Installing sp2 on an infected system

[dustinlandi]

I work for a company who is telling me to install sp2 on every computer that we are removing virus's and spyware on. Yes that should be done but I'm being told to do that first on infected systems with no exceptions. I personally think this is very bad and will just end in disaster. I have always been told to install sp2 on a clean system and have seen many times an sp2 install go really bad on an infected system. Ive searched google far an wide and I'm proven right time and time again. I may loose my job argueing this fact. I dont want to mess someones computer up by doing this. Can someone send me official word from M$ that this is not good or can EVERYONE give me your opinion

 

[edklite]

some of sp2 from what I understand is patches on certain wholes that viruses use, if that virus is on the system it could stop that patch from installing or working all together, or might not even be able to install sp2 and get errors.

what is the point of installing on an infected system, its gonna cost more money/time to do it that way.

plus yes ofcourse ms says to clean system first

3.
Purge your system of all spyware and adware you may have accumulated.

Spyware can derail the upgrade

How well a system functions is also directly related to the presence of spyware and adware on a computer.

Boyd, who has helped dozens of small-business users download SP2, says most of the problems he's encountered to date have to do with users unknowingly collecting spyware or adware. Spyware/adware is software from companies (often triggering pop-up ads) that users inadvertently get stuck with based on Web sites visited and other factors. It can "dramatically degrade the performance of a machine," Boyd says, and can also dramatically degrade the effectiveness of SP2.

After spyware has gained access to your computer via the Internet, it typically writes code directly to your PC's registry, which is a kind of command central from which a machine's operations are directed. This isn't always as sinister as it seems. Often, the freeware knowingly downloaded by users includes a proviso in its licensing agreement claiming the right to write code to the downloading computer's registry. The more code that's dropped into the registry, the slower the computer functions.

"If you've got 4,000 to 5,000 corrupt registry hacks and they all start at once," Boyd says, "all of a sudden a really good computer gets bogged down and begins to act like hardware that's five to 10 years old."

click on teh quotes to be taken to the source page

now if the place you work at like to spend more money doing it the hard way then its not much of a place to work at if you ask me, unless ofcourse you need that job in which case you got to do what you got to do its their dime.