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Windows Secrets NEWS UPDATE • Issue 154a • 2008-05-29 • Circulation: over 275,000 |
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Table of contents INTRODUCTION: XP Service Pack 3 problems require a news update PATCH WATCH: Norton software conflicts with Windows XP SP3 WACKY WEB WEEK: A numbers game set to a catchy tune PERMALINKS: Send these links to your friends and co-workers YOUR SUBSCRIPTION: How to change your address or unsubscribe |
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INTRODUCTION XP Service Pack 3 problems require a news update 
By
Brian Livingston
We usually skip publication on any 5th Thursdays that come around (such as May 29), but serious problems involving Service Pack 3 for Windows XP have made us work overtime to bring you today's special report. Contributing editor Susan Bradley has written an out-of-cycle Patch Watch column specifically designed to bring you the facts. She encourages you today (as she's stated in previous columns) to wait on installing XP SP3 if you don't have some urgent need for it. Susan will follow up on Microsoft's headaches with XP SP3 in her regular columns in the coming weeks. We ordinarily publish her reports twice a month: in the same week as Patch Tuesday and two weeks thereafter. Her findings normally appear in our paid content, but SP3's newly reported problems are severe enough that we're publishing Susan's material as free content today. To receive Susan's analysis — and that of all the other columnists in our paid content — you can easily upgrade to our paid version. There's no fixed fee! We accept any financial contribution of any amount. We want everyone who thinks our research is worthwhile to have access to our revelations on Windows. When you upgrade, you'll receive our paid content for a full 12 months and be able to search everything we've ever published. Use the following link to find out more about getting our paid content: The problems with XP SP3 include AMD-based Hewlett-Packard desktop computers constantly rebooting and Symantec antivirus products developing strange behaviors. It makes me wonder which executives at HP and Symantec were supposed to test these companies' products during the months-long beta releases of SP3. That's a story for another day. If you know the answer — or you have a tip on any other Windows weirdness — let me know using the Windows Secrets contact page. Thanks! This week is a great time for a checkup Because there aren't as many articles in this week's special news update as we usually publish, I hope you'll devote a spare minute to make sure you receive exactly the kind of content you want. Please take the following three steps to ensure your preferred options are up-to-date and that you receive our e-mail messages with no problem. 1. Update your preferences Your preferences page allows you to select the version of the newsletter you receive, your general locale, and more. Use this link to set your preferences Make sure your delivery e-mail address is correct, and that you've entered an alternate address (if you have one). Your alternate address is never used by us except to notify you when a problem affects your primary address. If someone is blocking your e-mail without your knowledge, how else could we let you know?
Put our "From" address into your e-mail program's address book and any "safe senders" list it uses. We always contact you using the same address, which is shown in the following image:
Placing this in your address book and "safe senders" list is the best way we've found to ensure that our newsletters get to you with the least interference from mail filters. 3. Whitelist our Internet Protocol addresses If your company manages its own domain name, ask your e-mail administrator to "whitelist" (or accept mail from) the following IP addresses. We use these IP addresses to send out our newsletter and any personal responses we make to your tips and inquiries:
These IP addresses are controlled by ActionMessage.com, our e-mail service provider, and WindowsSecrets.com, neither of which tolerate spammers. Your mail admin can be confident that whitelisting our IP addresses will get you only good mail. If you don't have an e-mail manager to talk to, don't worry about this step. But if you do, this is another way to ensure you'll get the e-mail messages you want. No paid content today — next issue: June 5 Our special news updates have no paid content. A news update includes the same information for our free and our paid subscribers. We routinely publish on the 1st through 4th Thursdays of each month. We skip the week of Thanksgiving and the last two weeks of August and December. Our next regular issue will be published on June 5. Thanks for your support! Brian Livingston is editorial director of WindowsSecrets.com and the co-author of Windows Vista Secrets and 10 other books. |
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PATCH WATCH Norton software conflicts with Windows XP SP3
