Win XP SP3 (XP Pro Ver 5.1 SP2)

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Hi – Can’t find anything about Woody giving the final go-ahead with installing SP3. The last mention of it was on Sep 5th (?) as noted below:

“I’m still highly ambivalent about installing Windows XP Service Pack 3: the buck ain’t worth the potential bang at this point. …

So I suggest you apply all outstanding Microsoft updates (with Windows XP SP3 being a bit wishy-washy), then make sure Automatic Updates is turned off in anticipation of the fun to come.”

Don’t quite understand if he’s advising to go ahead with SP3. Am currently installing all the other Sep 2008 downloads except SP3. Guess I need a little expert encouragement.

Thanks so much

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I have installed Windows XP SP3 on quite a few PCs now, with no problems.

As with all major upgrades, if you have software that can create an image backup then it would be good to create a backup before you install SP3, but I don’t think you are likely to need it.

StuartR

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Woody always takes an extremely cautious stance with respect to Microsoft’s updates.

I and several other Loungers have installed Windows XP SP3 on our home PCs and on numerous PCs at work without problems, so I’d say go ahead and try it. Windows automatically creates a system restore point before installing an update, so you can always go back if if doesn’t work out.

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As Stuart and Hans said, go ahead with SP3.

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Hi Again: Thanks for the expert encouragement. I did follow your advice and on Oct 10th downloaded SP3 along with all the September downloads. All appeared to be ok then, ‘lo and behold, on Oct 12th the SP3 download re-appeared in the “Updates are ready for your computer” icon in the toolbar. What the heck is that all about? Guess I need to do it again? Do I need to be concerned before I try it again?
MS Updates – Another problem that keeps re-appearing in the Update icon notice is the “Security Update for Microsoft XML Core Services 4.0 Service Pack 2 (KB936181)”. Downloaded and installed this numerous times and keeps re-appearing. Went through a detailed walk-through with a MS Tech several months ago and this cleared up but only to reappear on the next package of monthly downloads and just keeps re-appearing after downloading the monthly updates. When I check the MS site where the computer is scanned for what needs to be downloaded (critical or not), the XML Core Services is not included. Any suggestions on how to get this notice out of the Update icon?
Thanks for listening.

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Vonnie,
First thing: You have rebooted after these installs. right?

Any of the KB hotfixes should be able to be UNinstalled via the AddRemove route. Try to reinstall after removing them.

Do you have Windows Update set to auto download? I would set to not auto download, then go to the Windows Update site to get them one at a time.

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