Windows XP Service Pack 3

[contented]

I have seen a lot of comments both pro and con on Windows XP Service Pack 3 on the internet and was hoping my new best friend bigtoe might give me his best advice on if I should D/L and install it or not.

[bigtoe]

<<<<<.... and was hoping my new best friend ..... >>>>>>>> hahaha..... Now nervous on giving any suggestions... don't want to lose a friend... LOL....

Being on Dial-up could pose a long wait for the full SP3 to download, unless you wanted to wait until Thanksgiving and let it download while the turkey was in the oven... But, seriously, there isn't an awful lot of new stuff inside SP3 if you are current with all of your other Windows Updates excluding SP3.... I note that many are satisfied with just being current on their updates, while others have had no problems whatsoever on installing SP3... I put it on all my systems shortly after it came out and have never encountered so much as a hic-up from it.... You, running a Dell and not an HP product, would quite unlikely encounter any problem installing SP3 which is still at this moment not mandated by Microsoft. It was really a problem with HP and how HP installed the OEM version of XP on their machines, and not a problem with M$ with SP3 that most encountered.

If I were you, I would install SP3 and not be concerned.... but alas, that is for you to decide as you know whether you have all of the other updates installed that come our way on Update Tuesday with Windows, and if you are not having any problems with them you won't have problems with SP3. It will be doing another of those Windows Genuine Advantage checkups on your system, and if you haven't had any problems with the several earlier ones then quite unlikely to have any difficulty with SP3....

How's that for "friendly advice"... ?? ... Reassuring, confidence building, supportive but not too pushy so you make the decision.... LOL..........   

[fina]

Dear Bigtoe, I finally found the way to answer you, I don't know how to properly thank you, after a long time of getting " a runtime error has occurred, et.":, I am finally free because of your help.
Computers were not part of my youth, so you cannot imagine the difficulties that I face. Thanks again for solving a problem that was making my life miserable.
Fina

[contented]

bigtoe...thanks again  for your great "friendly advice" but as there is not a lot of new stuff on SP3 I think I will hold off on it for the present time.

To my knowledge all my Windows Updates are current.

[Sandy Berger]

Like Bigtoe, I have installed Service Pack 3 on many computers without a problem. Microsoft has done a pretty good job with this one. If it doesn't install properly, it will automatically roll back to uninstall.

I just installed it on my home computer and it didn't require that you go to the Microsoft Genuine Advantage for the installation. Instead, the next time I turned on the computer it said that updates were ready and when I went to install the updates it was the Genuine Advantage, which is not really an update. Rather, it is Microsoft checking to see if you have pirated their software.  I didn't like that much, so I just said No to the install.

[contented]

Sandy, thank you for the additional info.  I have never heard of Microsoft Genuine Advantage.

I have question for you.....When I Log In I always have to type in my Username  and Password even though I have clicked on Forever since the day I joined your site.

Is Forever for just one time...LOL 

[Billy73]

Genuine Advantage is the name of Microsoft's program to fight counterfeiting of their software - the first time you manually run Windows Updates, one of the things that is installed is the MS "Validation Tool" - this checks to see if your copy of Windows is legitimately licensed or not. You can read more at:

http://www.microsoft.com/genuine/Facts.aspx?displaylang=en

If the site isn't "remembering" you, you probably have Cookies turned off (this is the little file written to your browser that enables this "remembering"), or they're being cleared somehow.

[bigtoe]

<<<< 
I have question for you.....When I Log In I always have to type in my Username  and Password even though I have clicked on Forever since the day I joined your site.

Is Forever for just one time...LOL
 >>>>>


Here is a really great page explaining what cookies are, how they work, and a strong recommendation on how you should set your COOKIE permissions for Internet Explorer.....from Gibson Research Corp or GRC ....... http://www.grc.com/cookies.htm......

I re-log in as well, with each visit here, but it is because of my cookie settings; and I log out after each visit. If using IE8, then I type in my username and password upon a revisit while when using Firefox3 both those items are remembered and already in their respective boxes, I just have to click the LogIn button.... Hope that a good understanding on cookies will help explain the log in issue, for this forum and for other sites you visit.....

[contented]

Billy73...Thanks for explanation.

bigtoe...Thanks again for your prompt answer.

[wilbo]

I notice you are on dial up, SP 3 is a huge download.
Are you aware that you can order the CD ?


https://om2.one.microsoft.com/opa/Validation.aspx?StoreID=ce6e3afc-6b25-4f99-8913-3e3453ad966d&LocaleCode=en-us&JavaScriptOn=yes

[contented]

wilbo.....Thank you for that information.  If there is anything I hate it is huge downloads.  Dialup is so dxxx slow so you've just given me another reason for not installing SP3. NO, I was not aware that I could order the CD.