Windows XP was finally released this week. I found the download from Microsoft, the full install "network" version, while reading Slashdot on Monday. I immediately began my 28 hour on dial-up download. I had it by Tuesday evening and I upgraded my laptop. That went fine. The only problem I noted was some scratchy sound -- a problem I still haven't resolved and one I suspect will take a new release of drivers to fix.
So Wednesday morning I installed SP2 on my desktop machine. All seemed to go well until I tried to browse the files in My Computer with Windows Explorer. It hung, it crashed, it was generally nasty. So I uninstalled SP2. I did some troubleshooting, reinstalled and uninstalled SP2 and quickly discovered that the printer (Canon Multipass F60) was not working either. I contacted Canon Wednesday afternoon. That began a 24 hour exchange of information and insight with Canon. By Thursday afternoon Canon had found the fix and I was back in business. Evidently only the RTM version of SP2 included a changed that blocked the alternative localhost, 127.0.0.2 that my printer used to communicate. By changing that to 127.0.0.1 in a .ini file the problem was easily fixed. I got one of the nicest notes I've ever had from support after reporting that the fix worked:
Thank you for taking the time to write us back with your progress on the issue. We are glad to hear the results of this issue as your particular case has helped our email development and technical support engineering group.
What other problems are there yet to be solved with SP2? We will only know as folks report and fix them, but I believe that there are none that can't be solved.
Here are some links to articles about SP2:
© 2004 Gail Allinson
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