The IT Nerd

My experience with XP SP3 has been positive so far. By that I mean that nothing bad has happened. But I’ve read a story on Information Week that says that it is causing “havoc”:

“ The problems with XP SP3, according to posters on Microsoft’s Windows XP message board, range from spontaneous reboots to outright system crashes.”

Now I’ve upgraded 7 machines to date and I’ve not run into a single issue. Other IT professionals that I’ve spoken to have had no issues as well. So is anybody out there having issues with SP3? Post a comment and let me know.

This is supposed to be appearing in Windows Update today, so I would wait for it to show up there. But if you’ve got the guts, you can download it here right now.

An overview as to what this covers can be downloaded here.

If I were you, I’d wait for braver souls to download it and find all of the problems before you jump in. But if you must jump in now, have a complete backup of your system just in case things go really south.

I’ll try this later tonight on one of my VMs and let you know what I think of it.

Update: Just tried Windows Update. No sign of it.

Update #2: This was just posted to news.com. Apparently it doesn’t play nice with another Microsoft prouct called Microsoft Dynamics Retail Management System. The article also gives details as to why it’s not available through Windows Update. I’d say avoid it for now unless you have a current backup.

Update #3: Apparently Vista SP1 has the same problem. According to this post, it has been halted as well.

I was browsing the Microsoft forums last night and came across this posting announcing the fact that Windows XP Service Pack 3 has been released to manufacturing. Microsoft plans on releasing this in two phases:

“We are also in the final stages of preparing for release to the web (i.e. you!) on April 29th, via Windows Update and the Microsoft Download Center. Online documentation for Windows XP SP3, such as Microsoft Knowledge Base articles and the Microsoft TechNet Windows XP TechCenter, will be updated then. For customers who use Windows XP at home, Windows XP SP3 Automatic Update distribution for users at home will begin in early summer. “

If you want an overview of what Service Pack 3 will do for you, check out this link. This is planned to be the last Service Pack for XP, unless of course Vista’s adoption rate continue to suck be below expectations.