Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) Release Dates

[malware]

The guys over at Neowin.net have managed to get their hands on the internal schedule for the release of Windows XP Service Pack 3.

• April 14, 2008: Support is available for the release version of Service Pack 3 for Windows XP
• April 21, 2008: Original Equipment Manufacturers, Volume License, Connect, and MSDN and TechNet subscribers
• April 29, 2008: Microsoft Update, Windows Update, Download Center
• June 10, 2008: Automatic Updates

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[NinkobEi]

yay, now xp can be as gimped as vista. hooray

 

[InnocentCriminal]

Has anyone managed to test it out properly, not the last release candidate?

 

[Black Panther]

"Microsoft is not adding significant Windows Vista functionality to Windows XP through SP3. However, SP3 does include Network Access Protection (NAP) to help organizations that use Windows XP to take advantage of new features in the Windows Server® 2008 operating system. Further, Windows XP SP3 does not include Windows Internet Explorer 7."

Source

 

[moto666]

It don't need to include IE7, because automatic download already offers IE7

 

[Widjaja]

Sounds like XP SP3 is a waste of time for gamers.
Or maybe it will make XP perform terrible to make Vista look good.

 

[timta2]

Will this break a lot of apps? I'm thinking it might be wise to hold off for a while as with SP2.

 

[erocker]

I used the latest SP3 release candidate. If the final works the same, there are no worries about going from SP2 to SP3.

 

[Kovoet]

I have the beta version and it does not effect your gaming at the slightest, I have tested it in COD4 and Joint Operations typhyoon rising and my fps remain the same

 

[Black Panther]

It don't need to include IE7, because automatic download already offers IE7

Sure, I added it in the quote because mainly that's what SP3 offers. (I don't use IE myself)

Only NAP. No Vista functionality.

I've been using the release candidate for a month or 2 now. No visible improvements for me, and no visible disadvantages either. Meh.

 

[eidairaman1]

ill wait until i hear reviews of it, etc

 

[Darkrealms]

If you RDP SP3 has some improvements. If you use IE6 you will notice it erroring out on pages occasionally but the next time you try it it will work fine. The two thinks I noticed from the beta (er. . . alpha? lol).

 

[TheGuruStud]

SP3 (for me) has made windows operate a little more smoothly (which could be described as faster) and it fixed some bugs I had. I've been using all of the betas and installed them on all of the comps I fix. It actually works, imagine that.

 

[Mussels]

the big thing about SP3 is a few years downloads in a single update... seriously, it'll save you a lot of downloads and time to integrate it into a new install CD

 

[Kursah]

the big thing about SP3 is a few years downloads in a single update... seriously, it'll save you a lot of downloads and time to integrate it into a new install CD

Yep that alone makes it worth it imo..time saving and at least in my experience with RC1 and RC2 was a little snappier feeling to the OS...even if it wasn't faster...it felt faster. Didn't have any issues with either RC SP3, and I'm sure the official release will very well worth any XP user's time.

If ya don't like it...uninstall it, but really what Mussels states should be the main deciding factor!

 

[rangerone766]

i tried the latest RC a few weeks ago and it nuked my windows install. so i'm waiting on the final to be released. then waiting another week or two after that.

kinda off topic, but when sp2 first came out. my local circiut city had the sp2 update disks for free on display. i still have that disk, saves time on installs when i'm using my old xp pro disk. i hope they do the same with sp3, offer it on disk free.

 

[TheGuruStud]

i tried the latest RC a few weeks ago and it nuked my windows install. so i'm waiting on the final to be released. then waiting another week or two after that.

kinda off topic, but when sp2 first came out. my local circiut city had the sp2 update disks for free on display. i still have that disk, saves time on installs when i'm using my old xp pro disk. i hope they do the same with sp3, offer it on disk free.

or keep it on an external drive or slipstream it or just d/l a slipstreamed copy...

