoft says it will issue patches for XP SP2. And I'm glad it is at least releasing this final batch, as one XP fix is critical. The problem centers on the Help and Support Center in XP and Windows Server 2003 vulnerabilities.

Another critical plug involves the canonical display driver in Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. Microsoft Access is also in line for a critical fix, with the patch applying to Access 2003 and 2007.

Posted by Doug Barney on 07/12/20100 comments

NSA: Security Help or Intrusion?

The National Security Agency (NSA) isn't just concerned about government computers -- but also cares about private computer that, if compromised, could harm national security.

The NSA is working on "Perfect Citizen," a system that detects hacks into power plants, transportation systems, health care entities, defense contractors and other critical organization. It also reportedly will help shield Google.

Posted by Doug Barney on 07/12/20105 comments

SQL 2008 SP2 CTP Stacks the DAC

Microsoft floated out a SQL Server 2008 SP2 CTP earlier this week that might seem like just a bunch of tweaks and fixes all rolled up into one. But apparently there's more to it than that. What I'd love is for someone to explain whether (and how) features like the data-tier application (or DAC; apparently DTA, which makes more sense, was taken) make DBAs jobs easier (or harder).
--By Michael Domingo

Posted by Michael Domingo on 07/09/20100 comments

What's the Best Windows Deployment Tool?

Microsoft released an update to its free toolkit for deploying Windows and Office 2010 yesterday. If you've used it before, that was the beta. Microsoft fixed some earlier issues and now calls it "Microsoft Deployment Toolkit 2010 Update 1."

I watched a demo on using the toolkit for operating system migrations and I have to say it gives me appreciation for what many IT pros may now face: upgrade issues. As you've no doubt heard with great tedium, Windows XP Service Pack 2 and Windows 2000 both lose security update support next week (July 13). Shops may be moving to Windows XP SP3 or jumping to Windows 7.

Posted by Kurt Mackie on 07/09/20100 comments

More Microsoft Partner Network Details at WPC Next Week

The threat of raised pitchforks from Microsoft's Partner community has the company reconsidering a few changes that Redmond editor-at-large Jeffrey Schwartz reported on this week. Specifically, there's this double-dipping issue that might affect some of Microsoft’s smaller partners, which number in the thousands, as the company transitions to the MPN. We'll know for sure next week when more details will be released during the Worldwide Partner Conference. (Keep up with WPC 2010 news  here in this newsletter and at this link on the RCPmag.com site.
--By Michael Domingo

Posted by Michael Domingo on 07/09/20101 comments

Doug's Mailbag: Win 7 Issues, Azure's Cloud Cost

While the general consensus is that Windows 7 is a winner, here are some problems readers have found with the newest Microsoft OS:

We are keeping Windows XP for now because of the strange behavior of Windows 7. On our test machine, when someone logs off and another person logs on, the Internet refuses to work. Just a white screen in the browser. You have to restart the computer for the Internet to work again. Some programs seem to take a coffee break because they will launch only half the time. Other programs get tired of working after an hour and decide to lock up. In managing some files, when I try to select more than one file, Windows 7 decides to copy the files to the same folder as a "copy of" file. Where's my sledge hammer? With many other frustrations and all the weirdness and glitches in Windows 7 we will stick with Windows XP until Microsoft can get it right.
-Alan

Thanks for asking about this. I was starting to think that I am the only one experiencing some Win 7 weirdness. Largely, though I love Windows 7. But something is clunky sometimes (at least on the 64 bit platform).

• Outlook white screen: Outlook will launch into this "infinite loop" state once in a while when opening a new message. I thought that I had narrowed it down to some Outlook plug-ins, but I continue to see this behavior twice a month. When this happens, it will ask to restart. You can let it restart, but the only think making it go away entirely is a reboot.
• Random shutdowns of Visual Studio 2008: this happens about once every three weeks.
• Launching of IE 64-bit set from Outlook embedded links: even though I have IE 32-bit set as my default browser (see no Flash plug-in for IE 8 64-bit), clicking on links people send me via e-mail will launch the 64-bit IE.
• Invalid file handle on applying tags to multiple files: Go to your pictures library, highlight 50 pictures and attempt to put the same tag on all of them. You will get a file handle error every time. I have reproduced this on multiple boxes, so I know it is not just me.

-Alan

Posted by Doug Barney on 07/07/20100 comments

Security Risks Comes with XP SP2 Support Ending

It feels a bit alarmist for one researcher to claim that we're doomed now that Windows XP SP2 support is ending this week. But if numbers don't lie, then Softchoice, in its estimation, believes nearly half of the computers they analyzed for their report are still running that version. Whoa! What's stopping these folks from upgrading? Ideas, anyone? And haven't they heard of XP SP3 by now? Send your thoughts to [email protected].
--By Michael Domingo

Posted by Michael Domingo on 07/07/20104 comments

Ballmer Kills Jobs

Now that's a headline that might get attention on the front of The National Enquirer. But we're talking lowercase j in the subtext, so the assumption right away is that it means job cuts at Microsoft. Even that might seem like big news, if the rumors at TechFlash (which we spied via Foley at All About Microsoft) are true. But not all is as it seems, as the cuts might be just continuing on from the cuts the company announced last year.
--By Michael Domingo

Posted by Michael Domingo on 07/07/20100 comments

Windows 7 and Video Performance

So you bought a brand-new multicore PC running Windows 7 to handle your graphics and video needs with ease. It probably works fine, but if the application taps the VC-1 video codec, it's not cooking on all multicore burners, according to Microsoft.

The VC-1 video codec does not use all of the cores in three-core and six-core machines, Microsoft acknowledged last week in a tersely worded help page. Ironically, Microsoft appears to have contributed most of the technology for this video codec, which is functionally equivalent to Windows Media Player 9.

Posted by Kurt Mackie on 07/07/20100 comments