Are you testing XP SP3 RC ??

[Curt]

CyberNet Technology News have been telling about the availability of XP SP3 RC, Release Candidate, so I am of course curious if it will work on my localized (Danish) version. Are any of you guys testing the Release Candidate of XP SP3 ? Do I dare to give it a try on my Danish PC, by changing my registry keys ??

The way to get it:

Update XP to SP3 Release Candidate:

1) Copy and paste the following code into Notepad:

will modify the registry!

@echo off
reg delete HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\XPSP3 /f 2> NUL
reg add HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\XPSP3 /v RCPreview /t REG_SZ /d 1c667073-b87f-4f52-a479-98c85711d869 /f
echo XPSP3 registry key has been set. Please check for updates in Windows Update.

2) Save the file as XPSP3.cmd (it’s important to include the extension).

3) Run the file that you saved in Step 2 by double-clicking on it.
Restart your computer and check for new Windows Updates.

4) Windows XP SP3 should be found, and it is a 337 MB download so give it some time to download and apply the updates.

When all is said and done your version of Windows XP should be:
Windows XP Build 2600.xpsp.071030-1537: Service Pack 3, v.3244

Enjoy the better performance and stability! You can hold off until next year if you want to download XP SP3 when it is officially released.

[via Softpedia & Computer World]
Thanks for the tip Storytellerofsci-fi!

Copyright © 2007 CyberNet |

-Martin, CyberNet

[Darwin]

blarson is using it, as mentioned in this thread. There was some discussion of it after that, with the consensus (fodder and Ralf) being that it would be folly to intall a RC version of a service pack on your primary Workstation. I'd *like* to install this now and enjoy the performance boost myself (particularly as I suspect that by the time this rolls out next year the performance boost will have turned into a performance "hit") but there's no way I'm doing it until it's been tested. I simply can't afford the risk on my main computer (my other one expired and was Win2k anyway and the only other non-frontline use machine in the house is supplied by my wife's employer).

[Curt]

So it have been told already. Well, I never would have thought that I had to read a thread about Mac ads to hear about XP SP3.

Anyway: I just might try this - but I will sleep on it...
Thanks for the advice!

[nudone]

will it make crysis play better on my worn out computer?

no.

ah, what's the point then.

[Grorgy]

I'm a bit of a believer in the bigger hammer theory, you know the one, if a little hammer doesn't do the job try a bigger one, well Curt, for you given that your computer sounds as though its almost dead anyway, id give it a go, if you kill it, you are forced to get it fixed upgraded whatever  (a good thing!), otherwise you may just improve things slightly (another good thing), who knows   

[tinyvillager]

I'm using it 

So far so good.I really can't speak to the performance boost,i'm not a benchmark testing type of user.Nothing has blown up yet,that's always good.I installed it last nite btw,through this hack.

[nosh]

I'm not going to bother jumping the gun coz I'm skeptical about any kind of significant performance boost that'd make the effort worth while. I read about a 10% boost in performance on some site but they compared it to SP2 without a single patch post-SP2 added on. A lot of what SP3 has to offer we already have on our systems. I know there's more to it than that but I doubt it'll have any significant impact. I'll be more than satisfied if it doesn't degrade existing performance levels. I'd love to be proved wrong though...

Curt, if my system were on its last legs I'd think about a fresh copy of XP SP2 first. I seriously doubt SP3 would worsen things though.

[Curt]

@ Grorgy, I really like your sense of logic!   

"If I had a BIGGER hammer"

If I had a BIGGER hammer
I'd hammer BIGGER in the morning
I'd hammer BIGGER in the evening ... all over this land,
I'd hammer out BIGGER danger
I'd hammer out a BIGGER warning
I'd hammer out BIGGER love between all of my brothers and my sisters
All over this land.

If I had a BIGGER bell
I'd ring it in the BIGGER morning
I'd ring it in the BIGGER evening ... all over this BIGGER land,
I'd ring out BIGGER danger
I'd ring out a BIGGER warning
I'd ring out BIGGER love between all of my BIGGER brothers and my BIGGER sisters
All over this BIGGER land.

If I had a BIGGER song
I'd sing it in the BIGGER morning
I'd sing it in the BIGGER evening ... all over this BIGGER world,
I'd sing out BIGGER danger
I'd sing out a BIGGER warning
I'd sing out BIGGER love between all of my BIGGER brothers and my BIGGER sisters
All over this BIGGER land.

Well, I've got a BIGGER hammer
And I've got a BIGGER bell
And I've got a BIGGER song to sing ... all over this BIGGER land,
It's a BIGGER hammer of BIGGER justice
It's a BIGGER bell of BIGGER freedom
It's a BIGGER song about BIGGER love between all of my BIGGER brothers and my BIGGER sisters
All over this BIGGER land.

-L. Hays, P. Seeger and Grorgy

>MIDI

[Nighted]

I just downloaded SP3 build 3244 RC1. I'll be integrating it into an unattended install later tonight using nLite. So yes....soon I'll be checking it out (by tomorrow morning hopefully).

I didn't have to change the registry to get it though, I just downloaded the torrent! 

