Windows XP SP3 leaps into the tubes Microsoft is giving the automatic web release of Windows XP Service Pack 3 another go today, after an eleventh hour muck-up ruined its scheduled availability last week. The truant XP service pack is ready for download via Microsoft's Download Center or alternatively, Windows Update if using Internet Explorer. Here's the ISO CD …
No mention of the MD5SUM on Microsoft's download page, would a couple of people calculate theirs and post please?
Also, no mention of how to burn an .iso image, below are the instructions they do give:
Instructions
1. Click the Download button on this page to start the download, or choose a different language from the drop-down list and click Go.
2. Do one of the following:
* To copy the download to your computer for installation at a later time, click Save or Save this program to disk.
* To start the installation immediately, click Open or Run this program from its current location.
Guess what happens when you Open or Run an .iso file in Windows?
Pengiun, FTW!
"Cannot understand why anyone with any experience of microshaft is installing this. The rule is always wait at least 9 months.
If you didn't realise this, you do now. Remember."
Heh, can I have the IPs to all your internet facing machines? Windows machines that are 9 months behind on patches? Sounds like a black hats wet dream lol.
Like Little Red Riding Hood tripping through the woods on the way to grannies house I visit~:
http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/
on IE 8 beta (8.0.6001.17184 tbe)
to be presented with this:
Thank you for your interest in obtaining updates from our site.
To use this site, you must be running Microsoft Internet Explorer 5 or later.
To upgrade to the latest version of the browser, go to the Internet Explorer Downloads website.
If you prefer to use a different web browser, you can obtain updates from the Microsoft Download Center or you can stay up to date with the latest critical and security updates by using Automatic Updates. To turn on Automatic Updates:
Click Start, and then click Control Panel.
Depending on which Control Panel view you use, Classic or Category, do one of the following:
Click System, and then click the Automatic Updates tab.
Click Performance and Maintenance, click System, and then click the Automatic Updates tab.
Click the option that you want. Make sure Automatic Updates is not turned off.
MS...you can kiss my a$$ you monkeys
installed SP3 on 2 machines today.... works perfectly fine....
there again,,, i have a few simple rules.... drivers must have passed the MS lab testing... software must be on the Software compatability list, i dont screw around tweaking things here and there for no reason than some bloke on a blog says it will make me pc go quicker......(with the exception of the IP stack)....testing of new software gets done on a VM....oh and NO BETA SOFTWARE !!!!
and the result is a sweet as a nut PC, it gives me no shit,,, it works.... it does not crash..... last time i seen a BSOD was on a windows ME install...
it really pisses me off when people bash microsoft.... i find the OS to be robust and stable, and i wont be going near a linux distro for a long time yet.... well not for a desktop workstation anyway....
stop the nonsense,,,, stop it now !!!!
.
Thanks to The Register (El Reg) I pulled a sicky today to stay at home to patch all my XP PC's. Being a married sysadmin with kids it's no surprise that I now somehow have 14 PCs, 6 laptops, 2 servers and a storage array to patch all in use (not to mention dozens of half built and scrap PCs all over the house) (most of them dual boot to Ubuntu which I upgraded to 8.04 LTS last weekend (around the amateur radio contest I was working on too!!)). Anyway I'm reporting in that the last PC has just been patched (yes I've been up non stop for probably well over 24 hours) and there isn't a single problem to report yet. My Dual P3 beast does take an extra 600ms/700ms to boot up though since SP3 - and this is after 5 reboots with exactly two hours between them so is a neutral test. Overall well done Microsoft and long live XP.
I've downloaded and installed it, and I've noticed.... nothing. Could someone tell me what it does besides use up another couple hundred megabytes of HD space?
If all it contains is the patches issues since SP2, why would some with all the patches issued since SP2 need it? Unless there was some pressing need to store another copy of them in 3 places on your hard disks, I can't really fathom the point.
As previously stated, though surprisingly only once (SammyTheSnake), it take them HOW long to just block the update for RMS users???? Hardly a fix, is it? How come they needed more than 12 minutes?
Anyway, I doubt SP3 will do any good to my penguins (btw, none of them are african words meaning "lazy butt"), and tmy WinXp machines aren't broken anyway (crippled, right, but that's part of MS EULA. Or it should be), so I'm not wasting time and bandwith for that.
And I wouldn't download HER, either.
