Don't let XP Service Pack 3 hose your system

Windows Secrets Newsletter • Issue 166 • 2008-09-11 • Circulation: over 400,000

Table of contents

Top Story: Don’t let XP Service Pack 3 hose your system
Known Issues: Another XP SP3 approach: burn it to a CD
Wacky Web Week: These guys are a bunch of characters!
Best Software: Three top Windows cleaners boost performance
Windows Secrets: Is Google’s Chrome browser a Windows killer?
Patch Watch: Megapatch plugs image-file vulnerabilities

Top Story

Don’t let XP Service Pack 3 hose your system

By Scott Dunn

From the moment Microsoft released it, Service Pack 3 for Windows XP has been the subject of almost daily reports of bugs, incompatibilities, and general headaches.

You can install SP3 with confidence — providing you take certain precautions — or, if you prefer, use Windows’ Automatic Update settings to keep the service pack off your system.

Multiple problems plague SP3 adopters

Windows Secrets has been reporting problems with Windows XP’s Service Pack 3 almost from the instant the patch collection was first distributed. In fact, so many readers have contacted us with questions or complaints about SP3 — the last major update to Windows XP — that we’ve synthesized everything you need to know about this update in a single column.

Here are the most glaring SP3-related problems:

• Internet connectivity fails when using black hole routers, which drop packets (see Susan Bradley’s May 1 column in our paid content and Microsoft’s Knowledge Base article 314825).

• False positives are generated by Norton Internet Security and other security applications (see my May 2 Top Story).

• Device Manager settings go missing, especially in connection with using Norton Antivirus (see Susan Bradley’s column in the May 29 newsletter as well as KB 953791).

• Repeated rebooting occurs on machines using an AMD processor (see Susan Bradley’s May 22 column and KB 953356).

• You can’t install any new updates (see KB 943144).

• Third-party visual styles encounter problems (see the Support Alert Newsletter of June 19).

Making an upgrade decision that works for you

In light of these and other problems, you may wonder whether you ever want SP3 at all, especially given that many of its enhancements focus on networking and IT-level administration. Here’s the case for SP3:

Think security: In addition to new features, SP3 — like most service packs — includes numerous security updates that were available individually in the past.

Consider support: If you think you might require Microsoft’s assistance to install SP3, you need to add the service pack before April 2009, when the company will end such support. And because overall support for SP2 expires in early 2010, you’ll need to have SP3 installed by that date if you want general support for XP.

Be prepared: Before you install SP3, take a few precautions. First and foremost, perform a full system backup. Microsoft has digested all recommended pre-install steps in KB 950717, which also includes troubleshooting information if all does not go well.

How to remove SP3 from your Automatic Updates

If you decide you don’t want SP3, Microsoft offers a tool for suppressing the automatic installation of the service pack. The Service Pack Blocker Tool Kit won’t prevent you from downloading SP3 manually from the company’s site, nor will it stop you from installing the patches from a CD or DVD. All it does is stop the service pack from being installed via Windows’ Automatic Updates.

In addition, the Service Pack Blocker postpones the installation for only a year from SP3′s release date last April.

Surf over to Microsoft’s Service Pack Blocker download page and click the Download button for SPBlockerTools.exe. Click Yes to accept the license agreement and type in the path to the folder where the files will be stored (click the Browse button and navigate to the folder if you want to avoid typing).

Now open the folder containing the extracted files and double-click SPBlockingTool.exe. A command prompt window appears for a few moments and displays the statement “Action successfully completed.” Unfortunately, that doesn’t tell you very much. The action the message refers to is the addition of a Registry entry instructing Windows Update not to send you SP3. (The same setting on Vista blocks SP1.)

If you want to see the code that is added, do the following:

Step 1. Choose Start, Run. Type regedit and press Enter.

Step 2. In the Registry Editor, navigate in the left pane to this entry:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE SOFTWARE Policies Microsoft Windows WindowsUpdate

Step 3. With the WindowsUpdate icon selected in the left pane, look in the right pane for a key named DoNotAllowSP.

If you later decide you want Automatic Updates to offer you Service Pack 3, simply select the DoNotAllowSP key and press Delete (or click Edit, Delete).

If you’re concerned about editing the Registry (which involves risks of its own), the Service Pack Blocker can also undo the block:

Step 1. Choose Start, Run. Type cmd and press Enter.

Step 2. At the command prompt, either type the path to the SPBlockingTool.exe file, or drag the file into the command prompt window and let Windows do the typing for you.

Step 3. At the end of this command, type a space followed by /U and press Enter.

