~pcwiz Posted February 3, 2008 Share Posted February 3, 2008 That registry hack isn't needed anymore to download XP SP3 Release Candidate. It can be downloaded for free here from the MS Download Center IMPORTANT NOTE: It is strongly recommended to wait for the final release unless you are an experienced beta tester/user. Read here for peoples' experiences on SP3 RC: http://fileforum.betanews.com/detail/1197391546/1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colonel Posted February 3, 2008 Share Posted February 3, 2008 Meh.. I'll wait for the final. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
~pcwiz Posted February 3, 2008 Author Share Posted February 3, 2008 Yeah I'm waiting for the final too. Apparently for many people (link posted in Post #1, edit) SP3 Release Candidate crashed their system. I'm not going to risk crashing my brand new computer... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mebster Posted February 3, 2008 Share Posted February 3, 2008 Any new features? Also who else thinks this guy works for MS: Slipstreamed it with nLite into a nice cut-down XPSP2 install, works great for me and a dozen of users and customers I installed it to, but as you can see from other posts YMMV . Especially with upgrading a working SP2, it seems. I did a Ghost backup before upgrading, and I wholeheartedly recommend doing it. So far, I can only praise it. File system is faster, CD/DVD recognition is faster, even webpages load faster. All in all, it works smoother than SP2, and I didn't find any bugs so far, only fixes. I really like where this is going. This will be the best Windows ever. Bravo MicroSoft! [and both thumbs down for Vista...] Now this is more like it: XP service pack 3 (sp3) was installed on three different machines each with a CLEAN install of XP-sp2 and all three crashed immediately after reboot. These machines had different ASUS mobos but most significantly, the high-end A8N32-SLI Deluxe was one of them. I've not seen an early RC1 of any earlier Windows service pack (XP-sp2, W2K-sps1 to 4 etc.) cause this much havoc. To me, this SP3-RC1 looks more like an early alpha than an early release candidate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
socal swimmer Posted February 3, 2008 Share Posted February 3, 2008 It seems like I have been hearing alot about XP Service Pack 4. Why is that? I even thought they were on SP4 already.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
~pcwiz Posted February 3, 2008 Author Share Posted February 3, 2008 Mebster, I read that too, but the guy says "[and both thumbs down for Vista...]" so he can't be working for M$, can he? socal swimmer, You've probably been hearing about Windows 2000 SP4 But this news story says that SP4 is in the works for XP: http://tech.propeller.com/story/2006/06/16...s-in-the-works/ EDIT: From Paul Thurrott's list of SP3 new features: Product Key-less install option. As with Windows Vista, new XP with SP3 installs can proceed without entering a product key during Setup. I smell piracy in the air Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
apowerr Posted February 3, 2008 Share Posted February 3, 2008 I'm looking forward to XP SP3 (bugless of course). For general users it will be nice, hundreds of updates have been released since the release of SP2, so support XP will improve once everyone is on the same page. And for IT departments and corporations, XP SP3 will be a godsend. It seems like I have been hearing a lot about XP Service Pack 4. Why is that? I haven't been, where have you heard of it? I have heard of Windows 2000 SP4 however. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
~pcwiz Posted February 3, 2008 Author Share Posted February 3, 2008 Apparently SP3 will make your system much more stable and one user even said that his RAM usage dropped by half.f Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cheghevara Posted February 3, 2008 Share Posted February 3, 2008 i slipstream sp3 in to my winxp installation, and is working great version 3264. it is stable. the only problem is the ie6 crasher very often, but i got mozilla so is nt a big issue. i recomend to download it, and try it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
macgirl Posted February 3, 2008 Share Posted February 3, 2008 Does the SP3 fixes sleep problems? Wow, 336.1 MB and people are not complaining? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Headrush69 Posted February 3, 2008 Share Posted February 3, 2008 it is stable. the only problem is the ie6 crasher very often Aren't those two statements contradictory considering how important/central IE is to Windows? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
