Windows XP SP2 deployment experience in the Virginia, USA Judiciary

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Date:         Thu, 12 Aug 2004 16:55:28 -0400
To: NTBUGTRAQ@LISTSERV.NTBUGTRAQ.COM

Resent as requested!

__________________

Russ,

Thank you for making this valuable forum for Windows XP SP2 implementation
available to us. Having silently listened to this list and gained much
from it, I finally find myself in the position to contribute.

Here is my 'XP SP2 experience at the Virginia USA, Supreme Court.

1. The download took about 39 seconds to complete and was error-free on
the first try; we have dual OC8 connections to the Internet.

2. I was successfully able to create SP2-integrated bootable CD media for
XP Pro OEM media and XP Pro VLK media, both of which tested flawlessly on
an install. I'll create and install integrated XP Pro Tablet Media tomorrow
and only further report if there are problems.

3. An upgrade of my desktop system upon which I'm running Lotus Notes 6.5,
Trend Micro Officescan Anti-virus, Hot-Sync for Palm-Pilot, Intel ProSet II
GB NIC software and drivers, Veritas Backup Exec v9.1 SP1 as well as
various MS and non-MS administration tools for NT4.0 through Windows Server
2003, plus all my favorite techno-geek tools, toys, GUI-skinning and music
playing utilities went flawlessly and completed in about 40 minutes.

4 The SP upgrade did NOT reinstall Windows Messenger on my system even
though I use MSN Messenger ver 6.2.0137 and have previously removed Windows
Messenger. I attribute this success to my not having performed any
registry 'hack' to block access to Windows Messenger, or deleting its files
with impunity but rather truly uninstalled it some months back by changing
a line in the file "C:\Windows\Inf\Sysoc.Inf" from
msmsgs=msgrocm.dll,OcEntry,msmsgs.inf,hide,7 to
msmsgs=msgrocm.dll,OcEntry,msmsgs.inf,,7 Note the word "hide" has been
removed in the updated version. This allowed Windows Messenger to be
listed in the add remove programs choices in the control panel and when
remove was selected, the application was uninstalled in it's entirety.
Hence when SP2 was applied, there was no vestige of Windows Messenger
remaining for the SP installer to discover and upgrade / reinstall. My MSN
Messenger continues to work after the SP2 upgrade.

5. DivXMPG4 V3 - I have and use this codec on my system, it was untouched
by the SP2 upgrade and my Music Videos still play flawlessly (a fella's got
to have some entertainment).

6. Anti-Virus - As of the time of this writing we are running Trend Micro
Engine 7.100 pattern 953. It works flawlessly with the new XP Service
Pack. We discontinued the use of Symantec and Network Associates products
some time back for reasons outside the scope of this thread, but IMHO we
would have had problems with any OS SP upgrade if they still in use.

IMHO MS has done a laudable effort in producing this latest version of
Service Pack and I am in full agreement with Russ as I believed he stated
that there is no excuse for any software or application producer to not
ensure their currently supported software was fully compatible with this
update. However we as IT administrators must also bear equal
responsibility in the success or failure of any application or update
deployment as we too had close to eighteen months advance notice to prepare
for this update.

Respectfully submitted to NTBugtraq.

James L. "Jim" Toth
Network Analyst
Department of Judicial Information Technology
Office of the Executive Secretary
Supreme Court of Virginia
JToth@courts.state.va.us
804-786-8656

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