Once again, you’ll see the “Action successfully completed” message and Windows Automatic Update will no longer be blocked from installing the service pack on your system.

The other tool included with the download, SPreg.cmd, is a batch file useful for administrators who want to block the service pack on remote computers; this utility requires that the machine name be specified in the command line.

Even though most of SP3′s problems should now be in the past, these precautions can help ensure that you aren’t one of the service pack’s installation victims.

Scott Dunn is associate editor of the Windows Secrets Newsletter. He has been a contributing editor of PC World since 1992 and currently writes for the Here’s How section of that magazine.

Known Issues

Another XP SP3 approach: burn it to a CD

By Dennis O’Reilly

As XP users continue to struggle while downloading and installing Service Pack 3, one reader succeeds by creating an SP3 installation CD.

There’s no guarantee this technique will work for you, but if you’re determined to upgrade to SP3, this option may be worth a try.

More than one way to load a service pack

You have to wonder which Microsoft group is sweating more these days: the people in charge of helping XP users upgrade XP Service Pack 3, or the folks whose job it is to convince PC users to buy Vista. While the latter group has Bill Gates wiggling his tush on their behalf (at the request of Jerry Seinfeld), the SP3 champions in the company appear to be on their own — just like us poor XP users.

Slowly but surely, we’re figuring out how to keep the last XP service pack from trashing our systems. This week’s Top Story by Scott Dunn describes the biggest gotchas and offers tips for downloading and installing SP3, but reader Bob Bowen wrote in with a solution of his own.

“Following a disastrous download and install by Microsoft Auto Updates of SP3 on my XP Home SP2 OS (which rendered my OS inoperable, requiring a raw format and complete reinstall), I downloaded an ISO image of SP3 … and burned my own CD of SP3 from it.

“After disconnecting from the Internet and closing down all programs in my notification area, notably my Zone Alarm Pro Firewall, NOD32 AV, and antispyware applications, I ran the install CD, which installed SP3 flawlessly on my PC. That was three months ago, and I have had no problems whatever. In fact, the increased stability of my OS after installing SP3 was immediately noticeable. I suggest this as an excellent way to install XP SP3.”

You’ll find instructions on saving .iso files to CDs on the official Microsoft Windows XP site.

One says install XP SP3, the other says to wait

It’s never easy knowing whom to believe when tech pundits contradict themselves. It’s even harder to figure out the best course of action when writers for the same publication appear to be at odds on an important issue.

That’s why it’s so easy to understand the confusion of reader Terry Theresa, who noted that Susan Bradley’s July 24 Patch Watch column (in our paid content) stated, “The time is right for Windows XP SP3 … maybe.” Yet in last week’s Known Issues column, I recommended that XP users wait before installing the service pack.

“[The column] written by Dennis O’Reilly recommending that the installation of SP3 be postponed is very untimely. It was only a few issues or so ago that we were told by Susan Bradley that SP3 is now safe for downloading. Whom to believe?

“I think that one writer — and one writer only — [should] stay with the SP3 situation to avoid conflicting statements. I usually never, ever, write, so I will stand down now, had my say. Thanks again for Windows Secrets, as it has kept me out of a lot of trouble. I haven’t had a reformat in quite awhile now.”

Susan’s lukewarm recommendation of SP3 advises that you have a full system backup handy before installing the service pack and that you have another Internet-connected PC at the ready so you can troubleshoot any problems you encounter during the update. For me, those are two indications that plenty of risk remains.

Since I err on the side of caution, I recommend that XP users wait to upgrade until they have to, or until they can be relatively certain that all (or at least most) of the glitches have been worked out, especially if your PC is running okay.

Now Scott Dunn has provided us with a third perspective on SP3 in this week’s Top Story. I’m confident that if you follow Scott’s advice on the service pack, you’ll do just fine.

Beware of insecure webmail services

You would think that an e-mail provider would consider the addresses and passwords of its customers worth securing. Unfortunately, at least one webmail service doesn’t feel the need to encrypt this information when people log in to its service, as reader F. Aydelotte points out.

“Don’t assume that your ISP’s webmail is secure. Frontier, a major Internet provider on the East Coast and elsewhere, uses a nonencrypted Web page for its webmail.

“I exchanged several e-mails with various levels of tech support and marketing at Frontier, asking about this security hole, and it became obvious that they could care less about their customers’ sending user names and passwords in clear text.”

Whenever you log in to any Web site, make sure the URL in the address bar begins with https: and look for the lock icon in the bottom-right corner of the browser. If the company doesn’t provide a secure login page, find yourself another provider. You’ll be doing all of us a favor.