~pcwiz Posted February 3, 2008 Author Share Posted February 3, 2008 Its 336MB because it includes all the updates from SP1 and SP2 and all that were released after SP2. Too bad MS doesn't have Combo and Delta updaters like Apple has Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mauro19 Posted February 3, 2008 Share Posted February 3, 2008 Final? Is somebody waiting for a final - stable - version of a MS product? It will never happen! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robotskip Posted February 3, 2008 Share Posted February 3, 2008 Final?Is somebody waiting for a final - stable - version of a MS product? It will never happen! Windows 2000Windows Server 2003 Windows XP Service Pack 2 Windows Vista Windows Vista SP1 Those are all stable. Oh, you were making a joke? I'm sorry, I missed the memo that we're pretending it's the 90s. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
macgirl Posted February 4, 2008 Share Posted February 4, 2008 Sure, stable enough if you don't use them, sheesh Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmdshft Posted February 4, 2008 Share Posted February 4, 2008 Stop being a {censored}ass, macgirl. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colonel Posted February 4, 2008 Share Posted February 4, 2008 Stop being a {censored}ass, macgirl. Wow, no need for such language. We all know Windows blows, some of us are just more willing to accept the fact than others. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmdshft Posted February 4, 2008 Share Posted February 4, 2008 I've seriously never had an issue with any MS Operating System. I dunno what makes it such an unpleasant experience for all of you, maybe you all just don't know how to handle it properly. Plus, hardware manufacturers contribute to the problems. That's probably the only reason I do find Mac OS X more appealing is the quality control by Apple by controlling the hardware of it's machines. Other than that, I think that Windows deserves a little more credit. Now as far as things such as IE and Office, that's totally different. So if your negative experience is based solely on software running in Windows, maybe you should develop a bit more logical criticism... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idividebyzero Posted February 4, 2008 Share Posted February 4, 2008 Windows 98 was a mess, XP and Vista are exactly as stable as OS X. They crash but only rarely and usually for a good reason. I havent experienced regular system freezes since I stopped using 98. Back then "once a week" was a bragging right for system crashes since most people were crashing once a day at the least. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mebster Posted February 4, 2008 Share Posted February 4, 2008 Mebster, I read that too, but the guy says "[and both thumbs down for Vista...]" so he can't be working for M$, can he? I didn't read it correctly and assumed it said "thumbs up". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lozzo Posted February 4, 2008 Share Posted February 4, 2008 XP has been absolutely solid for me for years. Prior to having to reinstall due to a drastic hardware change (SIS chipset, AMD Athlon 2500+ O/Ced to 3200) to Intel Chipset, Dual Core Intel CPU), my previous install lasted about the best part of 4 years without any hassles. The only problems I had with crashes was either to do with flaky hardware (bad ram, bad hard-drive one time, and expiring PSU) or flaky software/drivers (cheap-ass webcam). XP. Perfectly solid and usable provided you don't cram it up to the hilt with spyware, Bonzi Buddies and other assorted {censored} like that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colonel Posted February 5, 2008 Share Posted February 5, 2008 I dunno what makes it such an unpleasant experience for all of you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
~pcwiz Posted February 5, 2008 Author Share Posted February 5, 2008 I sort of have to agree with Hara Taiki. I haven't had any serious problems with final release versions of Windows (this excludes betas and release candidates ) and they've all worked great, aside from minor bugs that every OS has. Colonel, I have only gotten the BSOD about 2 times in 8 years, using Windows 95 all the way to XP (haven't tried final release Vista yet). Infact, I think I've had more kernel panics than that with a REAL mac (not OSx86). I believe that as long as you meet system requirements and use Windows properly it won't bug you too much (aside from minor bugs as I mentioned earlier) and I don't really know why people hate it so much. And another thing, what people take to be problems with Windows can be in most cases hardware problems like faulty RAM, incorrect BIOS settings, etc. The only compains I have about Windows are: How easy you can get malware (which MS doesn't have control over), and the Windows activation process and WGA. So basically the software protection MS puts is the only complaint I have, but in most cases if you are using legal software then it shouldn't bug you (I know about the WGA bugging legit users but that's been fixed long ago ). And another take on the viruses that infect Windows. The worst misconception you can make is that OS X and Linux don't have viruses because they are more secure. While Linux and OS X may have more security and stability, this is not the reason we have viruses for Windows. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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