I won't be going near SP3 but some may find this of interest.

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I would keep away until its out of beta.
I cant wait for this thing to go gold though because it will really save a lot of time after reformating a computer.

Sounds like typical MS pos bloat ware. That thing is huge. I am getting a Mac sooner rather than later.

Of course it would cover all the previous patches right? If so it will give me a lot of relief from patching manually

I just read about SP3-beta a couple of days ago on Softpedia.com. Hopefully it's ready by early 2008 as the Softpedia.com article stated.


It's a service pack, so yes it should.

jeez.. that thing is huge...

the next one is probably going to be 1GB+

It will probably include every update ever released to XP. I don't think thats bloatware..

It will be a great update and save lots of time formatting. Shame there is no new features, but its expected since the release of Vista..

OK so Service Pack 3 will include all the updates that have been released since Service Pack 2. So if like me you are running SP2 and keep it fully updated what will Service Pack 3 do for you? I mean you already have all the updates if you are keeping XP updated. Does SP3 just over wright the updates you already have? Unless It has some new feature or security improvements whats the point? It makes sense if you have to reinstall XP SP2 than instead of going to Windows Updates and downloading the 42 million updates that have been released it would be easier to install SP3. When SP2 came out it had a bunch of new features so it made sense to put it in. I will probably wait until I need to redo Windows before installing SP3 I don't see any reason to install it if you are up to date with SP2.

I would imagine you won't be able to avoid the MS Genuine Advantage Notification BS with SP3 either. It will probably be included. I just reject it now every time they try to sneak it in as a critical update.

Agreed. And really in the case of SP3 even if it's 350MB or thereabouts, or nowhere near it - it really doesn't matter because it's a download it once, then immediately burn it to CD-R for future use kind of thing. Anyone worried about the download size shouldn't forget that Microsoft is generally pretty good at offering CD's via snail mail for a small fee to cover the shipping+handling, which will probably be a necessity for people on dial-up whom don't have a friend that could download and burn then a copy.

I am lucky enough to have a fast connection, but it might be a good idea to get SP3 onto a CD, make it easier if you have to reinstall WXP. 350 mb or 42,000,000 updates would take a long time.

Why would some one with XP SP2 fully updated install SP3? If you are fully updated you already have all the updates installed that XP SP3 has. I only see a use for it if I reinstall XP than it 's easier to get it up to date by installing SP3. Is there some major new features like SP2 had?

I agree with you AnthonyA, and also have no reason to think there is anything new in SP3, but will have to wait and see.

But, I am going to get it on CD ASAP in case I ever have to do another reinstall. If SP3 really is a rollup and has all the updates, I might get by with little more than using the originals and that one CD to reinstall.

Like Rridgely, I am going to stay away from SP3 until it is has run a bit.

I was lucky, I use to have dial up, but I got the SP2 CD sent to me for free

Move to Vista. The kernel improvements alone from Windows Server 2008 is enough to justify the benefit this gives to users beyond XP. Not to mention the thousands of improvements elsewhere.

If you use properly optimised drivers, the Vista drivers now are comparable to the XP ones. The early drivers did not have the polish that XP has from naturally years of refinement....but current benchmarks show comparable performance on properly configured Vista systems. To claim that its bloated and slow is to dismiss clear evidence to the contrary.

As for the question of what SP3 does for XP MS has not released that information outside of the small external ms connect group. Its on connect only.

Like with the release of SP2, there are several bug solved in SP3 that have not been released as a normal update, so if you want those bugs solved, then it will be necessary to update to sp3

Agreed! Also I wouldn't doubt if Microsoft at some point phased out updating support on Microsoft Update/Windows Update for SP2 which is really wise in order to get hard headed people to update - it's sort of Borgish "You must comply."

Just like microsoft did already with Windows XP without SP1 and Windows XP with SP1

There is sound technical reasons why MS did the right thing by dropping XP and XP SP1 support. XP SP2 was going to be a new OS but the decision was made for it to be a free SP. Before SP2 XP was a disaster from a number of technical fronts.