Readers Bob Bowen, Terry Theresa, and F. Aydelotte will each receive a gift certificate for a book, CD, or DVD of their choice for sending tips we printed. Send us your tips via the Windows Secrets contact page.

The Known Issues column brings you readers’ comments on our recent articles. Dennis O’Reilly is technical editor of WindowsSecrets.com.

Wacky Web Week

These guys are a bunch of characters!

By Katy Chenoweth

Superheroes have long captivated the hearts and imaginations of people worldwide. These sometimes-dark, colorfully clothed characters rise from the ashes of social injustice and treachery like a vigilante phoenix sent to right the wrongs of the world. Well, at least some superheroes do.

Thanks to reader Bill Meacham for passing along this hilarious video about one aspect of crime-fighting that we otherwise might never have taken note of! Play the video

Best Software

Three top Windows cleaners boost performance

By Scott Spanbauer

Over months or years of normal use, Windows accumulates thousands of orphaned files, useless settings, and other detritus that can noticeably slow down your applications.

These performance-enhancing utilities remove this digital refuse to help your system run at its top speed.

Make your PC run like new … almost

Perhaps this has happened to you: after years of installing and uninstalling applications, opening e-mail attachments, and putting my broadband connection to the test downloading gigabytes of rich Web content, I found one day that my computer had lost its sparkle.

Opening Web pages took forever. Applications launched with the leisureliness of a teenager who must catch the early bus to high school. My bleeding-edge PC had been reduced to a burbling sludge. If only I could return to those days of minty-fresh, new-computer performance.

Installing yet another application in order to speed things up may seem counterintuitive. I’m not a big fan of nonessential utilities, but I found that all three of the performance enhancers I tested — Business Logic’s U.S. $30 WinCleaner One Click Professional Clean, Piriform’s free CCleaner, and PC Pitstop’s $30 Optimize — are worthwhile.

After using these programs to blow the cobwebs out of my system, its startups perked up a bit and my everyday computing seemed snappier. All three work with both Vista and XP. They clear out junk files that accumulate in temp folders and caches, unwanted applications and services that launch automatically at startup, and unnecessary Registry entries that point to files, folders, and other objects that no longer exist on the PC.

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Windows Secrets

Is Google’s Chrome browser a Windows killer?

By Mark Joseph Edwards

Some people are calling Google’s latest offering the beginning of the end for Internet Explorer, but is that really the case?

Chrome does look promising — possibly more promising than some people suspect — though there’s much more than browsing at stake.

Chrome: not ready for prime time — yet

The last time I checked, there were well over 50 Web browsers available, although Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Opera collectively dominate the market on Windows PCs. But a change is in the air, now that Web behemoth Google has launched the beta of its new Chrome browser.

Since Chrome’s release last week, there’s been a lot of buzz about the program, and rightfully so. The browser is lightweight, has a very sparse and cleanly streamlined interface, renders pages quickly, and is incredibly easy to use.

Under the hood, Chrome uses the open-source WebKit technology for rendering pages. WebKit is also the foundation of Apple’s Safari browser and other OS X applications. In addition, Chrome uses parts of Mozilla’s Firefox code and other open-source technology, but it features a brand new Javascript processing engine that renders code faster than the competition.

Like many other browsers, Chrome has a tabbed interface. What makes Chrome’s tabs different is that, like Internet Explorer 8, each tab in Chrome runs in its own process: if a Web page crashes, only that one tab closes — not the entire browser.

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Patch Watch

Megapatch plugs image-file vulnerabilities

By Susan Bradley

Microsoft’s GDI+ graphics system could be exploited to allow hackers to use image files to launch attacks on your system.

In addition to patching Windows, this bug requires that you update your Office apps, Works 8, Digital Image Suite 2006, and nearly every Microsoft application development product.

MS08-052
GDI+ is a plus-sized patch for image files

Once again, Microsoft’s GDI+ application programming interface (API) for graphics poses a threat to our systems. This week, the company released patches for five different ways that bad guys could use a specially crafted .emf, .gif, .wmf, or .bmp file to launch an attack.

The bulletin mentions some workarounds that change the permissions on the gdiplus.dll file so that software can’t use it, but doing so would mean that you lose the ability to fax and to view images and thumbnails.

The main patch of MS08-052 (938464) affects Windows 2000 (with Internet Explorer 6 SP1 installed), XP, Vista, and Windows Server 2003 and 2008. Consumers and home users will likely receive patches that impact Office:

• 954326 for Office 2007

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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. Windows Secrets is a continuation of four merged publications: Brian's Buzz on Windows and Woody's Windows Watch in 2004, the LangaList in 2006, and the Support Alert Newsletter in 2008.

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