[soubriquet]

Hi, everyone...

I very much appreciate your help, in advance.

I'm trying to be proactive and avoid any problems with updates that I need to make:

I don't know which to install first...Panda Global 2009 (my Panda IS 2008 sub is about to expire) or XP SP3 (which I've been putting off, figuring it would cause me troubles when I installed it, and SP2 was working just fine, thank you).

Each one will be probably be disturbed by the update of the other, but I want to make this as painless as possible. Surely, my wi-fi LAN is also doomed and will require hours of re-configuration.

Before starting any of this, I've just made a complete back up archive using TrueImage 9, and I have recovery disks that I made when I initially bought the two computers; both are HP and neither over 3 years old.

I've not posted much in the past (maybe once, ages ago?), but I've gleaned so much knowledge from you all--solved so many problems--over the years. I am hugely grateful!

[midders]

For best results, I would always recommend installing XP SP3 over a fresh install of XP, or even better slipstreaming it with the install disk. I haven't heard of as many problems with SP3 as there were with SP2, but it's still the safest route.

As for Panda; personally, I would recommend switching to Avira Free or Kaspersky if you want to pay.

Sláinte

midders

[soubriquet]

Thank you for your response.

I don't want to reformat my hard drive (as I guess that's what you mean by "clean install" since I don't have any original XP disks, since the computer came with SP2 and I've been doing updates all along); the two week process of installing applications and updating preferences in all my apps is completely out of the realm of possible. If typical updating doesn't work, I will do it, but want to avoid it (I probably wouldn't update at all if I thought I had to do start from scratch...Please let me know if this is what's going to happen!). Slipstreaming is likely more complicated than it's worth to me, as I'm a more casual user, not an administrator, or a computer whiz!

I already have Panda on both machines and suspect I'll have fewer problems with updates of the same program rather than trying to remove a security program completely (all of them are tangled in the registry, no matter which brand). On a different computer, I run Vista with Trend Micro and LOVE it. Panda's not really given me any trouble over the years on my XP machines, and the newer version seems to have as good reviews as anyone else, both by users and reviewers.

So, given that I'm going to use Microsoft Update to install SP3 over my current installation, and have decided to stick with Panda, as I understand your post, it's better to install the SP3 first?

*dreading the next few days...*

[vicks]

If you have a slow connection for internet, you can order the SP3 from Microsoft.
Or, have someone with broadband d/l it for you and put it on cd or removable media (ie. thumb/flash drive).
What ever you do, do not try to run 2 antivirus programs. Multiple anti spyware programs is okayl
Good luck
vicks

[perfume]

Dear soubriquet,

Let me first appreciate your foresight in taking backups. Actually Win XP.SP3 install will cover up a number of holes in the OS and in my personal opinion, you should install it(without a hitch). Even if you have a slow connection(unless power outages occur), there shouldn't be a prob.May i suggest the site to download the pack :http://support.microsoft.com/kb/322389

Best wishes and cool downloading!

[sdikevin]

SP3 warning... when I installed it on my PC it killed by ATI video card driver. I had to uninstalled and reinstalled the video card many times before it finally started to work. So to be on the safe side, have all of your up to date drivers burned to a cd or on other media before you start to install SP3 if you run into this same problem. Oh.. and get rid of Panda... I used it years ago... it was always up to date, I switch to a different AV, and it found like 5 or 6 things that Panda didn't stop.

[soubriquet]

Thank you for the advice, everyone! I'll post to let you know how it went when I get to it next week.

[win2kpro]

I had a couple of problems with installation the executable version recommended in post #5. Both problems were with machines with fresh Windows installations and were
installed as soon as Windows and the motherboard drivers were installed.

I also have a copy of the .ISO image I burned to a disk, and have had no problems installing it on quite a number of machines.

If you have a problem with the executable version you might want to burn a disk with
the .ISO image and try it.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...0-fe22559d164e

All of the installations of XP SP3 I have done have been done after a fresh install of XP.
Since you are using HP machines if the machines have AMD processors you should go to the HP site and download a patch they have that needs to be installed before updating a machine with an AMD processor to XP SP3.

[soubriquet]

Wow! Thank you ! That is INCREDIBLY helpful!

[soubriquet]

After checking my ATI driver (I had AMD on one of the two computers, but the HP tool indicated I didn't need to do anything before updating to SP3), I updated to SP3, as win2kpro suggested, using the ISO (but not over a clean install). Then I uninstalled Panda 2008 and installed Panda GS 2009.

Everything went smoothly, and, after a couple of odd, but benign, frozen reboots, I'm all up to date! Yay! In fact, my wi-fi, which was intermittently not allowing remote printing, seems to be working glitch-free with no updating. This whole event was much less harrowing than I'd expected.

Thanks so much for the good advice. I'm so relieved!