Does not seem like an official microsoft link ;-)

Could it still be a beta version?

/Ulf

The link will refer you to an official MS site for downloading SP3. Watchout, tho', it's a beta version. I don't do beta.

Don't ever Beta an operating system on your main PC.

had a couple of odd problems with my installation - nothing connected to vegas and was about to restore from acronis (what a wonderful bit of software!!!) when a friendly geek told me about sp3. so i thought i'd give it a whirl on the following counts:

a. i do have a fully up to date, back up.

b. it IS a genuine m$ release if you follow / read the link.

c. and it is RC1, which is a step up from beta, and a small step away from full release.

d. wtf, if it all goes belly up, i can simply restore.

so far so good. the various problems i was having have disappeared - might just have been a couple of corrupt minor files in xp, and all seems to be working perfectly. i can assure you, this group will be the first to know otherwise ;-)

leslie

I was going to ask if you were having any Windows problems. I'm runing XP Pro sp2 on all my Windows boxen and haven't had any identifiable Windows issue in years. I've got no reason to even consider sp3 since, if it ain't broke i don't fix it.

especially since sp3 will introduce Vista-like DRM into Win XP

chienworks,

neither have i for years, then one day... no idea what it was, they were all minor in as much as i couldn't repeat them and they were occasional, not regular in anyway at all - tablet froze, explorer locked up, file trans to ex hd froze, etc.

i mean they were so minor that i didn't even do a reinstall (b/up'd about 3 wks ago when all was fine), so, as i wrote, thought i'd try sp3 before reinstall....

having read what there is about sp3, i can't see (with my limited knowledge) anything major in it. my one fear was .net, but scripts in vegas are running fine, and as long as vegas is running happily, so am i...

leslie

bill, where did you read about drm in sp3?

"Windows XP SP3 now contains 1,073 patches/hotfixes, not including those in previous service packs. Of the 1,073 included updates, 114 are for security-related issues.

Windows XP Service Pack 3 will not include any major new features, but it will include four minor new features that improve the system’s reliability and security. Contrary to reports, Microsoft has been very up-front about these functional additions for quite some time now.

These new features include:

Network Access Protection compatibility. Announced years ago, this feature allows Windows XP machines to interact with the NAP feature in Windows Server 2008. This functionality is built into the RTM version of Windows Vista as well.

Product Key-less install option. As with Windows Vista, new XP with SP3 installs can proceed without entering a product key during Setup.

Kernel Mode Cryptographics Module. A new kernel module that “encapsulates several different cryptographic algorithms,” according to Microsoft.

“Black hole” router detection algorithm. XP gains the ability to ignore network routers that incorrectly drop certain kinds of network packets. This, too, is a feature of Windows Vista."

Knowing how M$ works, I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't put a trojan horse or two into SP3 to "encourage" the transition to Vista.

I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't put a trojan horse or two into SP3 to "encourage" the transition to Vista

To support Bill G's safe retirement sometime maybe ;-) he he

/Ulf

"Knowing how M$ works, I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't put a trojan horse or two into SP3 to "encourage" the transition to Vista."

I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't either. To say eactly the same thing by inverting the double negatives; I would be surprised if they did. And I would be.

Actually that logic doesn't quite follow. To retain the truth value you have to use the contrapositive, not the double negative. That means that you have to swap the if and then sections as well as negate them. So the contrapositive of "I wouldn't be suprised if they didn't" is "They would do it if i was suprised," which seems like projecting an awful lot of your own emotion onto Microsoft's marketing department.

whatever

http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,139911-pg,1/article.html

Installed SP3 RC1 on an older machine 'cuz it's winter outside and I'm bored....
1-It has an uninstaller, which works and returns u to sp2
2-It appears that firewire 800(aka 1394b) is no longer FUBARed. It actually works
3-can't confirm any speed increases during rendering....yet...but, it appears M$ optimized multi-thread processing

OK, all you armchair swashbucklers (aka quad core weenies)...start pondering

OK, I am getting ready to order a new machine to replace my P4 2.6 that has XP MCE. I am looking at a Q6600 unit with XP Pro and 4 gig ram. I suspect it is OEM with SP2 etc and then I do some small updates after I get it. So you loaded the SP3 and are OK with it and making some reference to how some updates in XP SP3 now will handle Quads better I guess? I am curious.

Gary

just thought i'd jump back in here....

so, it's been about 2 months with sp3. not a single crash or 'weirdness' from anything. things seem more responsive (but i'm a sucker for placebo's anyway), and my previous problems are a memory. that said, i still have my pre 3 backup and i'm holding on to it for another couple of months...

leslie

Were you having any problems before the SP3?
Just part of the never ending quest to see if we can workout why some are having problems with V8 on quads and others aren't.

Bob.

sorry bob, i'm on a e6600. however, the major 'problems' i was having were (and they weren't THAT major) were:

a. wacom occasionally freezing up and only working after a reboot - this was in vegas

b. very occasional freezes of m2t files in cyberlink power dvd / vlc.

c. ex hd not registering in explorer unless i turned it on and off then on again.

and i do believe things are faster, though i never timed them prior to 3. cs3 loads quicker for sure, vegas seems to load quicker after the first initial loading, and explorer also seems more responsive.

make what you will of all that....

leslie

"Windows XP SP3 now contains 1,073 patches/hotfixes, not including those in previous service packs. Of the 1,073 included updates, 114 are for security-related issues.
==============
Nothing that cannot be addressed by avoiding Internet Explorer as a browser and not using Outlook as an e-mail client.
Far be it from Microsoft to solve most of their security issues over the years by NOT integrating their operating system into both of those.

John

Having minor glitches in my over-1- year-old XP installation, I downloaded the SP3 in the hope that installing it would save me XP reinstallation from scratch while everything being up-to-date, without the need of the on-line updates...

Unfortunately, at just around 50% of the installation process, when installing the UNIDRV.DLL file - I'm getting a mysterious "Access denied" message, and theonly option is to revert from the installation.

Any hints?