The article says: "Even if you install XP without any prior service packs, installing Service Pack 3 brings your system up to date on all security updates.".

But Microsoft says that it's recommended having SP 2 installed prior to installing SP 3, which for me means SP 3 does NOT include SP 2 fixes.

Brian, you can un-install IE7 after XP SP3 but you have to first un-install SP3 and then un-install IE7, thus reversing the order or your installations.

See this blog entry from Jane Maliouta the Deployment PM for IE8:

http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2008/05/05/ie-and-xpsp3.aspx

I installed SP3 almost a week ago and haven't had any problems, but haven't noticed any benefits either. I did try IE8 Beta, I couldn't get that off my machine fast enough & go back to IE7. I don't have problems of any consequence with Firefox3.5 Beta. There are a couple things that don't work quite properly yet. For one, I can't use SpiralFrog in FF3.5, but that's not a big problem.

Brian,

Please please, stop misusing the word "brick".

"Brick" refers to something which renders a device permanently inoperable. Like the updates to the iPhone earlier this year which "bricked" iPhones. They couldn't be used, they couldn't be undone. They became, well, bricks.

By contrast, if an update in XP causes your PC to not boot into Windows, worst case is that you boot your Windows disk, do a repair, and you're back in business.

Calling this "bricked" is like non-technical people saying their "Hard Drive Crashed" when Windows was rendered inoperable.

Does sp3 make the computer run slower? My experience is that every service pack slows down the computer somewhat. If sp3 offers no advantages but slows down the computer, I'd avoid it.

"However, if you already have IE7 on your system when you install Service Pack 3, you will not be able to migrate back to IE6." Just in case I decided to remove IE7 (no problem); install SP3 (no problem); install IE7 (PROBLEM). IE7 just would not install!

I had to remove SP3 (no problem); install IE7 (no problem); install SP3 (no problem).

I wonder if this the "best possible experience" Microsoft were aiming for. I am not aware of Microsoft advising of a limitation.

The real question here is, when do operating systems get to a point of maturity where the majority of users are satisfied with what they do as a tool? There is not a single feature in Vista which I desire, and so the only reason for upgrading is the discontinuation of XP. Imagine if all mechanics refused to work on your car after it was ten years old because they felt you should be supporting the new car market by purchasing a new one. And they wonder why so many people are switching to Mac and Linux. And the hemorrhaging shall continue.

Installed SP3 3 hours ago and have seen no effect +/-.

I rebuilt my system from scratch using SP3 along with the limited set of software I typically use. The system is unusually more responsive than pre-SP3. A bit surprising since the operating system hasn't had a whole lot of time to self optimize yet, something Windows XP does while idle, and which is helped along by running disk defrag often the first few days (bi-weekly there after).

It was also quite pleasant to visit Microsoft Update to find only a few critical updates to install. It was also nice to find that Windows Installer 3.1 and the latest version of MSXML6 are included in SP3.

I've read elsewhere that installing SP3 regardless of a rebuild can increase system performance. Add a clean rebuild and the result is even better! All my applications "snap" open. The system is VERY responsive and stable!

As Brian mentions, your results may vary. But, IMO, a lot of it depends on how well you've maintained your system(s). As in minimizing the software installed on a system, keeping device drivers current, and performing regular maintenance. Also, be sure to backup your data BEFORE installing any new piece of software!

Important: The only way to install Service Pack 3 on MacBook Pro machines running Windows XP under Parallels is to download the CD Image File. Windows Update fails to complete the update every time.

There are additional issues installing XP3 under Bootcamp as well. You must upgrade Bootcamp first.

No surprise here given the rancor between Apple and Microsoft.

From the M$ WinXP SP3 prerequisites page: "Windows XP SP3 cannot be installed if you have the following updates installed on your computer."

Gah. Any update that requires the user to manually uninstall previously installed updates is questionable, imho.

Already had one failed installation on a relatively generic and uncluttered laptop. Several other types of machines to test in the near-term. Sometimes being an early adopter is associated with pain. :/

THW2001 -- Not true. I actually downloaded and installed SP3 on a Win XP install under Parallels on a Macbook Pro yesterday via Windows Update and it went fine.

"...there's a -chance- it could bork my machine... I believe that -chance- is minimal..."

When it gets down to zero point something, I'll "chance" it, thanks.

.

