Submitted by After being released to manufacturing last week, SP3 for XP is now available as either a standalone installer (direct download link) or at Windows Update. PC Magazine has coverage of the new service pack, including launch details, a hands-on review, slideshows, and expert tips.
It seems a task for me tomorrow is installing this on test systems to ensure it doesn’t break our software… fun
If it does, our clients will not be happy bunnies. As we all know if an MS update breaks a piece of software then its not Microsoft’s fault its the software maker…
Edit: this is assuming it was like SP2 was
Edited 2008-04-29 16:47 UTC
Microsoft goes to a great lengths to ensure compatibility and the Service Pack 3 has been available in various beta and release candidate versions for a long time. How about putting some pressure on other software vendors?
Having said that, good luck.
Edited 2008-04-29 16:57 UTC
Having said that, I’m reading reviews all over about reboot loops, crashes, problems with open source apps, problem writing to the registry, uninstalls after long installs, and more.
So buyer beware.
Yep, yep, yep…
+1 me on reboot statistics…
When I saw the first betas I thought “better wait for a FINAL”…
And yes, Im naive.
*shakes his fist and mumbles something about Server 2003*
Well it appears that Microsoft has found a ¨glitch¨ in one of their own products per CNet.
http://www.news.com/8301-13860_3-9931343-56.html?tag=nefd.lede
Ouch!
yes gonzo, teo do a great length of testing, giving away the RC’s to people who only want to have the latest an greatest. Not to in fact test the software.
Add the mentioned glitch and there you go — they have trouble getting software to work.
Not exactly enterprise class work and that is exactly the reason every system integrator tests the software before release.
We all know that MS has bitten us many times.
Have you ever done software testing? As in beyond ‘Hello world’? Its a long an slow process which has to be done properly.
I have tested against RC1 which due to the size of our software was no small task! Just because I tested against an RC does not mean I now don’t have to against the final version! I have to start again, from scratch.
All RC1 was good at showing me was that our software didnt require a rewrite (for that release)
XP SP2 wasn’t really a service pack, it was pretty much a major revision. SP3 is pretty much a patch rollup, and some backported stuff from vista, so it should be closer to a normal MS service pack.
I must be going crazy or I’ve gone blind or something, I still can’t see SP3 in either Download Center, nor Windows Update despite all sites claiming it’s there.
Edit: Yes, the direct link works, just to be clear.
Edited 2008-04-29 17:23 UTC
It said “Installation Completed successfully, press finish to restart”
I think I didnt read the small letters where it was saying:
“And dont come back EVER… [evil-laugh]MHUAHUAHUA[/evil-laugh]”
(Writing from linux)
I don’t understand why Microsoft is releasing Service Pack 3 now for XP considering that they won’t be offering the product (XP) after June,
if they released it a year ago or so i’d understand but now ??? two months before XP’s EOL…. odd
cheers
anyweb
They will be providing full support ending sometime in 2009, and “OMG huge security hole!” patches until 2014.
So it makes perfect sense that they release a SP3 for XP.
The idea that SP3 will hurt Vista adoption is true, but if someone decides not to install Vista, and install XPSP3 instead, that doesn’t hurt Microsoft a whole lot.
And before 2014 you can expect to see a Service Pack 4 or ala 2k – a large security rollup package.
Edited 2008-04-29 19:56 UTC
Because you paid for the original XP and you expect them to maintain it and update it until end of support.
[In french] :
http://www.01net.com/editorial/379148/le-sp3-de-windows-xp-rate-sa-…
Google translation :
http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fww…
attempted to install on my macbook pro, it runs then fails saying there isn’t enough room…
I’ve got 30 gigs free on my C Drive… how much freakin’ room does it need?
Make sure you install Apple’s latest Boot Camp. Version 2.1 was released recently to make SP3 work. Here’s the link: http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/bootcampupdate21forwindowsxp… I hope that helps.
Thanks! Worked perfect post update…
Still not there.. please remove this article until it’s actually there and can be found on MS’ website!
Microsoft Delays XP SP3 Once Again :
http://www.crn.com/software/207403064
I have been using it for a while (since msdn release) and I must say that the update went smoothly on all workstations. So simple and so easy. No hardware or software complains. I must say that this update is not as aggressive as SP2 in terms of features.
XP feels “snappier” after this update.
That’s called a placebo effect.
or may be you need to stop taking any pills you’re on and pay a little bit more attention. instead of being a l33t0 placebo boy who runs fancy linux ubber luvver disto
Taken from ars
“There are reportedly 1,073 fixes in SP3, as well as various performance improvements. ”
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080429-microsoft-releases-th…
Edited 2008-04-30 02:12 UTC
Microsoft say that all the time. Every new version of Windows is advertised as “faster”, but they are invariably slower, except maybe in a few specific tasks which they use for marketing effect.
Having said that, there were some reports of SP3 having some noticeable speed improvements when the first betas began to appear, but having not heard anything since, I will wait until we see some independent benchmarks.
Ars said that not Microsoft.
http://arstechnica.com/journals/microsoft.ars/2007/11/26/windows-xp…
I guess you didnt read my post til the end.
Hmmmm, no. They’re repeating the Microsoft strap line that they put in all service pack blurbs.
Repeating some anecdotal and totally unverifiable observations from a bunch of bloggers means about as much as the initial comment you made. Unless they can explain what caused that supposed performance improvement, on one pretty meaningless benchmark, then it means zip.
Blah, blah, blah, blah. You do know what placebo means right? Or are you just taking other peoples’ words for the sake of it?
Which one, specifically, makes Windows XP ‘snappier’? The ‘various performance improvements’ strap line is wheeled out for every release and service pack. It doesn’t make Windows XP automagically faster.
Edited 2008-04-30 17:34 UTC
I downloaded SP3 at 2:45 PM today, April 29, 2008, from the direct link given above. I saved it to my C: drive and run the installer. I had it installed and running by 3:30 PM. When the installer was done running, I had to restart the system just once. That was it! Everything is up and running without a problem.
What can I say… it just works
(phew)
Kidding aside, it took a long, long time to install on my laptop (so long that I just left my pc last night and went to bed), but apparently it installed just fine. I haven’t noticed any hiccups yet (crossing my fingers, though).
Same here, it took ages to install, and one reboot and it seemed fine.
It does use 320mb now just to run xfire, avast, and taskmanager.
There is a bit of disk thrashing too when the machine is not actually doing anything…..
I dont know what it is doing yet as I cannot find any processes that seem to be doing things.
Overall my first impression is that it has not hurt yet, but I am eyeing it with caution.
I don’t find it listed in my Windows Update – seems that it has been released only for a part of Windows XP users. However, thanks for the direct download link – I’ll be trying it out shortly.
The update was really smooth, and didn’t take as much time as I was expecting. Good job, Microsoft (and this is coming from a die-hard linux user).
Thanks OSNews for the direct download link
Doesn’t seem to be on Windows Update site yet
Got a warning that installation failed, and that it was rolling back; after that, it said that the rollback failed, and that my system may become unstable. Then it rebooted on its own.
It did come back up though, and seemed to be fine. No SP3 though.
Interesting; the RC release ran fine under a VM, but obviously something quirky with the Thinkpad’s hardware threw it off.
Bummer, it ran quite fast under the VM. And yes, there’s definitely a noticeable speed difference between SP2 and SP3…..it’s not a placebo effect.
X64 sp3 will not be released until June.
No word on when or if sp3 will be released for IA64 XP. I doubt anyone is looking for that one though.