|
September, 2002 --
The long awaited (?) XP Service Pack one has been released and
it's a whopper, well over 100Mb so if you're on a slow speed
connection and you want the update it might well be worth it to
spring for the 10 bucks and get it on CD (being a glutton for
punishment I opted for the download).
The download and
install went without a hitch, no problems at all.
The list of
bug fixes is impressive, well over 300 of them and you can check
them out at the
Microsoft SP1 site.
A lot has been made of the bugginess of XP based on the number of
fixes but frankly I think it's necessary to keep it in
perspective IF it's a rewrite of a fairly complex operating system.
There are very few
external changes but one of the first ones I noticed is the Set
Program Access and Defaults utilities available on the Add/Remove
Programs control in the control panel:
In theory this utility makes it
easier for you to select the browser, IM client, email and Java VM you want to
use. You have the option of All Microsoft, No Microsoft or Custom.
To get third party apps to show
up properly they'll need to modify application installers to use a new set of
registry keys so it'll probably be a while before this component really "does
something".
It's still early on, I haven't
had any problems with XP anyway, but so far, so good.
Recommended XP tweak downloads:
Tweaking Toolbox XP - The complete tool for tweaking XP
AutoPilot - An
incredible way to transparently manage CPU and programs for max
performance.
Back to article index.
|
