Windows XP SP3 RC (Beta)

[The Unknown Gomer]

Anyone out there brave enough to test drive the new Service Pack 3 for Windows XP yet? It's still a beta release, but it IS now available for download form the MS website for those souls brave enough to put their PCs at risk to try it.

Anyone here fall under that category?

[middletree]

At work, we have lots of extra machines, so I can try things without risking my own PC. Having said that, I have not tried Sp3 yet. The reviews are glowing, though. It seems that XP SP3 is everything that Vista should have been.

[lilmikey]

Will it work on the Home Edition?

[The Unknown Gomer]

I think so.

Contemplating installing it on my laptop, since that one came with SP2 already installed on when I got it. And if something goes wrong, since this is still a beta release, there's less stuff on the laptop if I have to restore it back to its factory settings. Plus it's not my primary PC.

My PC is stuck back on SP1, so I wonder if it would even take SP3 at this point. It HAD SP2, but I had a program conflict with it so I uninstalled it, and then when I tried to re-install it (because Netflix has to have SP2 to play back their instant viewing movies) it didn't want to reinstall because I didn't have the proper permissions to put it back on. :rolleyes: I've since found the registry fix at the MS site, but haven't been in any rush to do so, since as soon as I do, I lose that program again. At least THIS way, I've got the program on my PC, and still have Instant Viewing capability on the laptop.

I'll probably just wait until they officially release a "stable" non-beta version, and even then hold off until they find all the NEW bugs that weren't found during beta testing.

[Sam!]

According to the Microsoft docs, SP3 will work on any flavor of XP and it's cumulative, so you could install it directly on top of a Windows XP Media Center Edition Service Pack 1 if you wanted (for example). Home, Pro, Media... original, SP1, SP2... doesn't matter.

Just a quick look didn't reveal anything that would really impact me except MAYBE WPA2 which I could then enable, but I may go ahead and try it out.

[middletree]

According to reviews, it's much faster, so that is a good reason right there.

[mat1583]

Vista has seemed like a big flop for Microsoft. I'm surprised I haven't seen as much uproar about it than I have. Maybe I'm just not reading in the right places. It's bad enough that some PC manufacturers are going back to shipping with XP instead of Vista. I'll be happy to install SP3 when it goes non-beta.

-washboard

[Andi]

Vista has seemed like a big flop for Microsoft. I'm surprised I haven't seen as much uproar about it than I have. Maybe I'm just not reading in the right places. It's bad enough that some PC manufacturers are going back to shipping with XP instead of Vista. I'll be happy to install SP3 when it goes non-beta.

-washboard


Not to derail.....but I just bought a new computer with Vista, and I am very pleased with it. My other computer has XPsp2 and I liked that as well. But so far - I am really liking Vista better.

[middletree]

Not to derail.....but I just bought a new computer with Vista, and I am very pleased with it. My other computer has XPsp2 and I liked that as well. But so far - I am really liking Vista better.

As long as you have a sound card, you're in a better situation.

When a tech person like me criticizes Vista, it's not the way it looks or works. That's fine. But my problem with it is that it is such a huge RAM hog that it slows everything else down. If you are not into some RAM-intensive applications, you probably don't notice it, but I sure do.

[Andi]

As long as you have a sound card, you're in a better situation.

When a tech person like me criticizes Vista, it's not the way it looks or works. That's fine. But my problem with it is that it is such a huge RAM hog that it slows everything else down. If you are not into some RAM-intensive applications, you probably don't notice it, but I sure do.

I had seen your post before in another thread concerning Vista as a Ram hog...so I increased the Ram on my new machine to compensate for that. ;)

[middletree]

I had seen your post before in another thread concerning Vista as a Ram hog...so I increased the Ram on my new machine to compensate for that. ;)

So it doesn't act sluggish? I'm glad to hear that somehow I have contributed to someone's life. I feel so useful now. ;)

[Andi]

So it doesn't act sluggish? I'm glad to hear that somehow I have contributed to someone's life. I feel so useful now. ;)

There is nothing sluggish about this new computer...I am really liking it. Built it myself so I better!

Glad I could help you to feel useful....do you run errands too? :o

[middletree]

No, and I don't do windows.

[The Unknown Gomer]

...unless it's XP? ;)