Author Topic: Windows XP SP3 due for release .... (don't hold your breath) (Read 20,311 times)

Carol Haynes · « **on:** January 14, 2006, 12:06 PM »

Just got this in a newsletter from WServerNews newsletter ...

Glad to see MS support for windows XP is running to normal schedules ...

Quote

XP SP3, See You In 2007

Mary-Jo Foley from Microsoft Watch was trolling through the dry and as she calls it 'somewhat obscure' Microsoft lifecycle website. ;-)

She discovered something interesting. Many Microsoft experts were thinking XP Service Pack 3 would be released late 2006. In fact, it's running almost a year later than that; the latter half of 2007! You can expect W2K3 Service Pack 2 second half of this year.

Other interesting data is that Redmond quietly pushed out WinXP home support to at least 2008. Makes sense, as some people pointed out that XP Home, and most other XP OS-en, would be cut off from tech support at December 31, 2006, a potential snafu since XP's successor, Windows Vista, isn't to release until shortly before that date!

If you have some time, and do not mind pretty dry pages, there are some nuggets hidden in the Redmond lifecycle site:
http://www.wservernews.com/BVCWY8/060113-Service_Packs

To see the whole newsletter and too subscribe go to http://www.wservernews.com/

(by the way it is published by SunBelt Software - so don't subscribe if you don't want their product mailings)

lanux128 · « **Reply #1 on:** December 12, 2007, 04:53 AM »

it looks like waiting time is over..

• Are you testing XP SP3 RC ??

nosh · « **Reply #2 on:** April 23, 2008, 08:47 AM »

The RTM has leaked to BitTorrent, as expected.
Source: Raymond.cc
Download: Mininova

Carol Haynes · « **Reply #3 on:** April 23, 2008, 10:34 AM »

It's going to be downloadable from MS on the 29th so is there any point downloading a dubious copy from a dubious source ?

Incidentally when it is released can you slipstream it to an SP2 disc or do you need an original XP disc to slipstream?

nosh · « **Reply #4 on:** April 23, 2008, 10:48 AM »

Not really, if you're prepared to wait for a few more days

- it's a judgment call, news of the official RTM release (and the imminent leak) and my opinion of the blogger are enough to show me the green light.

cmpm · « **Reply #5 on:** April 23, 2008, 10:56 AM »

So...what does SP3 do?

I think I'll wait and see some feedback.
But I haven't looked for any yet either.

Will it make unwanted changes also?

Carol Haynes · « **Reply #6 on:** April 23, 2008, 11:10 AM »

The only unwanted change I am aware of is that it removes the "Address Bar" toolbar for the TaskBar as it is a apparently a security risk. Personally I do use it so it will be a nuisance. There seems to be a bit of a speed bump reported in the release candidates though whether MS will be cynical enough to ensure that is removed to make Vista seem slower than XP ....

The main thing is it rolls up all previous updates and so if you need to reinstall XP it is much quicker and doesn't mean you spend a day downloading gazillions of updates. Presumably if the update works as advertised ot will also clean up your installation a bit by removing all the earlier included updates from Add/Remove Programs and ensure that they are all installed consistently (there have been some issues in the past where one update applied out of sequence reverts a previous update).

Hopefully they have sorted out the SP2 TCPIP.SYS stupid security fix (ie. limit outgoing TCPIP connections to 10). If not does anyone know if the widely available patch/hack works with SP3 too as without that it makes using Torrents pretty well impossible?

Stoic Joker · « **Reply #7 on:** April 23, 2008, 11:11 AM »

Quote from: Carol Haynes on April 23, 2008, 10:34 AM

It's going to be downloadable from MS on the 29th so is there any point downloading a dubious copy from a dubious source ?

100% agreed

Quote

Incidentally when it is released can you slipstream it to an SP2 disc or do you need an original XP disc to slipstream?

I've found it to be a best practice not to slipstream an image twice. We've all heard the horror stories about bad disk image install failures. I always keep a vanilla image stored, SS it once, burn it slow (6x or less), and I've never had an image fail. <- Now watch me blow this next one...)

I've got MSDN access, so I can try to do some testing in VPC this weekend if I have time.
[/quote]

Carol Haynes · « **Reply #8 on:** April 23, 2008, 11:18 AM »

That's what I was wondering.

I have numerous XP discs but unfortunately they are all SP1 or SP2 versions. I never had an original disc.

Anyone know if MS are going to make Windows XP SP3 available in CDROM format? I presume not since they are discontinuing XP production in June.

Stoic Joker · « **Reply #9 on:** April 23, 2008, 11:23 AM »

Quote from: Carol Haynes on April 23, 2008, 11:10 AM

Hopefully they have sorted out the SP2 TCPIP.SYS stupid security fix (ie. limit outgoing TCPIP connections to 10). If not does anyone know if the widely available patch/hack works with SP3 too as without that it makes using Torrents pretty well impossible?

