|
Home »
Windows
» Windows Installation
Summary: Windows XP SP3 is about to be released. Should you jump on the bandwagon immediately and install it? That depends on your tolerance for risk.
That depends on who you are, and your tolerance for risk. If you're someone like me, techie and proud of it, or willing to set an example for others ... well, then by all means go for it. I will. On the other hand if you're not me ... you might want to wait. Here's why... • SP3 is big. And while I honestly don't believe it'll be a problem for most people simply by virtue of everything it's attempting to encompass it will cause problems for some. You don't want to be one of those folks unless you're in a position to take the time to work through whatever issue pops up. I'll of course be updating my machines as soon as it hits. But even then, I'm not going to take unnecessary risks ... my wife's machine, of course, will be one of the last. I'll want to make sure that SP3's working well on the other five or six XP machines I have around here first. "Regardless of when you take the update, now or later, at a minimum take a full backup of your system drive
immediately prior to installing SP3."
So, what should you do? For most folks, I recommend the following:
Regardless of when you take the update, now or later, at a minimum take a full backup of your system drive immediately prior to installing SP3. It's the only way to truly protect yourself in case something goes wrong. Like I said, I don't expect SP3 to have a tremendous number of problems, or cause the same number of issues that, say, SP2 did. But unless you have a specific need to hurry, waiting for others to try it out first is a safe and sensible approach. Related:
Article 12384 | Posted April 26, 2008 |
Stay Informed Archives Advertisers |
|
•
Long ago when XP SP2 came out, I was using dial up (eeks) so I ordered the CD-ROM disk from Microsoft.
I had no problems or issues whatsoever.
I now have DSL, so the big download shouldn't take all that long.
Also, I use "Crap Cleaner" and a few other junk removal programs, I plan on having my hard drive ready as possible to handle this new update.
Oh, I did read elsewhere that running a full "error check" before applying the XP SP3 would be a good idea, and a disk defrag prior as well.
I plan on downloading SP3 next Tuesday.
[Side-note: I Vista home prem on my Toshiba notebook, again no problems after running SP1 on that unit]
Maybe I'm just lucky. :)
Leo, your newsletter email is the very first one I read when I see it in my in-box.
Posted by: Brad D. at April 26, 2008 05:30 PMThanks ever so much!
Brad D.
I was wondering if a system restore point will be of any help? ..As the first line of defense in addition to the backup. It is just that it is faster than a full backup/restore.
Posted by: Rahul at April 27, 2008 04:41 AM-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1
I'm actually not a big fan of system restore for this kind
of thing. System restore is better than doing nothing, but
it's important to know that system restore doesn't actually
backup and restore *everything* ... only certain system
files and the registry. Like I said, better than doing
nothing, but with an update this large I would feel much
safer with, and thus strongly recommend, a full backup.
Leo
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.7 (MingW32)
iD8DBQFIFQHHCMEe9B/8oqERAkU9AJ0f1paLs/WDwvtq6KMafDlE+RwwVQCeJohN
Posted by: Leo at April 27, 2008 03:44 PMDAp5L6T51gZDC4N5pigfLgE=
=ouBS
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
I installed windows XP SP3, and everything was going great but after I tried to restart my PC it did not turn on. I don't Know what happened but I am not recomended to install this update until Microsoft gets ready to support it .... thanks ...
Posted by: Hairol Sibaja at May 3, 2008 06:10 AMHsibaja
I downloaded and installed SP3 without a single problem. From start to finish it took approximately 1 hour. I also prepared my computer in advance by cleaning out all the junk (Ccleaner) and ran an error check and then a defrag.
I also disabled my anti virus program.
I've now noticed my PC boots up faster. That said, I have 2 gigs of RAM and a Pentium4 3 gig chip so it's never really been slow. My guess is the 10% overall increase that people have commented on is actuate.
Happy camper Brad
Posted by: Brad D at May 7, 2008 12:10 AMWell, a week has gone by and I'm happy to report that my XP SP3 upgrade has had no ill effects on two computers.
The only strange thing (and it's trite) Windows media player acted like I had never used it before. A simple 2 second fix.
In my opinion, this update is a must do.
Both XP (HP & DELL) computers are booting up faster, and also running faster and using less RAM memory.
Brad
Posted by: Brad at May 14, 2008 05:22 PMWell it wont work on my Dell Inspiron. The install goes fine but then windows will not start in other than safe mode so I have had to restore it to the point before install - twice. FYI the install process automatically creates one if you have system restore turned on.
I'm not alone but the common thread *seems* to be nvidia graphics cards...
I've set this on to ignore with windows update until it matures :)
Posted by: Flick at September 10, 2008 03:50 AM