I installed SP3 on my XP machine yesterday. The result was that XP wouldn't reboot. Luckily, it would load in Safe Mood and then system restore got it back to pre-SP3 condition. (but what's a couple of hours wasted?) Since I've been fairly happy with XP (and with Microsoft it doesn't get better than that) I'll stay away from SP3, especially since nobody seems to know what it does and Microsoft's information is a marvel of useless gobbledeguk.

Does Microsoft plan to issue XP Service Pack 3 on CD? They issued Service Pack 2 on CD and made it available at no charge. The article "How to obtain the latest Windows XP service pack" (article ID 322389) only mentions Windows Update or the Microsoft Download Center. Thank you.

I installed SP3 on a MacBook Pro's BootCamp partition last night and had no issues, but installation on an iMac with an attached FireWire drive was problematic. In particular, rebooting the machine with the drive attached led to a hang at the Windows XP progress screen - the little blue bar kept running indefinitely with no movement to the log in screen. Shutting down the machine, disconnecting the drive, and then booting into Windows again worked fine. If I reconnected the drive after login, though, Drive Management wouldn't load and the drive itself was noted with a question mark in Device Manager. Thankfully, I mainly use my drive for Time Machine in OS X, but I hope MS offers a patch to fix this issue. (And I've found two other posts on MS Technet that reflect the same problem - I guess FireWire drives and SP3 don't play well together.)

Installed SP3 last night. Working very well with no problems. The download and install was clean and easy.

@Eponymous: Actually, auto mechanics do this, in a way. At some point, parts become impossible to find for your car and it is no longer serviceable. That's the analog to MS discontinuing support for Windows XP.

Sure, you can always have a good mechanic machine new parts and implement workarounds for parts that are no longer available from the manufacturer. In the software world, that's called a third-party support contract, and you can get one from Microsoft who will continue to support YOU -- just not everybody else. I'm sure you can also find some other software support company who is willing to maintain Windows XP machines after MS is done supporting them.

I downloaded Sp3 today.I will be doing a clean install of Xp Pro.I have the Sp2 version already.I fired up Nlite 1.45b2 & did a slipstream, I will be integrating IE 7,Windows Media Player 11,my monitor driver & Dotnet 1.1 & 2.0 into the install. I highly recommend Nlite if you really want a great custom disk.No reason to stay with IE6, 7 is more secure,but I too prefer Firefox.Xp has IE7 WMP 11 & Windows Defender. I do not need Vista's Aero Glass,DRM, & UAC.After all this I will image my hard drive,& never have to go through this again.

Windows update offered it to me today and I accepted... BIG mistake. PC won't boot, won't restore to last good config. Safe mode appears to be starting up and I'm crossing my fingers. I'm a techie PC for a living - this is NOT ready for the general user.

I was forced to do a system restore after installing Windows XP service pack 3. Note that the "restore to last good config" option didn't work for me so I had to dust off my knowledge on how to use system restores...

I tried again, this time turning off all programs including firewall, anti-virus, etc.

Same problem occurred.

I tried one more time after I first upgraded my NVIDIA driver to the latest version just in case my old version was giving the service pack troubles. (I was
grasping at straws here.)

Same problem occurred again.

I'm not a happy camper.

Eric Klien
http://lifeboat.com

I installed SP3 last night. No problem except that bluetooth stopped working. I updated the bluetooth driver, (still complained Microsoft logo problem) and the problem was gone.

I learned my lesson with SP1 which seriously screwed up our PC. Thanks, Brian, for the heads up. I'll wait a while before installing SP3. In the meantime, I'll enjoy using my new MacBook.

a

I have some interesting happenings with attempting to merely download this update. First, I have no idea when the download is actually complete via Windows Updates window because it hangs at 0%.. it could be downloaded in the background and then already started installing. When I attempt to download, all of the XP OS freezes and I can't really click on anything or get the start bar up so I can End Task on this process. I can't even select Run.. Taskmgr. Not even Ctrl+Alt+Del will bring it up. Windows on the screen turn blank, others frozen. At one point, my mouse pointer froze. I heard no action from the harddrive.

After I had given up trying to merely download Service Pack 3, I opened up Yahoo Music JukeBox and it wouldn't allow me to play anything, saying "Your DRM license database is corrupt" or something. It was mandatory that I download WMP 11 and copy some .dll file from %systemroot%\system32\dllcache and paste it in %systemroot%\system32\wbem, overwriting the file there. I was then able to operate YME (yahoo music engine as normal). Something in this update caused this because my other pc's have WMP 10 still and I didn't experience that - I did not try downloading SP3 onto those machines.