Tried it on one PC. Bit me on the first attempt with a "Failed to install catalog files" warning during "Creating restore point", followed by a "Windows XP partially updated and may not work properly" error which terminated the installation. Worked on the second attempt, after lengthy disk-light flashing during "Creating restore point" (for various reasons, this computer has a long history of upgrading rather than clean-installing the OS, dating back to Win95 and beyond).
As others have said, the end result seems more responsive. Hats off to MS if the installation issues are sorted.
For the past couple of days I've been having a fiddle with SP3 with the following results.
On an old P4 Vaio laptop, with SP2 usual running memory was at 350MB after bootup. With SP3 this has gone down to 210. Definately sped up the OS loading and general applications (office, dreamweaver, IE, firefox) are also noticeably faster. Non of the usual post SP instability (but this is still on day 3)
Main computer is AMD XP3200 barton. Before SP memory usage on bootup was at 410 MB, gone down to 290 MB and boots up a heck of a lot faster than before. Applications also run faster, especially when swapping between apps.
Dell Latitude D630 - SP2 memory on bootup was 310 MB, gone down to 210, Again faster on the reboot and applications once loaded work as the other 2.
one thing to note, if you have Spybot seek and destroy installed, disable it before SP update or you'll be sitting for 10 minutes clicking on the allow registry key update before boot then another 10 minutes while it deletes said keys.
Concensus - SP3 definatley speeds things up and reduces memory usage. Still early days so can't comment on stability, but haven't had a crash, bluescreen or slowdown as of yet (that's after 2 days of intensive flash, dreamweaver and photoshop usage). Firefox memory gobbling also seems to have slowed down. After a day of usage, I've seen FF snaffle up to 600 megs of system RAM and more depending on the sites I'm working on. Yesterday it went from usual 40 meg to just over 100 on intensive usage.
IMHO they've got it spot on this time round. And I don't say that lightly. Drives me mad that they wait until after they withdraw a product to get it almost perfected. M$ if you're listening, withdraw Vimto and reinstate XP. There's no competition. The Wow was already there.
It's nice that this has worked for some people but could these people stop trying to blame the others for whom it didn't work?
If you've got proof or suspicion that "dodgy" software is to blame it might be more helpful to say exactly which software.
So far it looks as if XP SP3 has a bout a 33% chance of failing.
Could those who are reporting failures let us know if going back to the save point worked?
I dutifully installed SP3 and XP was no longer able to recognise my router; worse still, it stopped the wireless router broadcasting to my internet radio.
After some initial surprise, Billion accept there is a problem and are looking into it.
I have un-installed SP3.
If you like fast bootups, get a hold of MS Bootvis.
It's no longer supported by MS, but I've been using it on machines I have been building to near as dammit half the bootup time [from 30-ish secs to more like 16-18 in most cases].
Interesting to note the massive memory use dropoff on boot - will have to check that on the SP2 machines I have that still need updating.
Steven R
Installed SP3 via Windows Update.... BSOD.....
Tried again downloading the ISO.... BSOD...
Had a quick gander over at mcsoft forums and find microtechies telling people to go feck up their PCs with registry changes and stuff....
Back to SP2 it is... at least without any mcsoft advice I still have system restore.
System more responsive. No issues
Looking at the comments I am guessing a lot of people are stopping their installs thinking their machine is frozen or doing nothing, rather than be patient until the process is complete.
MS should have put a few more progress bars in for good measure, esp after the reboot.
I have started putting it on the computers in the small office at my job (8 out of 31 computers) and I had no problems at all.
I also installed it at home and no problems.
I also made my own "slipstreamed" windows cd and reformatted and installed that on my home computer and still no problems. It actually seems to be running just a tad faster.
Mate of mine tried it last night, after the usual "unable to download" due to excess demand, he instructed the update to leave all his settings alone - hahahahahahahaha... BSoD followed by wave bye bye to half the desktop icons, shortcuts and integrated software that used to work. Nice one M$, glad I chose to ignore the autoupdate offer.
"Microsoft had pulled the mass download last week when it uncovered an incompatibility issue between SP3 and its point-of-sale application"... roughly translated as, "An incompatibililty issue between SP3 and Windows XP" - not a surprise really and probably explains why they have the same problem with SP1 for Vista.
I just set up my new machine today, installed XP then SP3. After installing all the usual software I thought "What the hell!" and installed IE7. Imagine my surprise when I read in the IE7 EULA that I am breaking its terms by installing it on SP3.
I quote:
You may use a copy of this supplement with each validly licensed copy of Windows XP SP2 and Windows Server 2003 SP1 (the "software").
If only I had installed IE7 before SP3!
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