internet explorer/sp2 question

         a few weeks ago I installed Sp2...an it may a complete shambles of my os......computer would freeze consistently.......an to add insult.....it placed a flashing "C" over the windows icon that flashed white....very distracting for someone using "streaming media"  

       anyway...I did a complete re-format....an the problem was resolved.   an yes I am absolutely certain beyond any doubt that SP2 caused the problem.

       I am now of the understanding that M$ admitted that there was indeed a problem.....but can't locate any info on the subject......

        presently I am using 5.5 with critcal updates installed....no service pacs......an therein is a problem.....M$ recently issue other patches all of which seem to apply only to IE with service pacs installed

        is there anyone else who experienced the problems such as I did.....an have since re-download a "new" SP2...(if there is such a thing)   I would sure appreciate hearing of any personal experiences with this issue.      I can tolarate that flashing "C" (which by the way I strongly suspect)   but I am just not up to having to do another re-format.


       also,  because I have seen that IE can become corrupt....I have kept netscape on my computer (not installed) just in case the IE engine were to become corrupt......point being having a broswer that does not use the IE engine.......since this is only an emergency type issue I am considering download Opera free version to be used as a back up instead of netscape.....anyone care to comment/offer suggests...would also be appreciated.

         I'll be out the remainder of the day an will check back here tonight.

             My thanks to all


                 snowman

 

snowman - I never had a problem with SP2, so I can't really comment on that. I would think, though, that by now any problems with it have been taken care of (I''m up-to-date on all my patches, for which I'm very thankful every time I happen to fire IE up).

As far as the free version of Opera as a back-up browser goes, just remember that it does contain an ad-bar. I was comfortable with having it there (especially since SB crippled it) , and I believe their claims that it's a sand-boxed, proprietary ad app (and thus basically harmless) , but it's something for you to think about.

Personally, I'd either buy Opera (I can assure you it's worth the money) or just stick with NS4.7 as your back-up. NS's actually pretty secure as long as you make sure that in Edit/Preferences/Navigator/SmartBrowsing you have no checkmarks in either "Enable 'What's related' " or "Enable Internet Keywords" and that for Advanced/SmartUpdate you do not have a checkmark in "Enable SmartUpdate and that you do have a checkmark in "Require manual confirmation of each install".

Normally, in 'Advanced' itself, I'd recommend not having a checkmark in 'Enable Javascript' - but I don't think you can get in here without it. HTH Pete

 

I've never had a problem with installing patches and service packs on a newly reformatted machine. Then I set up my personal configs and settings, and then install whatever programs/applications.

On my primary machine I had no problems updating to SP2 w/I.E 5.5 with everything installed. It ran fine without a glitch (if such a thing with MS). It's when I did additional patches I started having problems. I undid them and problems ceased. I'm redoing one at a time and waiting to see if I have anymore problems. But I'm running SP2 with no problem.

Now on another W2K machine I have nothing but trouble with Service Packs and patches.  Everything screws it up.  

And then I have a couple w/98 machines that update fine. But they both have EI 6 on them for testing while I watch for bug reports.

Bottom line...it's a gamble whether any machine will update well or not.

 

Win98SE / 5.5 and SP1 and 2 was big trouble, topo long ago to remember exactly how it was solved finally, got rid if the, repair installed windows at least one time (i remember sp 1 or 2 crippled the whole VM and multimedia part) so behind the screens of the large windows database found a VM version back and so little by little got my system back more or less.
With IE 6.0 was rather ok, till the patches.......
they should give a bit more info and in fact a try or for each patch a separate uninstall as well. Like with the screen changes, first let you test if it is to youtr liking, if not back to the old. Or step by step patches for each function apart, so we don't fall into the dramas we hear all around.
This time my FW had all by itself changed some settings, so i wondered if that was an "undescribed feature" in the FW, or that an intruder or site had done that for me (don't think so), or that is was a cooperation between FW and IE, really don't know.... and worse, i don't have all back as it should.
For some security matters seems better to go back to 5.5, for others (i was told) 6.0, so....... difficult decission!

NS? 4.7 and 6.0 did not function at all since the last cleaning. Could not even update via that so had to use the IE browser to reinstall NS on the web and update so 4.7 functions now more or less, 6.2 less, but i really prefer IE in it's functionallity (and i need it for using the MSagent components which hardly run on  NS) so am still looking for the best settings in all that.
In NS i really hate the included objects like alexa, installed the moment you use NS (even worse then gohip!)
Sorry to be of so little help!

