XP SP3 Final.....now available.

Bluefront · Post by **Bluefront** » Tue Apr 29, 2008 3:34 am

From CompGeeks and Microsoft, and other places. I got this last week, and waited till I read of other's experiences with it. There are a few horror stories.... but mostly everything went ok. I installed it this morning on my new setup that already had SP2. (genuine XP install) Everything went ok, but I see no changes, as was expected. This is a roll-up of all the patches since SP2, plus a few other things. A probably un-necessary upgrade for most people......

dhanson865 · Post by **dhanson865** » Wed Apr 30, 2008 4:49 am

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/wind ... 3a761.aspx
Updated April 23, 2008

Technet Plus subscribers can download it now. It is not yet available by way of Windows Update and Microsoft Download Center.

I'll be waiting for the Microsoft Download Center to host it...

JazzJackRabbit · Post by **JazzJackRabbit** » Wed Apr 30, 2008 6:16 am

Microsoft has giveth, Microsoft has taken away...

http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=11635

Post by **Ralf Hutter** » Wed Apr 30, 2008 6:18 am

I got sp3 here.

Super-fast download speed from this site. It maxed out at 6mbps for me. I'd get it now before they pull it.

EDIT

JazzJackRabbit wrote:Microsoft has giveth, Microsoft has taken away...

WTF??? Isn't that what all the alphas, betas and RCs are supposed to be for? And these incompetent bastards want us to ditch the pretty-darn-stable XP and switch to the all-new-and-exciting Vista???????

dhanson865 · Post by **dhanson865** » Wed Apr 30, 2008 6:36 am

And if you don't like dailytech here it is on zdnet http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=1368&tag=nl.e589

For those that don't read linked articles. They didn't just pull XP SP3, they also pulled Vista SP1.

On top of that they recommend not downloading SP3 unless you are a Technet Plus customer (show me the money).

Customers should not download Microsoft software from links posted on non-Microsoft websites, when those links point directly to the executable as is the case here. Customers should always download from a page on Microsoft.com that provides all relevant download details, installation instructions, and release notes. In this particular case, itâ€™s possible that some 3rd party websites are linking to the Windows XP SP3 software that we have published for MSDN and TechNet subscribers. Since we cannot confirm the source of every link that 3rd parties provide, out recommendation is that customers wait until weâ€™ve published Windows XP SP3 to Windows Update and the Download Center.

alleycat · Post by **alleycat** » Wed Apr 30, 2008 6:34 pm

Thanks for the link Ralf. That was really fast.

Post by **Ralf Hutter** » Thu May 01, 2008 5:54 am

And, as of this morning, you can still get it direct from MS:

Here

~El~Jefe~ · Post by **~El~Jefe~** » Wed May 07, 2008 6:12 pm

I got locked by a geek on a geek topic concerning geek news, but I was refering to the real release for regular peeps which did not ever happen until I posted it. I might have been oddly one of the first people that day to receive it as it was not available 3-4 hours prior to that. this is the release of the sp3 to everyone.

so I posted that.

But I am glad it got locked because this forum just gets slammed by 10's of 1000's of people hourly and we need to just put a lid on the spam.

widowmaker · Post by **widowmaker** » Wed May 07, 2008 6:54 pm

Well it just popped up on auto update for me today.

andyb · Post by **andyb** » Thu May 08, 2008 4:58 am

Has anyone experienced any problems yet.

I have had it installed for a week with no ill effects, but this was a new installation anyway, things are often different for people with existing installs.

Andy

dhanson865 · Post by **dhanson865** » Thu May 08, 2008 5:07 am

Dunno, I just installed it on a PC at work. I'll likely be installing it on a few more PCs to test and then assuming all goes well about 50 PCs will get it.

Bluefront · Post by **Bluefront** » Thu May 08, 2008 5:22 am

Here's one problem I've had...... I cannot update at home because of my slow dial-up connection. So I get updates at work or other places, and install at home.

I've been using the last Auto-patcher on new builds that are based on the first XP, or some recovery disks that have SP1. Well I did an XP SP1 install, then the SP3 patch. After that, when I tried to use Auto-patcher.......most of it's functionality was disabled. I needed the .net programs for a few apps, and I was stuck.