A Registry fix is needed by the latest XP patch The latest in the continuing series of problems related to Windows XP Service Pack 3 involves Symantec's Norton AntiVirus. The company recommends that users disable the program's self-protection feature before installing XP SP3. In a post to Norton's support forum, Symantec senior SQA manager Reese Anschultz suggests that customers disable the SymProtect feature found in various Symantec security products: • To do this in Norton Internet Security 2008 and Norton AntiVirus 2008, uncheck Turn on protection for Norton products on the Options pages of these programs prior to installing XP SP3. Once the service pack is in place, return to the Options page and re-enable this setting. • In Norton SystemWorks 2008, open the Advanced Options under Settings, click Next, choose Norton SystemWorks Options, and select the General tab. Uncheck Turn on protection for my Symantec product. For other Norton products, read Anschultz's post, which comments that other third-party security products may also cause problems unless some functions are disabled before SP3 is installed. Some Windows Secrets readers have had to remove Norton AntiVirus completely before deploying XP SP3. While taking this step may sound extreme, reader Bert Smith from Australia was told by a Symantec engineer that he should "follow these instructions" to use the Norton Removal Tool to uninstall Norton Internet Security 2008 before he deployed Vista SP1! Given what we now know, it may actually be wise for you to uninstall Norton antivirus products prior to deploying SP3, which is XP's latest — and last — service pack. Thanks to reader Jan Levine for identifying this issue in the Microsoft TechNet Forums. If you find that installing XP SP3 has corrupted your Symantec security product, my fellow MVP Bill Castner has devised a downloadable Registry fix (scroll down the page until you see My "Fix"). Castner first identified this issue along with Jesper Johansson, who's been tracking the XP SP3 problem in his blog. Johansson also provides a patch for AMD computers that XP SP3 causes to reboot constantly. I described this problem in my May 22 column. For more information, see the following item. A cure for XP SP3's never-ending reboots If you're one of the folks whose AMD-based PCs constantly reboot after applying XP SP3, here's how you can recover. When the system is first booting, press F8 to enter Windows' Safe Mode. Log into the Administrator acccount, click Start, Run, type cmd, and press Enter. When the command window opens, type the following command (don't forget the space after the equals sign, which is required): sc config intelppm start= disabled The problem is caused by the presence of Intel drivers on AMD-based systems. Follow the above steps only if you know your PC uses an AMD processor; doing so on an Intel-based machine could render the system unusable. To determine which processor your system uses, open the Control Panel's System applet and click the General tab. (See Figure 1.)  Figure 1. Open the System applet in Control Panel to verify the type of processor your PC uses. If the processor listed in the window is "Intel," do not enter the command shown above. An Intel-based system that constantly reboots may be having an unrelated problem. It might be caused by conflicts with antivirus products, as described in my previous item, or something else entirely that no one has yet identified. As I wrote in my May 22 column, there's no rush to install XP SP3. Wait until we know more about these kinds of conflicts. The Patch Watch column reveals problems with patches for Windows and major Windows applications. Susan Bradley recently received an MVP (Most Valuable Professional) award from Microsoft for her knowledge in the areas of Small Business Server and network security. She's also a partner in a California CPA firm. |
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EDITOR'S BOOKSHELF
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WACKY WEB WEEK A numbers game set to a catchy tune
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PERMALINKS The following topics appear in our free content
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YOUR SUBSCRIPTION The Windows Secrets Newsletter is published weekly on the 1st through 4th Thursdays of each month, plus occasional news updates. We skip an issue on the 5th Thursday of any month, the week of Thanksgiving, and the last two weeks of August and December. Publisher: WindowsSecrets.com LLC, Attn: #120 Editor, 1700 7th Ave., Suite 116, Seattle, WA 98101-1323 USA. Vendors, please send no unsolicited packages to this address (readers' letters are fine). Editorial Director: Brian Livingston. Associate Editor: Scott Dunn. Technical Editor: Dennis O'Reilly. Research Director: Vickie Stevens. Program Director: Tony Johnston. Editorial Assistant: Raef Harrison. Contributing Editors: Susan Bradley, Mark Joseph Edwards, Woody Leonhard, Ryan Russell, Scott Spanbauer. Trademarks: Microsoft and Windows are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. The Windows Secrets series of books is published by Wiley Publishing Inc. The Windows Secrets Newsletter, WindowsSecrets.com, LangaList, LangaList Plus, WinFind, Security Baseline, Patch Watch, Perimeter Scan, Wacky Web Week, the Logo Design (W, S or road, and Star), and the slogan Everything Microsoft Forgot to Mention all are trademarks and service marks of WindowsSecrets.com LLC. All other marks are the trademarks or service marks of their respective owners. HOW TO SUBSCRIBE: Anyone may subscribe to this newsletter by visiting our free signup page. WE GUARANTEE YOUR PRIVACY: 1. We will never sell, rent, or give away your address to any outside party, ever. 2. We will never send you any unrequested e-mail, besides newsletter updates. 3. All unsubscribe requests are honored immediately, period. Privacy policy HOW TO UNSUBSCRIBE: To unsubscribe from the Windows Secrets Newsletter,
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