Service Packs: 2, Yawns: lots

Today just back from a long vacation I decided to install Windows XP Service Pack 2. Since the normal user install is not yet available from Windows Update I downloaded the entire two hundred and something megabyte "IT professional" install. I then kicked it off and went and did some other things...

The last thing I saw before leaving the machine was that it was analysing my system and backing up files. Next thing I saw when I came back to the machine was nothing running so I figured it had failed mysteriously. However it seems I had arrived just as it was getting ready to reboot automatically which it soon did. After the reboot I saw a "Please wait" similar to that which is displayed on a disk check, and then it booted into a safe mode and again displayed "Please wait..." After a short while I saw the cursor at in the egg timer mode and no disk activity. Eventually I figured the install had failed and my machine would be forever screwed up. I hit the reset switch and prayed to whatever gods guard the gates of luckyville (there's a lady luck but I don't know her name).

Fortunately it worked and on reboot I got the normal logon screen and after logon I was presented with a security control panel which merely informed me I had no anti-virus program running, which I don't, and gave me a handy list of AV providers. After much searching around I eventually discovered that this security panel is about all there is to SP2. Oh sure there are doubtless countless bug fixes included but of the user visible changes this is probably the only one of significance. At #2 I'd put the improved wireless network browsing facility, but that's a fire and forget thing. Beyond these two things it appears the rest is under da hood.

So, service pack level 2 achieved but at the expense of many a yawn while the two hundred and something megabytes downloaded. Surely all those megs weren't only for a pesky builtin Windows firewall?