Windows update "service pack 3"

[dew042]

I love MS bashing as much as the next person, but OSes do get old. How many of you drive your first car, still?

At some point, it becomes difficult, if not impossible to keep tacking on updates and expect stability. To put this in perspective -- Windows XP lasted 6 years and that's pretty good. The expectation that XP will live on forever is not practical.

A new OS with higher hardware requirements is painful, but it does spur growth and innovation on the hardware side, and lots of new hardware has limited support in XP. Vista runs faster on modern hardware than XP can.

I have not had a problem with about 30 machines I've installed SP3 on, and would encourage anyone looking to do so to do it in safe mode to avoid conflicts with programs that are running in the background and could potentially cause a conflict.

dew.

 

[thisOne]

DOS

it's free, easy and you can hack it to your heart's content...:yes:

 

[OvenMaster]

1. I've read that the best time to put in a major service pack, either SP2 or SP3, is immediately after a fresh install of the OS. The more updates and software you have installed, the more risk there is of a screwup. After you install the service pack, THEN put in all your applications. I did this with SP2 and everything went flawlessly.

But... since I run AMD processors on two PCs that use XP, I don't think I'll be in any rush to install SP3.

2. XP Home and Professional mainstream support (patches and security fixes) will continue until April 2009; then security fixes only will be provided until April 2014.

http://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle/?LN=en-us&x=20&y=15&p1=3221
http://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle/?p1=3223

 

[cableguy]

An external hard drive with a complete up to date system backup could have saved you the $90.

OK....thanks.(hindsight being 20/20).....PS. don't take any wooden nickles..





Bill

 

[Gohan]

I have not had any problems with service pack 3. I install all of my updates manualy, never will use the automatic updates!

Gohan

 

[Stoffie]

Have installed SP3 on several machines now (Intel and AMD). Went just fine, no snags.

 

[Brian]

I have Vista on a laptop. It came with it and have no problem with it contrary to what others have had. It does have problems with some legacy software I need to keep mounted for about the next 6 years so in the office I'd need either to OSs or keep using XP for the next 6 years and then move everything over to Vista. The company with the legacy software has tried to get the prior versions up and running but it can not. Yes, I could use Virtual PC on Vista and then mount XP on it but I've tried it and it is slow plus having problems with online updates that become available from time to time.

Now, admittedly, I have done soome of the little things to turn off some of the Vista graphic things realted to Vista a change the Start menu to look like XP.

 

[macca_dj]

I have not had any problems with service pack 3. I install all of my updates manualy, never will use the automatic updates!

Gohan

How do you know where to put all the driver cabs an DLL files ?

 

[arrow 68]

I have never had a problem with auto update. XP 2004 with AMD.

 

[Chip - HP]

I just finished manually installing SP3 a few minutes ago ... before I saw this thread ...

 

[tentoze]

Just installed SP3 on the first of the 3 computers here- absolutely no problems.

 

[kcollins4]

No problems with either AMD machines, auto update.

 

[whoaru99]

My machine was in a RAID 0 configuration when the SP3 install crashed it. It went into an endless reboot cycle that only switching off the power would stop.

Couldn't get into safe mode, Windows recovery didn't want to work, the backups I had finally installed after repeated attemps but something wasn't right and had real bad performance.

Finally stopped pissing around and did a clean reinstall on a RAID 1 setup. Now I'm afraid to risk the SP3 update because I really don't want to do it again.

BTW, I like ShadowProtect disk backup/imaging. Might not have quite the number of bells and whistles as Acronis, but it's fast and easy. I've not yet had to do a recovery from ShadowProtect, but I seem to recall it was rated very highly for ease, speed, and success rate of recovery.

After all, the true measure of backup/imaging softare is not the creation of the image, it's restoration thereof.

 

[andy]

The only problem I've had with SP3 was with a computer that I only use via remote desktop. For some reason, after SP3 the computer would crash about 1 in every 5 times I connected to it with remote desktop. I uninstalled SP3 and it's been fine ever since.

I understand people's frustration when an update goes wrong, but to be fair, even MS warns you to back up your data before installing a service pack.

 

[whoaru99]

Yes, of course they do. It's standard protocol to make the backup recommendation.

I don't necessarily hold MS responsible or blame them, it's just a shitty thing that happens sometimes. Frankly, I'm still quite amazed how all that works considering all the possible situations that must be encountered and dealt with.

 

[Brent71]

I have 3 XP computers (desktop 1 is XP Pro, desktop 2 is XP Home, laptop is XP MCE) and I installed SP3 the day it came out back in April and I haven't had a single issue with it on any of my 3 computers.

 

[Dynacophil]

Hi

I only installed it when installing new Units or new system on old units. No probs this way, 5 PCs yet.
But - I will install it on my running system only when i will give it a comlete new installation anyway and have a free weekend heading ...

 

[Elfasto]

Now that I think of it, as a Mac user, I wholeheartedly support their strategy

*snicker snicker*



Ditto!

 

[whoaru99]

Mac...what's that? Mac-n-cheese? McIntosh?

 

[Tapehead47]

NOW you tell me!

Well, I installed it yesterday morning and it went flawlessly.

Now I have something to worry about, dad-gummit!

Hope you fellas solve your problems.

Rick