I'm thinking something is wrong with the download process and it's actually trying to install something without updating the download progress bar or advancing to an actual installation progress screen. Either way, when the balloon pops up on that yellow shield on the system tray, it says you can continue to working while updates are installed. NOPE. It freezes everything. For the first time in years, I was stupid this time and did not save my current work in a particular program, and decided to do this update before saving. I lost that progress...

Here's another problem I experienced after attempting the download/installation. For a while tonight, my internet connection appeared to be totally disconnected. Nothing was able to communicate via IE or messengers or even FTP. However, and get this... Automatic Updates was still able to function and pop up a balloon asking me to update. What the hell, I thought - I clicked it and started the process to download again and it still did the same locking up of my system. I had to do another hard reboot at the reset button on my tower. I've wasted too much business time to deal with these things. What enticed me is the reviews by the very few people whom claim it sped up their pc. Don't fall for this hype as it could potentially be people at Microsoft trying to get us to install something we're not aware of.

I find it pecuiliar about the Yahoo music engine's DRM database becoming corrupt after attempting this SP3 update. As far as I'm concerned, Microsoft and Yahoo are enemies. Biz owners, don't mess with this. Let the consumers mess their pc's up instead.

I'm still confused even after reading this article. If SP3 is just a collection of previously issued security updates and a few changes that "do not significantly change customers' experience," why bother releasing a new service pack at all?

Is there really nothing more important that MS software engineers and testers could have been doing instead?

Same problem as Eric and others. System was up to date and displaying no problems. After installing SP-3, I could only boot in Safe Mode. PC would not restore to last good config from Safe Mode start screen and would not System Restore from Accessories Programs. PC is in the shop one day and counting. It is not as if this event was imposed by a third party or the result of an illadvised hack. Microsoft has an affirmative obligation to strighten out this mess, if not pay to repair machines, regardless of what we "Agree" ed to in the install.

Installed SP3 and patiently left computer alone [no clicking-around] while it downloaded and installed...about 20 minutes. Had to uninstall and re-install Norton System Works and AntiVirus. Ran de-frag. No problems other than with Norton.

I also had problems as Eric, Bob, and others. After installing SP3 the PC would not boot except on safe mode. Instead of a system restore, I uninstalled SP3. I keep my machine updated, drivers and all, so I wonder what the problem was. I may retry it in a few days.

@Eric
I couldn't reboot after installing SP3, but I could choose to boot into safe mode. If you're queasy about how to use system restore, a simple option is to click on Start, then control panel, then add/remove programs, and then look for XP service pack 3 on the list. It can be removed from there to roll back your machine. This worked smoothly for me and brought my machine back nicely.

After an age downloading SP3 onto my Dell, ran Ccleaner to clean up any crud,then tried to do my weekly full norton scan in safe mode, oh dear BSOD, i need new Bios and now norton says i have a keylogger in ctfmon.exe Nothing new under the sun! now where's the red wine.

My system would not reboot after service pack 3 on a fresh install, only motherboard drivers loaded, would not go back to best known config, or into safe mode, and a repair has failed also. Have to start again. Be sure to create a restore point before installing this service pack.

boy, am i glad i read all these comments before downloading service pack 3. i just bought an xp emachine because of all the trouble i've been having with my vista machine [a reconstructed xp from compuserve; you can't get xp in new machines anymore.] i was going to install service pack 3 - if it's not already in there - but will now stay with whatever it already has. that xp baby is running nicely and - as they say - if it ain't broke don't fix it.

Try reading the Microsoft info page before whining. I quote:

"Service packs are cumulative. This means that the problems that are fixed in a service pack are also fixed in later service packs. For example, Windows XP SP3 contains all the fixes that are included in Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2)."

Installed sp3 yesterday. Fell asleep waiting for it to install. Woke up in the morning and my pc had shut down (obviously not a good sign). Tried to reboot. PC wasn't having any of that, so booted into safe mode and did a system restore. Everything is back to normal. But now whenever I see references to sp3 I make a crucifix with my fingers and yell, "witch!"