So I reinstalled XP SP1, then all the Auto-Patcher stuff I needed, then SP3. That did the trick....but took a few extra hours.

nick705 · Post by **nick705** » Thu May 08, 2008 12:45 pm

Bluefront wrote:Here's one problem I've had...... I cannot update at home because of my slow dial-up connection. So I get updates at work or other places, and install at home.

I've been using the last Auto-patcher on new builds that are based on the first XP, or some recovery disks that have SP1.

I don't know if you've come across Offline-Update - you just download and run the application, choose which MS product(s) you want to update, and it will toddle off and fetch all the available hotfixes, updates and (optionally) service packs. If you want, it will even bundle them all up neatly into an installation CD or DVD ISO ready for burning.

It might be useful for your post-SP3 hotfixes, although I suppose there's always the chance they'll go the same way as Autopatcher... I think MS finally lost patience with AP when they started providing Office hotfix rollups as well as for Windows itself...

dhanson865 · Post by **dhanson865** » Thu May 08, 2008 2:04 pm

First change I've noticed is that in XP SP3 when you try to customize the desktop there is no longer a check box for Internet Explorer.

This can probably be worked around by installing the powertoys XP control panel but it's creating some extra steps there. I usually set the browser cache and turn off searching from the address bar on a per user basis. Right clicking on the desktop special IE icon was quicker than going to the control panel to get to internet options.

The flip side of that is I didn't notice the language bar so I won't have to go through the extra steps to not show the language bar every time I setup a new user.

So far thats a wash on the convenience side.

Oh, but installing one service pack from the server instead of waiting for 90+ critical updates to download through the windows update site is a solid plus.

jaganath · Post by **jaganath** » Thu May 08, 2008 3:04 pm

Windows XP SP3 Sows Havoc, Users Complain

seraphyn · Post by **seraphyn** » Fri May 09, 2008 7:35 am

Installed it last week on an old install and have yet to run into any issues. Seems like a solid SP to me.

Michael Sandstrom · Post by **Michael Sandstrom** » Fri May 09, 2008 9:04 am

nick705 wrote:...there's always the chance they'll go the same way as Autopatcher... I think MS finally lost patience with AP when they started providing Office hotfix rollups as well as for Windows itself...

Go the same way as Autopatcher??? Autopatcher is alive and well. The team changed the program to fetch from Microsoft's servers. I am not sure I want to install SP3. Maybe later if I can find a reason.

merlin · Post by **merlin** » Fri May 09, 2008 1:42 pm

jaganath wrote:Windows XP SP3 Sows Havoc, Users Complain

From what I've heard a lot of these issues have to do with incorrect drivers. One of the big ones was an intel driver installed on an Amd system. I can understand why my 5 sp3 installs were all clean then. They are all Core 2 Duo systems with latest intel drivers installed. I assume if you have any type of system that has outdated/incorrect drivers, there's a danger of failure.

Post by **NeilBlanchard** » Fri May 09, 2008 6:39 pm

Greetings,

This article might shed some light:

http://www.computerworld.com/action/art ... rc=hm_list

According to Johansson, there appears to be two separate issues. One affects only AMD-equipped PCs sold by Hewlett-Packard Co. "The problem is that HP, apparently along with other OEMs, deploys the same image to Intel-based computers that they do to AMD-based computers," said Johansson. "Because the image for both Intel and AMD is the same, all have the intelppm.sys driver installed and running. That driver provides power management on Intel-based computers. On an AMD-based computer, amdk8.sys provides the same functionality."

Running the intelppm.sys driver on an AMD-powered PC isn't normally an issue, but on the first reboot after a service pack installation, it causes "a big problem," Johansson said. The machine either fails to boot or crashes and immediately reboots.

The other problem, according to Johansson, also seems to affect only AMD machines, and involves an error message indicating trouble with the PC's BIOS. Johansson said that the ensuing recommendation to update the BIOS is "most likely not your problem," but said that the problem may be isolated to a specific motherboard. "Possibly, it is related to computers with the Asus A8N32-SLI Deluxe motherboard in them," he said.