 

I just upgraded from 5.0 to IE5.5 and sp2 last week, and I've had no problems. I downloaded it straight from MS, but I'm sure you did too. Guess I'm no help, sorry!

 

       my apology for the delay in responding to everyone's replies.....I was out all day;




    Pete

    as always your post was very informative....an I'll take your suggestion to just keep NS as an emergency back-up........you're right about my perhaps not liking that ad in opera.....an since this would only be used in an emergency it seems a waste to purchase opera....its a good broswer from what I understand.



  Eagle 1

   an thank you for repling.....unfortunately I doubt if I have the experience to properly un-install a patch...maybe system restore would do the job....but risky....


   Jooske

   contrary to what you may have thought your reply was a great help....because the majority had no problems with the update...such as we did....its difficult to explain the problem to others an get their insight/help.


   Detox

    hey friend.....caring enough to take the time to post is help in itself......sometimes just knowing there is someone out there...can give a person that extra energy to keep trying......thankya much



          well folks...this is going to be a difficult decision.....as it now stands I need to use internet explorer........as previously stated M$ did admit that a few os were experincing problems.....which in itself makes no sence.....Pete and I have nearly the same os but pete didn't have any problems...others with the same os as me had no problems.......now M$ is saying that the "new" SP2 wont cause problems........what "new" SP2.....where is this "new" SP2.....all I see at windows-update is the same old SP2..
........an now there is an update for SP2....which is not at windows-update either...which by the way did you folks get that new patch??

         well.....for the moment I'll just give this issue alot more thought.....my computer is set-up in a particular way right now.....an if forced to re-format chances are I could never get back my present settings during this lifetime......

         my sincere gratitude to all

               snowman

 

   http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/downloads/critical/Q319182/default.asp




          above is the link to the security patch I have been referring to.............anyone interested in this patch should read its features very carefully...you may already have the patch.

         an no...this patch is not avalible to me by way of windows-update site


           snowman

 

You might like to try the 6.0 which via the Windows upgrade site has an uninstaller too (it says).
After that, you might have to re-install the security patches from the link you posted above (MS-015 and 014).
On my system till those patches all was functioning miles better. Like you said about reading all very carefull, yes we might have them as i see the # in the IE "about".
Pete's posting about those patches in another thread made clear there is a difference between the patches via the WU site and from those security bulletins........ very annoying and obscure for the users, of course!
The only reasonable difference i can think of via the WU site there might be language items and other ingredients for our specific system and windows version, but in fact i doubt that.....

 

           Jooske

           the confusion M$ has caused with these patches is worse than the confusion caused by the exploits that these patches are suppose to prevent

          when year after year a company fails to provide a safe product..........then I have to wonder why.
          until now I have always updated.......but this will no longer be the case.   the security community and computer users have been doing M$'s job.....an I am fed-up playing the M$ "patch me" game.  

          Jooske, same as you..there are reasons I need to use internet explorer......an I am convinced that M$ wont ever fully repair internet explorer.........an I am just as convinced that the windows update site is as phoney as it gets.   its been over a year since I was offered any critical updates at the update site....over a year!  I see people applieing patches an say to myself.."what patch"?    where is it?    

        my response to M$ is not to purchase M$ products.......an I never compromise on this.....in the past few months I have been collecting books on win95.......many people don't realize that win95 was the fastes computer M$ ever made.....an now I have decided to start a project of my own....the goal....a clean..lean win95 machine...just the bare essentials...an see where this leads.

                          snowman

     

 

This is a joke, right ?

 

I would imagine not.

I would have picked W98 w/Service Pack 1, though (that's what I've got ready if I have an irrecoverable OS crash on either computer here).

Why would it be a joke? Pete

 

Hey Pete I have Wind98se but my IE I think has sp2... I dunno about the OS itself... is the service pack 2 not such a good idea?

And to add to Snowman's post (I posted this elsewhere as well) when my $3k tax return gets here, I'm having a clone built that will have the fastest AMD i can get, as much RAm as I can "cram" and the largest harddrive, it'll be a game machine but it will also use a NOS copy of Win98se, or I won't buy. No XP for meeeeee.