Same problem. Installed xp sp3. My maching went into a perpetual reboot. I had to boot in safe mode and unistall sp3. Somethings wrong here.

Baaaaaaaa,
What does your comment have to do with anything????

As for SP3 , like others have said."if it aint broke dont fix it"
Why would anyone in there right mind want to put themselves through greef and agrivation for no good reason?

Installed SP3 and spent the next 2 hours trying to get my system restore to work and finally get my computer functional again.

The DEP was calling my services.exe microsoft file a threat and closing it. Every time it closed, it popped up a new message saying that the services.exe file was closed unexpectedly and I would have to reboot. No matter what user I used to log in, it gave me the same message. I'll wait until they fix the service pack before I risk my PC again.

Had the same problem as ponnan. Had to stop svchost because it was eating up 100 percent cpu. The had to reinstall automatic updates uses commands from this site, here is the link: http://www.amset.info/windows/auto-updates.asp#Reset-Automatic-Updates

After this everything went smooth as can be. Only took me 4 hours to figure the problem out. No more service packs please.

I installed SP3 on a clean machine. Recently reformatted HD and reinstalled Windows XP Pro and Office 2007 a week ago. No immediate problems were evident after installing SP3, but this morning I switched on PC and Outlook Express won't work. I tried restoring to an earlier point, but no difference. I tried closing down firewalls etc. but still no luck. OE opens after a fresh reboot but fails on receive and send, but thereafter won't open again, until rebooting. So 3 hours lost already and no emails.Some settings obviously changed, but can't find which ones.

I'm glad I found this site and read about the problems most everyone seems to be having with Service Pack 3.

I was about to install it the other night, but canceled it at the last minute. Now I'm so glad I decided not to install it.

I have a question though, if I don't install Service Pack 3, will I continue to get future Service Pack 2 security updates or no? Thanks.

I haven't seen any mention of this, so does anyone know if MS will still be providing security updates for Win XP SP2? Or will XP SP3 be the only XP they will update from here on out?

Ubuntu Linux. It's free and it's stable.
Currently using 7.10 looking at 8.04LTS
www.ubuntu.com.

I'm so ::beeping:: enraged right now, I wana fly up to Redmond and start kicking engineers and decision makers right in the nuts, one by one...

My Dell XPS also failed to boot after the download and installation of SP3. I could not even get to "safe mode." I had to ultimately boot using my original operating system CD (after changing the book sequence in the BIOS) and use the recovery console to "repair" the damage. I eventually got the PC to boot and now it seems stable using SP3. I've decided to continue using SP3 rather than returning to SP2 using a past restore point.

From what I gather, a lot of "early adopters" are having severe issues with this service pack. I've advised my staff and friends to defer updating to SP3 for a few weeks.

Regarding problems with Norton and XP SP3: Buried in the Symantec / Norton knowledge base is the helpful tidbit that you need to go to Norton's antivirus options panel and temporarily UNCHECK the "turn protection on for my Symantec product" in order for XP service pack 3 to install. The instruction is listed for Norton 2006 products, but it might apply to other years...

FYI...XP SP2 support expires 13-Jul-2010

http://support.microsoft.com/gp/lifesupsps

"The Microsoft Support Lifecycle policy requires that the product's supported service pack be installed to continue to receive support (including security updates)."

Everyone who has problems after installing SP3, please read :
http://msinfluentials.com/blogs/jesper/archive/2008/05/08/does-your-amd-based-computer-boot-after-installing-xp-sp3.aspx

Anyone who has problems after installing
SP3, please read this :

http://tinyurl.com/6zs52d

Good Luck.

After installing SP3 my machine went into an endless reboot...I did a system restore and am back to last nights config...STAY AWAY FROM IT...

I'm having the same problems as Jason and ponnan. I was reading about this on a tech help forum and it seemed like everyone who was experiencing the problem is also using CA Antivirus, leading a few people to assume it's an incompatibility with CA. It wouldn't be the first time - an update a few months ago had CA identifying Messenger as a virus!

For now I've just disabled Windows Automatic Updates, since despite these two incidents I'd rather not deal with changing security software and I'm hoping that it won't be long before CA gives us a fix for the problem.

I don't know if this will help but I recently had a computer crash and burn.

To fix this I formatted the drive, reinstalled XPPro SP2 and the software I use then I joined DriverMagic and had all my drivers updated to the most recent versions. I had IE6 installed.