A lot easier methods than pesky CDs

 

[Scrizz]

can't w8 for sp3!

 

[CarolinaKSU]

I tried the release candidate and it was pretty good I thought except for one thing: it severely hampers torrenting speeds by limited the half-open tcp limit. SP2 without the TCP/IP patch also did this. When using utorrent, the torrents would download fine, but would cause the rest of the network to lag like crazy. And since the patch that frees up the half-open tcp limit only works with SP2, I wont update til the patch will unlock the limit on SP3 too..

 

[DaedalusHelios]

Sounds like XP SP3 is a waste of time for gamers.
Or maybe it will make XP perform terrible to make Vista look good.

Yep sure thing???? Have you read about the changes....

SP3 will make it so you can address more ram in 32bit. Is that gimping it?:shadedshu

SP3 is a service to end users. Not some evil plan to destroy your computer.

Its also a bunch of security fixes. The DRM will be removed in our trusty Autopatchers.

 

[Mussels]

I tried the release candidate and it was pretty good I thought except for one thing: it severely hampers torrenting speeds by limited the half-open tcp limit. SP2 without the TCP/IP patch also did this. When using utorrent, the torrents would download fine, but would cause the rest of the network to lag like crazy. And since the patch that frees up the half-open tcp limit only works with SP2, I wont update til the patch will unlock the limit on SP3 too..

i actually have a dedicated XP torrent rig - despite what people claim, i easily hit the 25 limit in vista ultimate... with firefox alone. Once i do, either the net crawls to a half, or various programs just die (MSN for example, wont sign in for an hour or so unless i restart the PC)

25 connections doesnt mean much if you have 10 tabs open and restart the PC, and you hit restore session in firefox...

 

[TheGuruStud]

I tried the release candidate and it was pretty good I thought except for one thing: it severely hampers torrenting speeds by limited the half-open tcp limit. SP2 without the TCP/IP patch also did this. When using utorrent, the torrents would download fine, but would cause the rest of the network to lag like crazy. And since the patch that frees up the half-open tcp limit only works with SP2, I wont update til the patch will unlock the limit on SP3 too..

Weird. I've seen it make the "system" process use a lot of CPU on some comps (SP2) and make the speed dog slow, but I can't say that ever happened to me lol. Even with a couple hundred connections. It seems to be random like every thing else that windows does haha.

 

[Mussels]

Weird. I've seen it make the "system" process use a lot of CPU on some comps (SP2) and make the speed dog slow, but I can't say that ever happened to me lol. Even with a couple hundred connections. It seems to be random like every thing else that windows does haha.

the way it works is that if you make more than 10 connection attempts in one second, it chokes the network and delays them thinking you have some worm or spam virus. Its a very... ass backwards cure as it often blocks everything BUT the program spamming.

It doesnt matter once the connections are made, Utorrent even has a setting to work around this. Set utorrent to make 4 connections per second but with 100 max - it may take 5 minutes to build up to full speed, but at least i dont get vista chugging and MSN refusing to message people. (or just throw it to an XPSP2 patched to 100 connections and not care )

 

[TechnicalFreak]

Has anyone managed to test it out properly, not the last release candidate?

I don't know.. Do I have the "release candidate" it say:

Service Pack 3, v.3244

Anyway.. I haven't had any problems so far.

 

[TheGuruStud]

the way it works is that if you make more than 10 connection attempts in one second, it chokes the network and delays them thinking you have some worm or spam virus. Its a very... ass backwards cure as it often blocks everything BUT the program spamming.

It doesnt matter once the connections are made, Utorrent even has a setting to work around this. Set utorrent to make 4 connections per second but with 100 max - it may take 5 minutes to build up to full speed, but at least i dont get vista chugging and MSN refusing to message people. (or just throw it to an XPSP2 patched to 100 connections and not care )

Yeah, that's pretty lame. I do a ton of tweaking to windows so I've probably always fixed that haha.