Windows XP Service Pack 2

[Evil Chris]

I installed Service Pack 2 on my laptop yesterday.
I haven't reviewed all of the changes yet, but one obvious change is the built-in popup killer. This takes us that much closer to the days of exit windows going byebye. (at least until someone codes a way around it).

Personally, I have turned the popup killer off.
What about the rest of you?

[Phoenix]

i wont install the SP2

i rarely ever see a pop anyway..i choose carefully what sites i enter nd wchih browser i use to surf with.

I still have yet to see a proper exit pop off of sp2 though

[Cyndalie]

Just like the Google Toolbar, IE wont stop Flash enable popups. As more and more ad creatives start using mulitmedia like Flash, the harder it will be to stop them. However, due to the advanced coding of behaviours in flash not that many will take the time to figure it out.

[justsexxx]

SP2 has a great wireless client thing. WIth XP I normally lost connection every 30 minutes, now never..

As far as popups, I never liked them anyway for paysites. Especially not the paysites with shitty designs and great exits. So a big traffic leak. ANd pay 40 a pop.

Of course many webmasters want 40-60 per trial, and preferable free trials. I however always tried selling GOOD looking paysites, and not only from the outside, but also sites with good memberareas.

Now the popups are killed, payouts may decrease, but maybe amount of joins will INcrease, since there are less leaks.

Andre

[Ronaldo]

As I'm using an unlicensed version of XP, I'm unable to download service pack 2.

As for popup blockers? I don't use them, but when I leave the room, I turn them on so the WIFE doesn't click on all the millions of dollars she's won.

[Bec]

I recently installed it, and now wishing I hadn't as any site that uses javascript rollover menues requires I authorize the content ... and I'm still figuring out how to turn that off. What bothers me is that most users won't have a clue how to go about it... and they're not going to be able to see or surf sites that don't have "bad" things attached to the scripts being used. They'll just assume Microsoft is God and the site is a bad thing and click away.

Oh, and HI everyone!

Evil Chris has been trying to drag me over here for some time now, and I finally found a few minutes to drop by and sign up!

[gregtx]

I got that great new .jpeg trojan last friday.. if i would have had SP2 installed i would not have gotten infected... I now have SP2 running...

and its been great thus far... it also allows you to view the consoles that you want to see.. or set it to allow from certain domains...

I did hit a site last night that a popup got through... i'll have to find the url again...

SP2 also disables images in emails by default.. and allows you to choose to see those images... again.. so far no problems since install...

I installed on my wifes computer the other night too..

[Tam]

It's only a temporary. We all know there are probably already people getting around this and they'll find a way around it, they always do.

I haven't installed this yet, the horror stories have prevented me from it. I have been far too busy to take on that task right now. LOL

But seriously, I don't think much time will pass or we'll lose out much at all from this because someone always finds a way around it and before you know it, we'll all be right back to being able to do the exits successfully again. ;)

[gnat69]

I have the google toolbar with the popup blocker and I actually love it....

but other than that I have not downloaded or installed any other software for this.

[sweetums]

I haven't installed sp2 yet....always have reticence about installing the first version of anything. I've gotten use to pop-up, pop-unders from both adult and mainstream sites...as long as they aren't over-excessive I've come to see them as "commercials" that I can mute :)

[Azure Sales]

I would be interested in finding out if SP2 has had a significant impact on traffic and sign ups.


Where is BobX when you need him (he invented the exit console)

[LAJ]

I went Mac and I'll never go back... it's unbelieveable how fun and easy it is to use...

[Ounique]

We have it installed on our computers here at work. I'm having a devil of a time at home though. I'm still using my first computer from five years ago, my main drive is only 4 gigs and XP and a few small programs has already filled the drive. And it seems that every time I delete stuff something takes it's place. I'm not very technically inclined so I'm at a loss. So I can't even install sp2. No room. I need a new pc bad. :(

[Big Fish]

I haven't installed SP2 yet and I don't plan on it for awhile. I'm happy with my current configuration. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

As far as loosing sign-ups, site owners will just have to be more creative in advertising.

[Anthony]

Originally posted by Azure Sales
I would be interested in finding out if SP2 has had a significant impact on traffic and sign ups.


Where is BobX when you need him (he invented the exit console)

Actually my love... It was Robin Nixon. :)

[Ronaldo]

Originally posted by LAJ
I went Mac
What's a Mac?