 

I just thought about it, maybe NOS is not commonly used int he computer world, I got it from the old car restoration/hotrodding world and it means "New Old Stock" cause everyone likes fenders and parts that were built when the car was but never used... Which I understand I should be able to find 98se easily in this form at most custom shops for little $$$

 

       Technodrone

        Joke.......by no means........pound for pound win95 is much faster........given the same ram..etc.   say a 56K win95 against a 56K win2000........

      in fact...I'll go a step farther an say that a win95 is more secure........

       granted win95 would need a few minor upgrades.....but the standard win95 would remain intack

       Pete..you would also be correct......ok my saying that may sound contrary to what I just stated above..it actually isn't....... really how much differance is there between a win95 and win98.......not a whole lot........on a winME 95 there are about 700,000 files.......on a winME 98 there are about 1,478.000..........win98 SE with those extras M$ adds removed will zoom.....

        this could well prove a very interesting subject.......one that the more advanced users could kick around a bit.........personally I don't have enough spare time to copy/paste any related information....but the advance users would understand each other without the need for that.    

        Tech....I realize that you are an experience user....an certainly I respect your knowledge.....please understand this upfront..ok

         my chioce would be a "clean" win95....or "clean" win98SE


            DETOX

             please keep in mind that only a few users experience problem with SP2.....if you have not had such problems yourself then you have nothing to be concerned about.......imo its a good rule of thumb to apply security patches whenever possible.


                      regards to all

                      snowman

 

Cause I have it all!!!! I got six machines each is:
1. Running Windows 3.1
2. Running 95
3. Running 98 SE
4. Running 2000
5. Running XP pro
6. Running Linux

XP pro is the best OS ever released by MS. I don't want go into discussion here, cause it would be pointless.

If u guys running 95 or 98 and think that you got best of it let it be.

Technodrome

 

Can't do like that:
Windows 2000 requires far faster chip and far more RAM.
How about:

Windows 95
:
-Personal computer with a 386DX or higher processor (486 recommended)
-4 megabytes (MB) of memory (8 MB recommended
-Hard disk space requirement to upgrade to Windows 95: 35-40 MB.
-Hard disk space requirement to install Windows 95 on a clean system: 50-55 MB
-One 3.5-inch high-density floppy disk drive
-VGA or higher resolution (256-color SVGA recommended)


Where:
Windows 2000 needs:

133 MHz P class
64 MB Min-more ram generally improves responsive of windows 2000 (ur gonna need at least 128 MB)


Now, I know people who installed windows xp on 133 MHz with 64 MB machine and they are keep saying that windows XP is slow and the worst MS OS ever released.


Technodrome

 

     Technodrome

      definitely I agree that a discussion would be a pointless waste of time........an just as definite my opinion remains the same.

      I do thank you for your input.....an wish you a most pleasent day.


                         regards

                         snowman

 

       Technodrome

       sorry...we seem to have been posting near the same time.....an I didn't see your last post until mine was posted.


       so as not to be considered as being rude I will respectfully post this.......Tech you made the call of not wanting to discuss this subject......which has led me to think that you may get upset discussing this subject.....an so I have decided not to continue this discussion........this will in fact be my last post on this matter.

                    again..wishing you a pleasent day

                             snowman

 

NP Snowman!!!

We are all entitled to have an own opinion!!!!

Technodrome

 

You won't get me upset. There is no way!!!!

To prove my point:
I know a couple of guys who are claiming that thier Honda Civic(stock) is Faster then My 99' BMW M3.

Shoud I race with each of them to prove the point.
NO!!

Regards
Technodrome

 

       Technodrome

       this is more on the side of a personal note....Tech as I previously stated..I realize you are an experience user.....an you are freely giving of your time towards helping others.....an will eventually reach out to thousands by way of your position as a moderator.....an this is something I greatly respect....an respect you for doing.......

       an certainly let me be the first to say that you may well be able to run circles around me in your knowledge of computers......its only by being open-minded to others more experience have I gained any knowledge of computers at all..........a person like myself depends on a person like you.......thats not something you will here said very often.....with me its not a matter of disagreeing or agreeing....its a matter of learning.....the learning never really stops.......

       Pete...Paul...an so many others patiently share their experience......explaining things that must be child's play to them.....

        so for whatever its worth....thanks TECH for being here at the BB...an thanks for giving of your time and experience


                            snowman

 

Hi snowman

We also are having advantage of helping you guys!!!! You guys are people who're discovering new problems and sharing it with us in the way that gives us opportunity to learn even more.

But please don’t forget snowman, one day your knowledge might be greater then mine. You might be able to help me…Who knows. Till that day I am glad to help you!!!

Technodrome

 

       general request


       to all you replied here.....against my better judgement I update to SP2.......an now have a major issue.........I will make a new post regarding this matter an would greatly appreciate all help


                       thanks

                        snowman

 

        *UPDATE*


          good news...seems that I have located and resolved the problem........the fault was mine...had forgot to unlock my proxy.....whew...

           haven't had a chance to really take this SP2 for a spin yet.....if I discover any issues I'll post.


                  snowman