Windows XP SP1

[CarryStress]

Can someone explain the importance of XP SP1 for me? I have a new computer that has Windows XP Home Edition on it. My last computer was an iMac. I've thought about doing the Windows Update (which would include SP1) but I've seen posts about people having problems with Roxio's Easy Cd Creator and Ahead's Nero Burning Rom after installing XP SP1. I want to know if SP1 is very important to have even if it causes problems with programs. I know I'm an idiot. Thanks in advance. By the way, Right now I have Nero 5.5.9.17 on the computer. I had Easy CD Creator with the latest patch on the computer before but took it off after not being able to fix problems that I had with it. Don't know if that info helps at all but...

[Inertia]

I don't think that most people have had problems with WinXP Service Pack 1. The first release of WinXP is a sort of a released beta version. When enough bugs and problems are identified, the service pack is released to fix them. You can find a description of the fixes on Microsoft's site, and it's a huge amount of things.

It isn't absolutely required to install it, but I would. You should get a less buggy, more stable installation after the service pack. There are always going to be reports from some people of problems whenever they do anything. I wouldn't worry about this. The service pack has been installed by practically everybody with WinXP, and problems with burning programs don't seem to be a particular problem.

[CarryStress]

Thanks again Inertia! That's the second time this week you've given me a quick and helpful answer! Thank you!

[oharag]

CarryStress, I can't believe you gave up on the Mac! I admittedly built a windows PC so that I could run Engineering type programs that are not available on the Mac side. Boy, have I had the most horrendous time with my PC. At first it would just reboot, often! I mean BOOM, and back to the BIOS start up screen. I would also get BSOD every 10 minutes! I went on forum boards to try to figure out the problem. Good Lord everyone had a different opinion. Buy a new power supply, or a new HD, maybe it's your CD-ROM, maybe it's a driver, maybe its memory!!!!!!!!! Maybe it's because Microsoft sucks at writing SW? Well, the insistent rebooting stopped after updating my BIOS to a newer rev. But, the all present Blue Screen of Death's kept happening! I had to install Windows 2000 Pro 11 times! Sometimes during installation I'd get a BSOD, and it would corrupt the install. Start again hoping that I wouldn't get another BSOD. Installing Windows is like pulling your own teeth out. LONG and PAINFUL. Sometimes I would finally get a stable system until after numerous BSOD would destroy my boot log file causing me to lose everything on my HD! Every time I would get a BSOD I would cringe and pray that I would at least be able to get back to my desktop.

Well, to make a long story longer it turned out to be my memory. I had to buy another stick of memory to test. So far no BSOD. I have gotten reboots now and then for no apparent reason. I was talking to a friend who uses PC's and he and I both agree Microsoft has spent much of their time trying to prevent other people's software to run reliably on Windows that they enviably caused more problems for themselves and their users. Windows is a convoluted mess. DDL conflicts, Driver conflicts, Registry corruptions, a tangled mess of trillions of files scattered all over your HD. Programs and Hardware that isn't compatible with the latest Windows update (causing PC users to shell out more money), update after update, fix pack after fix pack. Oh, and by the way go onto to any forum board and everyone is having the same problems with any number of issues with the PC.

For those that state the Macintosh costs more I say baloney. After spending extra money for a new power supply, and another wad of cash on memory, and BIG bucks for Windows XP Pro (and people complain about Mac OS X costing $129. Boy, Mac people have it easy. Not only that MacOS X is much more stable and reliable than anything MS could put out to market), and to top it off all the hours/days I spent in trying to diagnose and reinstall Windows!!!!! Macs work. They work repeatedly, day in and day out. They hardly ever crash, nor does the OS decide to reboot for the heck of it. Also, in the fifteen years in using a Mac (four different computers) I have never had to reformat my HD, or reinstall the OS because of damage brought on by another app or the OS itself. I've had my Windows OS corrupted by installing another app. During the install the computer got a BSOD. It apparently corrupted something in the OS itself. Why would MS allow an offending app or install corrupt itself?

I still have an iBook laptop that I run when I want a reliable computer. I've been playing around the PC trying to get it stable as well as installing the software that can not run on my Mac. Again, I am using HIGHEND engineering software. For most cases you can get the same type of programs to run on either the Mac or PC. For those that say that there's more games that run on the PC than the Mac I say, "Get a Playstation"! Costs less, and there are NO conflicts or patches to bother with. I'm waiting for Apple's new computers running the latest IBM super chip coming out next year. With MacOS X being super robust, coupled with a multiprocessing system right out of the box -> SHAZAM! Now if engineering software companies would only realize that Mac's are far superior to the PC and start porting their SW to the Mac I'd be in HEAVEN. Oh, and the PC would be out of business.

PS do not flame me. I enjoy working with both computers. The PC, because it always breaks. I'm intrigued why this happens. I work on the Mac because it just works. Plug something in, it works. Install software, it works. No conflicts. Throw an app away, no DLL or registry mess! I laughed one day when I read a newspaper columnists recommendation to a PC user who was having problems. This writer said that the person should reformat their HD, and reinstall Windows. It's a given fact that Winblows. Just deal with it. This would be unacceptable to a Mac user, but unfortunately for PC users it's the facts of life. I feel sorry for PC users. God bless them. Hopefully MS will stop trying to destroy other SW companies, and instead poor more resources into making Windows more stable and reliable. Recently MS gave $100 million to aids research. They also have been found out to be spending $200 million in trying to destroy Linux's credibility. Shows where MS's focus lies. Destroy all competition through lies and deceit. How about making Windows better?

[Ian]

Oohh.. I have a feeling that this thread is gonna get ugly.

Here's a great article on the Mac from overclockers.com:

http://www.overclockers.com/articles676/index02.asp

And I too own a Mac. The only thing it does well is look pretty and collect dust.

[CarryStress]

Oharag,

I still have and use my Mac. The main reason we got the Windows PC was for my wife to be able to do computer related work at home and be able to easily transer it to and fro. We could have gotten some hardware and software for the Mac to be able to do it, but money-wise it made more sense to get a new PC. My wife never really liked the Mac that much, but it was my first computer, and I still use it for things that I haven't been able to get the Windows PC to do. There are some things that I can do on either the Mac or the PC, but I prefer the Mac because either it is easier or I like the Mac program better. My wife made fun of me after I set the Mac back up when I couldn't get the new computer to do some things that I wanted it to. I didn't care though, I kept on using the Mac. I'm in the middle right now, I kind of like both computers. I like them each for different things though. By the way, the original post was about the Windows XP SP1, and I've downloading and installed all the updates for my system so far without any problems.

[Spazmogen]

oharag:
Why not just uncheck the reboot option for a 'system failure' ?

It's been almost a year since I worked on Win2K Pro, but if memory serves me right, its inside Control Panel> System>Advanced>Start Up & Recovery. Take out the check mark. Only the problem program crashes then. Not all of windows. It makes the OS much more stable.

Granted, if it's a bad stick of RAM, nothing will save the OS from crashing.
Not even a MAC is bullet proof against bad hardware.

I'm not slagging MAC's.

Bad hardware is just that: bad.

This MAC vs Clone PC war is not new. I remember it all too well circa the Macintosh SE era (when I stopped using MACs). So that's nearly 15 years now... (1987 or 1988 ?)