[Anthony]

I have SP2 on my laptop which is my main machine.

No issues, and runs smoothly.

As for consoles, people and business's should have seen this a long time ago and started a migration from it. Pop up blockers and killers started up 2 years ago.

If you didn't watch that trend from there on, you fucked yourself. Plain and simple.

I made my money in my free sites off of consoles back in the day with my CJ's. Near the end of my days as a free site webmaster, CJ's were already starting to blacklist anyone with more than one console.

It's just another thing imho one can expect as the internet grows up, call it dawarnism, call it progress.

Those who prepare for it in advance, are the ones who will be here in the future.

[Anthony]

Originally posted by Anthony
Actually my love... It was Robin Nixon. :)

Ummmm, I might be wrong here. It might even be Timon! LOL

[XXXPhoto]

Chris,

As I said in ICQ, I've yet to install SP2 myself... Kinda like Big Fish said... lol

My thoughts are just speculation so take them with a grain of salt...

Market mixes are like flowing water, the consumers will always find a path to reach their desired products. Those companies that are quick at digging a ditch will collect some returns just as those that spend more time digging a deeper ditch will eventually siphon off a larger share.

To my knowledge, the Flash workaround has been used by many folks for quite some time and it is about the lowest barriers to entry hurdle for those not looking for a more technical solution. The DMR route is somewhat low as well but I've not heard as many folks talking about it. Not sure if it's because they are unaware or they are just keeping it under their hat.

Between processing and market tool shifts, I feel we are finally seeing the barriers to entry being raised in the adult arena...

(sorry for the edit, fat fingered the tab enter earlier...lol)

[chilihost]

I have it installed and highly recommend that every webmaster gets it installed asap for two reasons:
1) it patches up bootloads of holes
2) it is being forced on your surfers machines

you may be able to live without the patching, but believe me xpsp2 behaves differently and if you do not install it you will not be able to browse your sites as your clients do.

my little story on this, after installing sp2 I checked out a few of my own free sites and found that with the new popup and script blockers, it was IMPOSSIBLE for a surfer to get to my sponsor site. It was a very minor change that I had to do and once I did it I saw an immedite increase in my click-throughs and my overall sales.

But the most important thing is that I would not have known about this unless I installed sp2 myself!

Like Bec mentioned with her javascript rollovers, if a surfer goes to your site and starts getting warnings like mad they will go away and never come back - which is lost traffic and sales for you - all because you did not install sp2 and surf your own sites!!!

cheers,
Luke

[Don Soporno]

So far SP2 has worked awesome for me

[chilihost]

Oh, I just realised I did not mention that so far I have had no problems with it either. And I do like that new embedded popup blocker, works way better than the google toolbar one! Wonder how long it will take before it is defeated?!?!

cheers,
Luke

[thruma]

I installed the day it came out.

I actually like it and also think it's a good idea to install for the same reasons Luke pointed out.

I was pissed off how long it took to install at the time though. Made my computer "crawl" That was my only problem with it everything else was/is fine.

[bdld]

installed it about a week ago, so far so good.

[Mister X]

I've had sp2 running for about 2 weeks now and haven't had any major problems. But I probably would wait to install it on a mission critical machine. I have had some small issues with file associations getting screwed up and some unexpected behaviours in a few programs. Especially programs that use shell extensions. Also I was getting quite a few error messages involving Dr. Watson and ICQ so I had to go in and disable error reporting. A lot of DVD/CD burning software seems to glitch after sp2 is installed and will need to be updated.

As far as improved security goes... I would recommend spending 50 bucks on a router and disabling the lame firewall. The windows firewall only monitors incoming traffic so if you have a trojan or some other thing sending traffic out it won't do anything about that. Which means that they will still be able to phone home.

The virus protection monitor is just a stupid little thing that checks to see if you have antivirus software installed. With a very few programs it can tell if you have it disabled or not. Probably not useful except to the extreme newbie.

The other thing is "improved" windows updates. MS is fairly aggressive in trying to get you to turn on automatic updates. They have also made changes to how Windows Update works from the website. It now requires 2 services that I could previously disable because they weren't being used. So it adds more bloat to the OS without giving any better functionality.

Overall the only difference most people will notice is the popup/script blocker in IE and a bunch of windows popping up to ask if it's okay for program x to access the internet.