We upgraded our SEP 11 to 12.1 on the server and pushed out the client packages. Our desktop machines include Windows XP (SP3), Vista 32 bit, & Win 7 32 & 64 bit. Everything went well although we were getting some annoying Windows Action Center messages. A little bit of research led me to RU1 which I downloaded and installed on the server without a problem. I began pushing out the client packages and ran into a major problem with the XP machines. Two out of four were completely toasted. Upon login every application that tried to load immediately crashed. The control panel would not even launch. Safe mode would load but you cannot uninstall SEP from safe mode. We determined that the OS needs to be reinstalled and set up from scratch. I had a few spare machines so I decided not to bother fixing these two and sent them into storage. I noted that the only difference between the two that crashed and the two that did not was that we did not have MS Office installed on the two that crashed.
As an experiment, I went to one of the remaining XP machines, which was also a spare, and uninstalled MS Office. After restarting the machine, it was slower than molasses. It did not crash like the first two but it took about 20 minutes for anything to launch. I played around for a couple of days but got nowhere. I finally uninstalled SEP and the machine returned to normal. It boots up, logs in and launches applications like it used to. Again, because this was an extra machine, I sent it into storage without reinstalling any of the software.
I believe that there is a problem with RU1 and XP when MS Office is not installed although I'm not sure what the connection is. The XP machines are being phased out so I'm not overly concerned with it but I wanted to put it out there. Has anyone else had a similar issue since upgrading? Anyone been successful with RU1 on an XP machine without Office?