[Grorgy]

Thanks for that Curt, I'd always assumed it had come from somewhere but i dont remember hearing the song 

[Darwin]

Thanks for the torrent link, nighted! I'm downloading it now. At least this way I'll have it archived and can make an informed decision about it in the future 

[blarson]

I am not sure what languages/localization SP3 will support. This article says German and Japanese. There may also be a difference between the update and stand-alone version.

First Release Candidate of Service Pack 3 for Windows XP
Having completed the first Release Candidate (RC) of Service Pack 1 for Windows Vista, Microsoft has now released RC1 of Service Pack 3 for Windows XP. Microsoft generally uses the term Release Candidate (RC) for full-featured trial versions which only need to be tested for flaws. 

The combined package is about 340MBytes in size and can currently only be downloaded from Microsoft's connect website by registered beta testers. It updates all the 32-Bit versions of XP from Home to Professional. Apart from the English language version there is also a German and a Japanese version. In addition, the website offers a script which adds a string to the Registry and allows any version of XP to receive the respective RC1 update suitable for this XP via Windows Update (download size for XP Professional: about 91 MBytes). However, an initial trial installation this way proved unsuccessful.

As usual, SP3 will contain all the patches and updates released earlier, including those which were part of previous versions. According to Microsoft there is a total of more than 1000. In addition, it provides several add-ons which have been available separately, for example Background Intelligent Transfer Service (Bits) 2.5, Windows Installer 3.1, Management-Console (MMC) 3.0 and Core XML Services 6.0. New features include the integration of Network Access Protection (NAP), a feature which is already familiar from Vista and in a Server 2008 environment, for example, only allows access to the local network if the respective PC is running Windows at the current patch level.

Unlike Service Pack 1 for Windows Vista, the SP3 package combined with an XP CD enables users to create an installation package which allows installing both XP and SP3 in one go (Slipstream installation). As in Vista, the installation key no longer appears to be an installation prerequisite in this case.

Microsoft plans to release the final version within the first two quarters of 2008. This final release is planned to be the last Service Pack for Windows XP. However, patches for what Microsoft considers to be critical security issues are planned to be available free of charge until at least 2014. (jk/c't)

http://www.heise.de/...ewsticker/news/99214

[Darwin]

BTW, to anyone else tempted to download the torrent and archive it - it's a fast download - took about 50 minutes on my end

blarson - please do post back later in the week with your impressionS of/experiences with Sp-3.

[f0dder]

I wish people would stop saying "OMFG 10% PERFORMANCE INCREASE!!!", since it hasn't been properly verified yet, the test done is sketchy, etc. Not that I'd mind 10% boost, that is

I'll wait until SP3 goes final, and even then I'll check it in a VM first. No way I'm doing beta testing for Microsoft on my "live" machine!

[Nighted]

f0dder, every time you load a M$ product (or any other for that matter), you are beta testing on your machine. There is no such thing as a "final" release.

[f0dder]

f0dder, every time you load a M$ product (or any other for that matter), you are beta testing on your machine. There is no such thing as a "final" release.

-Nighted (November 28, 2007, 07:42 AM)

*grin*

But at least with non-beta and non-rc software, you have a right to bitch about it, without anybody telling you "yeah well, stupid, you're not running release software".

Btw., ever poured over changelogs for (release/stable) linux kernels? Pretty scary sometimes.

[Darwin]

f0dder, I agree with you. I just want to make sure that I've got the RC archived so that if in future it IS verified that it significantly improves performance, that it is not in any other way deleterious to a machine, and that that performance boost disappears in the final release (my suspicion is that it will) that I have around to install! Yeah, twisted logic, but it's my logic!

[Nighted]

Well, unlike you wussies  , I'll know in a few minutes. I'm going to format this pig and do a fresh install with SP3. It's brave little toasters like me that make the world a safer place for you. 

[Curt]

It's brave little toasters like me that make the world a safer place for you. 

-Nighted (November 28, 2007, 10:53 AM)

Keep om rocking / testing, Nigthed! 

[Ralf Maximus]

Go Speed Toaster, Go!  :-)

[Nighted]

Welp, I integrated SP3 yesterday and then did my usual nLite routine. No problems so far. Since upgrading to SP3, explorer hasn't crashed once (strange...very strange ). I'll give it a couple days and see what happens.

I didn't need any of the updates I used for my SP2 builds other than one special update that supposedly is included in SP3 but didn't work. I had to replace it with another update.

I was hoping .NET would have been integrated but ending up have to manually install it yet again.

[blarson]

I believe my DSL stats are better and more consistent with SP3.

[jgpaiva]

blarson: i don't think you gave the original stats, did you? Without those, it's a bit hard to compare

Anyways, the internet speed is something that is so mutable that it can't be compared that easily.

[Nighted]

I dunno about that, but my toast is a lot crunchier now too. 

[blarson]

Another completely anecdotal, subjective opinion: SP3 boots faster, well below the XP 30 second design goal. I can do a reboot in about one minute (AMD Athlon 64 Processor 3200+, 1GB RAM). Perception is often more useful than statistics - 93.87% of all statistics are inaccurate and often made up.

Here is one more Tweak Tester Result showing 100% transfer efficiency - YMMV: