By Justin Mann, TechSpot.com Published: May 9, 2008, 2:00 PM EST
With more and more users having access to Windows XP SP3, what is the story of their experience? A horror story, it seems, with many users complaining of numerous issues post-install. The problems range from random blue-screens and reboots to crashes to issues with external storage and outright failed installs. This story isn't unique, with just about every service pack release causing havoc in some fashion or another. If you recall the releases of Vista SP1, XP SP2, XP SP1 and even further back, every service pack release has had some serious growing pains. There are no specific figures as to how widespread the issues are, but as they are discovered there will be more information on how to avoid having problems when upgrading.
The issues usually stem from trying to upgrade machines already in service, rather than installing it on new machines. Of course, the majority of people out there are not going to wipe their machines just to use SP3. One interesting note is SP3's refusal to install if you have any beta of IE8 installed. As these issues are tracked down, hopefully Microsoft will work to resolve them.
Everybody should know to NEVER install any MS upgrade on top of an existing MS OS. That has been the law since Win98. I have SP3 installed on a new drive and it is rock solid.
XP SP3 "Clean Install" Improved Performance
'Installed XP SP3 (RC2 v3311 from hotfix.com)
after a "clean Install" and it seemed to improve
performance (memory/pagefile mgt and filekeeping/defragment).
Only problem found: SP3 would not allow install of my
previous hotfixes for DVD-RW opening in XP-Explorer.
It was great to have no Windows Updates (1/10/08).
SOOOO...why install SP3 if the updates are up-to-date ?
I installed SP3 on an already in use install of SP2 and had no problems with it, I have been using it since April 30.
Although I installed a RC of SP3 onto an old crappy computer at my education facility and was having problems with the USB, nothing would work in USB ports. The computers only had USB 1.1. Just rolled the computer back to SP2.
quote: Everybody should know to NEVER install any MS upgrade on top of an existing MS OS. That has been the law since Win98. I have SP3 installed on a new drive and it is rock solid.
My computer asked me if I wanted to do the latest patch, SP3 and when I clicked OK, it went away, never to be seen again. Guess I never got the chance to experience the latest "upgrade". Also, nothing beats a 'clean XP install', except you use up an activation. And I am fresh out of activations! If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
I was about due for a spring clean reinstall, so I burned a slipstreamed XP SP3 CD and reinstalled the OS. So far no issues whatsoever. My rig might be a tad quicker, but if it is it's negligable. I still had to reboot and install updates 3 or 4 times though. Hanging in there for Windows7 LOL
XP SP3 is just a consolidation of all the updates we have been installing from Windows Update all along. A clean install of XP SP2 has over 100 Windows Critical Updates available, OR install SP3 and then there are only a few remaining.
I'm just as ready as the next geek to crack on the Borg, but in this case there is hardly any real evidence of negative issues. Vista has turned out to be such a big blunder (shades of "ME") that they released a final rollup of all the patches for XP, which no matter how you slice it is still way better than Vista.
The only issue I have had is that SP3 automatically installs the sucky "new" RDP client which was previously an optional update. Fortunately I saved the $uninstall directory for that particular update which when you run (A COPY OF IT) rolls back to the original RDP client no problem.
I sure hope anyone experiencing blue screening is for some other reason(s) than just installing XP SP3. I've seen no problems in dozens of instances but it hasn't been that long.
So stop scaring people or come up with some solid cause & effect (running a beta of IE8 sounds like an ill-advised logical reason to have an issue). [Edited by compugor on 2008-05-10 06:38:44]
I've upgraded several computers and only 1 that had a problem installing. But some googling and I fixed the problem and it installed fine. I like that you can apply SP3 without having Sp1 or Sp2 installed.
It seems like a basic upgrade to me..Systems do seema bit zipper to me..No noticed slowdowns.
The post by compugor on May 10, 2008 at 6:35 AM
"XP SP3 is just a consolidation of all the updates we have been installing from Windows Update all along. A clean install of XP SP2 has over 100 Windows Critical Updates available, OR install SP3 and then there are only a few remaining. "
This leads me to ask a question about the 100 or so updates and Hotfixes I find listed in the Settings/Programs list. Can all those be removed? Does XP SP3 include and replace all those entries?
quote: I was about due for a spring clean reinstall, so I burned a slipstreamed XP SP3 CD and reinstalled the OS. So far no issues whatsoever. My rig might be a tad quicker, but if it is it's negligable. I still had to reboot and install updates 3 or 4 times though. Hanging in there for Windows7 LOL
How about using linux instead? I heard it was free forever.
Figures... Maybe with all the money they withdrew for Yahoo, they can use it for something useful like ... oh ... I don't know ... maybe make a operating system that actually WORKS!
Well, on my two XP notebooks and one XP desktop, all attempts to install XP3 have failed. The common reason is that ntloader.exe is running. I've tried Safe Mode, but no joy. I'll just wait until Microsoft gets its act together in six months and issues an update that works. XP on all of my computers works well now, and I'm not in the mood to help Microsoft with their user-based quality control and quality assurance programs.
Microsoft is old, stale news. I suspect in five years, the world's computer users will install any OS to prevent Microsoft from poisoning their computing experiences with a current edition of the Windows abortion.
Never, ever, ever upgrades the OS. That's will be your worst nightmare in few months.
honestly, i've never had issues installing service packs on a well maintained pc. if you've tweaked core components of xp and failed during an upgrade, what did you expect? y scare ppl into thinking it's impossible to upgrade?
quote: The post by compugor on May 10, 2008 at 6:35 AM
"XP SP3 is just a consolidation of all the updates we have been installing from Windows Update all along. A clean install of XP SP2 has over 100 Windows Critical Updates available, OR install SP3 and then there are only a few remaining. "
This leads me to ask a question about the 100 or so updates and Hotfixes I find listed in the Settings/Programs list. Can all those be removed? Does XP SP3 include and replace all those entries?
i only see the one entry for Windows xp sp3 in add/remove programs. it seems to have done what you thought it would. other than the .net frameworks and a couple other miscellaneous entries for microsoft, i think the sp3 entry is the cumulative fix that encompasses them all. (the only option is Remove)
With more and more users having access to Windows XP SP3, what is the story of their experience? A horror story, it seems, with many users complaining 
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