Post by **Ralf Hutter** » Sat May 10, 2008 6:45 am

Well, I got good and drunk last night (but no so drunk that I didn't back-up my OS partion first

) and installed SP3 on my main box. Took maybe about 10-15 minutes total, and with one reboot. So far, everything seems to be running just peachy. Boots a bit faster from a cold start, but that's all the difference that I've been able to see.

andyb · Post by **andyb** » Sat May 10, 2008 9:29 am

Well, I got good and drunk last night (but no so drunk that I didn't back-up my OS partion first Wink ) and installed SP3 on my main box.

It's not just you who needs a bit of extra courage/silly juice before installing the latest MS software.

I have only done 1 PC at work, if all is well after 1 month, I will start rolling it out as standard on all re-installations, but just like SP2 I will be extra careful on PC's that work perfectly (i.e. I wont).

Most of the probems people had with SP2 (far bigger problem than SP3 and more widespread), was mostly attributable to "DEP" (Data Execution Prevention) and program incompatability, and not drivers.

Andy

Michael Sandstrom · Post by **Michael Sandstrom** » Sat May 10, 2008 10:54 pm

I installed SP3 on each of my two boot drives in AMD64 systems and all seems well. I was expecting the service pack to force installation of WGA, but apparently it does not do so when updating an existing setup.

I also created a SP3 slipstreamed WinXP OEM install disk with AutoStreamer to use for the next time I run setup.

walle · Post by **walle** » Sun May 11, 2008 1:42 am

Installed it last night on an old install and its been running along nicely ever since, erhm, guess I just gave the impression of years of use.

Bluefront · Post by **Bluefront** » Sun May 11, 2008 1:48 am

Nine critical SP3 installation problems. Nice....

Post by **NeilBlanchard** » Sun May 11, 2008 5:47 pm

Hello,

I ran Microsoft Update on an older Athlon XP 2500+ system, and SP3 was available for installation. Ditto for this Athlon X2 4200+ -- they either have fixed the glitches, or they are not offering it for folks with the problem systems?

dhanson865 · Post by **dhanson865** » Mon May 12, 2008 5:39 am

NeilBlanchard wrote:Hello,

I ran Microsoft Update on an older Athlon XP 2500+ system, and SP3 was available for installation. Ditto for this Athlon X2 4200+ -- they either have fixed the glitches, or they are not offering it for folks with the problem systems?

I'm having trouble following your logic. As far as I know they are still offering it to pretty much everyone. How does it being offered to you make you think they wouldn't offer it to someone else?

If you think AMD processors are the issue, well I'd say you were wrong. It's just stupidity on the part of people making syspreped images with way too many drivers on them that triggers the issue. A clean install of windows won't have a problem no matter what the processor is.

The only case I know of where windows update won't offer SP3 is when you have "Microsoft Dynamics Retail Management System" installed.

Post by **NeilBlanchard** » Mon May 12, 2008 8:41 am

Hello,

Well, they were not "offering" SP3 as part of the regular update process, for a few days, so it seems like something changed, because they are now doing so. The AMD issue may be limited to a particular Asus motherboard, and they may well have fixed that, too, along with the other main issue?

Bluefront · Post by **Bluefront** » Mon May 19, 2008 1:41 am

Heh... there's a critical security update available already for SP3, involving Adobe Flash Player. The situation is complicated to explain, but since Flash Player is used everywhere, it's worth getting the patch.

Post by **NeilBlanchard** » Mon May 19, 2008 8:58 am

Hello,

I found out over the weekend that SP3 is not available for WinXP x64 Edition.

So far so good with the three machines I have installed WinXP SP3 on; which is a good thing...

Nick Geraedts · Post by **Nick Geraedts** » Mon May 19, 2008 10:31 am

NeilBlanchard wrote:Hello,

I found out over the weekend that SP3 is not available for WinXP x64 Edition.

So far so good with the three machines I have installed WinXP SP3 on; which is a good thing...

Yes, SP3 is only for 32-bit XP, since XP64 was built from the Server2003 codebase (they're both NT 5.2 while XP32 is NT 5.1). The service pack releases for XP64 follows that of Server 2003.

I've also installed SP3 on the lone system of mine that is running XP32. So far so good.