The only time I've run into this as an issue was part of a network scanner I'm currently working on. If there were a block of dead addresses it would tend to stall for ~15sec about every ~20 Addys. I stopped doing a WSACleanup() on the dead socket (null...) instances and just set them to null. Not only did the problem go away but the app quit throttling the processor during the scan. Now it runs at a consistant speed on everything from Win2k all the way up to Server 2008.

nosh · « **Reply #10 on:** April 23, 2008, 11:25 AM »

Quote from: Carol Haynes on April 23, 2008, 11:10 AM

Hopefully they have sorted out the SP2 TCPIP.SYS stupid security fix (ie. limit outgoing TCPIP connections to 10). If not does anyone know if the widely available patch/hack works with SP3 too as without that it makes using Torrents pretty well impossible?

Whoa! That would have slipped right past me! I assume you're talking of the max concurrent half-open connections (whatever *cou f0dder! gh* that means!) fix. The patch apparently works with the Jan 8, 2008 (MS) fix, according to this page. Hopefully SP3 won't install anything newer!

Carol Haynes · « **Reply #11 on:** April 23, 2008, 12:34 PM »

Yep that is the patch I mean - it basically patches TCPIP.SYS with a new upper limit on half open connections (you can choose the limit). Works well on SP2 to date though occasionally MS install patches that revert the setting and you have to apply it again.

Incidentally if you have slow or strange internet problems this could be the cause. Espeically if you are doing things like mutliple downloads with lots of browser windows open. Check your system event log as Windows logs that no more connections are available if this situation arises. It's a right PITA and a type MS crappy kludge to shut up the security conscious!

nosh · « **Reply #12 on:** April 23, 2008, 01:04 PM »

I've been running a patched tcpip.sys for quite a while now, don't remember the value I've tweaked it to, it's within the recommended guidelines but still almost certainly overkill for my amazing 256 kbps "broad"band connection (the only "unlimited downloads" plan my ISP provides that doesn't cost a bomb). Still, if I can't patch it and I see the download speeds drop that'll be an excellent reason for me to roll back to XP SP2, which works brilliantly!

f0dder · « **Reply #13 on:** April 23, 2008, 02:53 PM »

I wonder if there'll be a new service pack for XP64/Win2k3-server as well... those run at a different schedule from XP32.

Lashiec · « **Reply #14 on:** April 23, 2008, 11:29 PM »

Quote from: Carol Haynes on April 23, 2008, 11:10 AM

Hopefully they have sorted out the SP2 TCPIP.SYS stupid security fix (ie. limit outgoing TCPIP connections to 10). If not does anyone know if the widely available patch/hack works with SP3 too as without that it makes using Torrents pretty well impossible?

Impossible? I did not apply the patch, and everything runs fine and dandy here. Of course, if you have tons of torrents at the same time, that may be an issue. Security-wise, it's a bit of a hack, if malware wants to spread fast, it will spread fast.

Carol Haynes · « **Reply #15 on:** April 23, 2008, 11:44 PM »

True - however if you download a single file by Torrent check your Event Viewer and I bet you find hundreds of 'out of available connections' errors. It definitely slows things down and limits your use of the internet.

Lashiec · « **Reply #16 on:** April 24, 2008, 12:12 AM »

Mmm, perhaps I'll try with the patch, to see if there are some benefits. It seems that Vista still has this limit, so I wouldn't count on XP SP3 to remove it.

Josh · « **Reply #17 on:** April 24, 2008, 12:19 AM »

Windows XP SP3 is nothing more than a cumulative update of all patches since sp2 with maybe 1 to 2 minor changes, the address bar toolbar removal (For Example). This should be the last major update to XP in its history.

johnjinsf · « **Reply #18 on:** May 12, 2008, 12:18 AM »

I updated to XP SP3 earlier in the week and today in my Event Viewer was Source : TCPIP Event ID 4226 - TCP/IP has reached the security limit imposed on the number of concurrent TCP connect attempts.

There is no updated posted at http://www.lvllord.de/.

I am hesitant to apply the old fix, because under XP SP3, tcpip.sys has a new release - Version 5.1.2600.5512 - it looks like everything in SP3 has the .5512 at the end to designate SP3.

Has anyone else hit this snag?

Thanks

f0dder · « **Reply #19 on:** May 12, 2008, 12:23 AM »

If the TCP/IP patcher has any form of intelligence, it will search for a "magic byte sequence", instead of doing hardcoded address patches... so it might very well work for the SP3 version. I'd try it in a virtual machine before a live system, though

nosh · « **Reply #20 on:** May 12, 2008, 01:07 AM »

The last patch from lvllord works just fine. I applied it after Carol confirmed it worked and there haven't been any hiccups.

Carol Haynes · « **Reply #21 on:** May 12, 2008, 10:18 AM »

It's non destructive any way as it backs up the current TCPIP.SYS before patching. If you have a problem simply run the patch again to restore the original.

Anyway I have been using it with no problems for a while now.