W3NZL
1st Class Member
Foreman
Posts:103
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 | | 08/27/2008 6:44 AM |
| My computer downloaded an installed win XP serv pk 3 this morning !!!
Any of U guys know what this is all about ?? What will this do for us,
if anything ?? Haven't noticed any differences yet, any of U computer
gurus got the lowdown on it yet ???
Paul R... | | | |
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stanman
1st Class Member
Sammamish Washington
Foreman
Posts:132
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| | 08/27/2008 8:22 AM |
| SP3 is the last update that Microsoft will provide for XP. Support for XP will be discontinued in a few months.
I've installed it on three machines without incident. | |
Stan Silverman
Sammamish, Washington
www.StansTrains.com
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peter bunce
Moderator
near manchester, England
Foreman
Posts:365
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gary Armitstead
1st Class Member
Burbank, CA
Foreman
Posts:484
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| | 08/27/2008 10:32 AM |
| Microsoft adding support for XP through 2014 is great! Vista IS a joke. Drivers is the main concern. A lot of us who use high-end CAD systems really can't afford to have the numerous "crashes" that Vista seems to have. | |
Gary Armitstead
Los Angeles Live Steamers
SA #4449 | |
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blackburn49
Copper Center, Alaska
Engineer
Posts:1855
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| | 08/27/2008 10:38 AM |
| | That's good. I suspect there are many of us out here that have no interest in upgrading to Vista. | |
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Rod Fearnley
1st Class Member
Mid Norfolk. England
Foreman
Posts:162
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| | 08/27/2008 1:02 PM |
| Service pack 3 also includes a tool that will stop you obtaining new updates if you have any unlicensed software running!
Rod | |
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Semper Vaporo
1st Class Member
Cedar Rapids, Iowa
Engineer
Posts:1534
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| | 08/27/2008 1:12 PM |
| I used to follow up on Service Packs and read the Knowledge Base articles that each update referenced, but this time I was too busy to follow them all, so I don't know all that Service Pack 3 addresses. But, basically these updates attempt to fix bugs (without inducing new ones) and to close loopholes in security. They don't usually add functionality.
There are several reasons to install the service packs.
You may not be having a problem with the programs you are now running, but that doesn't mean that you won't get a new program tomorrow that would have a problem with some bug that presently exists.
You also may not have used the programs you presently have to perform all of their possible functions. Tomorrow you might find out that your favorite program can do something that you have never needed in the past and want to use it that way and it might fail due to some bug that a Service Pack would have fixed if you had installed it.
Web site designers may start using some feature that your computer cannot execute, too.
So the update may fix something that you don't know needs fixed and if you install the update will never know was broken.
Most of the security loophole fixes involve making sure that "data-transfers" a program requests actually transfers the requested amount of data (no more and no less). There are methods (some only theoretical) to fool the computer into changing some of the Operating System code by getting a buffer area setup to hold, say 500 bytes of data, and then actually transfer 1000 bytes, thus overwriting whatever is in memory after the buffer. If that memory holds some portion of the Operating System with code that does something different, your computer could be programmed to do things you don't want it to do. If you read some of the Knowledge Base articles you will see that lots of them say something on the order of: 'This update plugs a possible security hole that was reported to Microsoft by" a third party "and no virus activity is known to have exploited it." Some of these "Third Party" reporters seem to exist for the sole purpose of finding these possible methods for a virus to circumvent security and then reporting them to Microsoft and demanding that they fix it and give credit to the "Third Party". Some even seem to do so as a sort of malevolent agression against Microsoft. The wording sometimes is such that they reported it to give Microsoft a chance to admit the "gross negligance" of their ways before the third party releases the information to the underworld that writes viruses.
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 C. T. McCullough
Cedar Rapids, Iowa
Le 18:22
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W3NZL
1st Class Member
Foreman
Posts:103
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| | 08/27/2008 1:51 PM |
| Tnx for the info guys, wonder why MS hasn't got Vista fixed yet ???
I've had just about every OS the've ever had, an I don't remember it
taking this long to get most of the bugs out and make it work....
Maybe by 2014 they'll have Vistas working... hehe
Paul R...
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Dwight Ennis
Moderator
Milpitas, CA
Engineer
Posts:1595
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| | 08/27/2008 2:26 PM |
| | I was reading that SP3 causes (or can cause) a loop of spontaneous reboots on machines running AMD processors. | |
Dwight Ennis
Milpitas, CA
SA #21
http://www.SantaCruzLumberCo.com
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Semper Vaporo
1st Class Member
Cedar Rapids, Iowa
Engineer
Posts:1534
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| | 08/27/2008 4:26 PM |
| I am using an "acer Aspire 5002LMi" (whatever that means!) and it says it has an AMD Turion64 (again, quite meaningless to everybody but the fellow whut created it). I installed WinXP SP-3 a few weeks ago and it seems to be working fine. But that doesn't mean that if I had just the appropraite display processor paired with a certain memory controller and happened to have installed some common application that it would not suddenly start the spontaneous reboot problem and be considered a problem caused by the AMD processor.
There are just WAY TOO MANY variables for any blob of software to execute perfectly on every machine. The fact that just the OS will boot on so many different conglomerations of hardware is quite a feat to begin with... adding on some program that actually does something useful without the keyboard sucking your fingers deep into the innards of the PC is nothing short of amazing. 
As a software professional of over 40 years experience I know that I can write a program that is flawless!  I have done it several times!!!!
Well, it was the last time I ran it on MY PC with a particular OS installed with certain peripherals that I happened to turn on at some particular microsecond in time during the bootup sequence and the power line had a glitch at just the right moment that the phase of Jupiter's moon IO didn't conspire to make the bit that was supposed to transition to a one to already be at a one such that my program didn't catch the transition while my eyes were closed. But once I release that program to the people that will use it, I give no guarantees that my program won't cause the computer to lynch the monitor with the power cord and then leap off the desktop in a suicidal frenzy.
When you throw into the mix the user that seems to think that they can use the program in a manner that is different that what I understood they wanted to use it, then all bets are off!  | |
C. T. McCullough
Cedar Rapids, Iowa
Le 18:22
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