service pack 3

service pack 3 is ready to download for XP

Hi Wickens ... did you happen to click on the warning messages regarding installing SP3? The requirements and warnings etc are almost as big as the Service pack (which is over 66 Meg for those that want to know).

I will be waiting to see how many bugs it creates and if there is many fixes included. Most of SP3 is a rollup of all the past fixes they have put out, so most are probably already installed on your XP computers.

Howard (Rustee)

the only thing is a minor error starting up, we only have XP my laptop and my wifes computer mine has Vista i love it much better than XP

Will have to try installing the SP alone. Slipstreamed it into an XP Service Pack 2 disk and it installed no problem.

So ...having risen at the crack of pre-dawn with nothing to do...I went about installing SP 3. Things were going great...then at the Stage of "Finishing Installation"...Details"Running processes after install." A box popped up "Windows cannot find reg.exe. etc etc etc
that was the end of that... I rebooted. Wizard de-installer took over and the rest is history. The SP3 components were uninstalled and everyhing returned to the restore point.... I think. Used all the cleaning tools after that as well and everything is ok. Meantime, Howard, I'm going to be calling you SOON to instal this on my computer when the time comes.
Did I mention the whole process took me 2 hours?

...Tried it for shits n giggles on a test install... wasn't too painfull... no worse than SP1 when it first came out. It's all good MS's crap's days are numbered...for me anyway, tooling up for a Linux overhaul here...server, PC's all of them. If MS can't get it right after all these years with half baked O/S's, then I will use one that does have it together, even if it is a bit of work.

Jonas wrote:

So ...having risen at the crack of pre-dawn with nothing to do...I went about installing SP 3. Things were going great...then at the Stage of "Finishing Installation"...Details"Running processes after install." A box popped up "Windows cannot find reg.exe. etc etc etc
that was the end of that... I rebooted. Wizard de-installer took over and the rest is history. The SP3 components were uninstalled and everyhing returned to the restore point.... I think. Used all the cleaning tools after that as well and everything is ok. Meantime, Howard, I'm going to be calling you SOON to instal this on my computer when the time comes.
Did I mention the whole process took me 2 hours?

Mine almost did the same thing. It just stalled at the "Running processes after install" spot. What you have to do is Download this
Windows XP Service Pack 3 Network Installation Package for IT Professionals and Developers. Then restart Windows in Safe mode, run the program that you downloaded and it will install fine.

Microsoft isn’t halting Windows XP Service Pack (SP) 3 distribution — so far, at least — in spite of endless-reboot problems reported by AMD-based PC customers, a company spokeswoman said on May 9.

Reports of the reboot problem are cropping up on Microsoft forums and other sites across the Web. Microsoft resumed Windows Update delivery of XP SP3 this week, after temporarily halting its distribution due to an incompatibility involving SP3 and Microsoft’s Retail Management System (RMS).

Microsoft Security Most Valuable Professional (MVP) Jesper Johansson blogged about the SP3 reboot problem on May 8. He has been posting to his blog workarounds for both AMD systems and Intel ones that are affected by the SP 3 problem. My ZDNet blogging colleague Adrian Kinglsey-Hughes also has suggestions of steps cusotmers can take before installing XP Sp3 to potentially avoid installation problems.

This isn’t the first time that a Microsoft service pack caused reboot problems. A Vista SP1 pre-requisite caused endless-reboot problems for some customers, resulting in Microsoft’s temporary suspension of the downloads of that update.

Microsoft is telling XP SP3 customers who encounter installation problems to contact customer support.

“Microsoft is aware of these (SP3) issues and is investigating them further,” the spokeswoman told me on Friday May 9. “We will keep customers informed of the progress.”