Then I installed SP3 and IE7 after that and it went very well and the computer is running great.

I had a problem with it not being able to do updates after the install but that problem was fixed by registering Wups2.dll.

I have no idea but could it be that sp3 requires the latest driver updates prior to it's install?

For me SP3 has been a worthwhile update.

Gary O'Connor.

I don't know if this will help but I recently had a computer crash and burn.

To fix this I formatted the drive, reinstalled XPPro SP2 and the software I use then I joined DriverMagic and had all my drivers updated to the most recent versions. I had IE6 installed.

Then I installed SP3 and IE7 after that and it went very well and the computer is running great.

I had a problem with it not being able to do updates after the install but that problem was fixed by registering Wups2.dll.

I have no idea but could it be that sp3 requires the latest driver updates prior to it's install?

For me SP3 has been a worthwhile update.

Gary O'Connor.

I don't know if this will help but I recently had a computer crash and burn.

To fix this I formatted the drive, reinstalled XPPro SP2 and the software I use then I joined DriverMagic and had all my drivers updated to the most recent versions. I had IE6 installed.

Then I installed SP3 and IE7 after that and it went very well and the computer is running great.

I had a problem with it not being able to do updates after the install but that problem was fixed by registering Wups2.dll.

I have no idea but could it be that sp3 requires the latest driver updates prior to it's install?

For me SP3 has been a worthwhile update.

Gary O'Connor.

The article mentions that if you are running MSIE 7 and then install SP3, you will not be able to revert to IE 6.

IMNSHO, that is a good thing. No one should be using IE 6 any more.

If you must use MSIE (and you probably must for a few non-standard sites that don't play nicely with Firefox), IE 7 is the one you should use.

The article mentions that if you are running MSIE 7 and then install SP3, you will not be able to revert to IE 6.

IMNSHO, that is a good thing. No one should be using IE 6 any more.

If you must use MSIE (and you probably must for a few non-standard sites that don't play nicely with Firefox), IE 7 is the one you should use.

XP SP3 did a few annoying things to my system, some major some minor. I have now reverted back to a SP2 partition using ghost.
1. Firewire disc drives worked but just hardly. I physically had to plug in the FW cable after the pc boots and the desktop is ready to use the FW drives. Ohterise Windows didn't load. To shut the pc down gracefully I needed to remove the drives using 'Safely Remove Hardware'. Otherwise it hangs on shutdown with active FW drives online
2. MMC gave an error message when using Executive Softare Diskeeper. The error was minor as there was no drop dead effect.
3. My Nero INCD.exe broke but I found an online fix.
4. I could not use Windows update with IE7 and SP3. It hung. Now back with XP SP2, I can access Windows update, which now recommends SP3, and no SP2 updates which under calm times is unusual. Uh oh, is this the end of SP2 updates, due to cost saving measures on somebody's part.

My system is only a month old and I selected to install XP to avoid the cost of Vista software and other Vista annoyances. Hope my XP selection was a good one.

Even after waiting for the dust to settle before downloading SP3, I had 2 sequential fiascos which required (1) a safe mode system restore (after the "last good" option bombed), and (2) a safe mode - remove SP3 option which then crashed and required a restart. Hours later!

Worst of all, even though I faithfully followed the MS advice you directed us to, the MS admonition to make sure prior SP2 installation would make for smooth installation of SP3 offered no protection whatever.

I would like to hear who else has been duped by this worthless assurance.

Even after waiting for the dust to settle before downloading SP3, I endured 2 sequential fiascos which required (1) a safe mode system restore (after the "last good" option bombed), and (2) a safe mode - remove SP3 option which then crashed and required a restart. Hours later!

Worst of all, even though I faithfully followed the MS advice you directed us to, the MS admonition to make sure prior SP2 installation would make for smooth installation of SP3 offered no protection whatever.

I would like to hear who else has been duped by this worthless MS assurance!

After I installed SP3 in Windows XP home edition, my Windows Media Player 10 (I don't like 11) crashes every 15-20 minutes ! It torture my brain very much !
Could someone please help me ? :(

Wow. What a good thing Microsoft are behind this product. Otherwise all the Microsofties would have to migrate to OS X or Linux and be safe.

After install SP 3, my computer is rebooting without stopping. Until now it's impossible to access to Windows...
Forget SP3, at least for now

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