XP SP3

[Ishtvan]

I noticed MS is trying to push out the SP3 update for XP. Has anyone tried it, and does it break anything?

[jdude]

I've tried it on three computers. It's fine, and actually made one more secure. It's just a series of updates basically.

[Komag]

I have it installed on my laptop and desktop and haven't noticed anything at all, everything still works fine.

[Vadrosaul]

Shit. Thanks for reminding me

[Crispy]

We rolled it out over 100+ computers at work without any problems, and I also installed it on my mum's computer. Haven't bothered to do it on mine yet but that's just because I'm lazy.

 

I haven't heard of anyone having issues with it. Probably because it's the most boring service pack I've ever seen. No notable new features over SP2, just a bunch of fixes which won't even affect most people.

[Mr Retarded]

I installed it a few weeks ago and Zone Alarm released an update that 'conflicted' with SP3 which removed all internet access. Pretty extreme internet protection if you ask me but I can't complain, at least my computer was safe from outside intrusions. Unfortunately none of the fixes they released worked and I ended up formatting my computer (This in turn resulted in a long boring story that invloves me frying my motherboard. Don't ask how.). This time I'm avoiding Zone Alarm and am installing SP3 to see how everything else goes and am vowing never to mess about with the internals of my PC ever again.

[Crispy]

Yikes. That's a pretty nasty experience.

 

I'm inclined to blame ZoneAlarm, just because it's a horribly invasive product. Well, it was last time I checked, which was years ago.

[New Horizon]

Try AVG, it's free and works well enough.

[Mr Retarded]

Yeah. I've avoided installing it this time around and have stuck with Windows Firewall for the moment. I've got the AVG anti-virus stuff, didn't even think of using their firewall. I'll check it out, cheers.

[sparhawk]

I'm using AntiVir which is good enough for me. It's free to use, but it's a bit slow. On my last machine this was a bit noticable. Not much, but in some cases. On my new machine it doesn't matter, so that's fine for me.

[jdude]

I use AVG, but if I was to ever buy an antivirus I'd get Kaspersky because it's less than 40 dollars and performs better than Nortin.

 

I used to have Zone Alarm on my computer a long time ago, but I had a lot of problems with it which lead to about 3 formats so now I stick with the Windows firewall which I guess is doing a good enough job because I rarely have a virus/trojan and I've never had a worm. Or maybe I'm just lucky!

[Mr Retarded]

After my last two posts I realised that I hadn't actually installed SP3 since my last attempt a couple of weeks ago (that resulted in the format). I installed it and what happens? I breaks my network card again. It was an easy fix this time. Uninstall the software, physically remove the network card, re-insert the card, re-install the software. Seems to be working fine now.

 

Why couldn't it have been this simple last time?

 

No doubt I'll find out that I'll install some updates later tonight and the card will break again though. Still, I'll cross that bridge if I ever come to it. Just thought I'd post here that SP3 did break my network, but it was easily fixed.

[STiFU]

I have used Zonealarm too, but when I found that it made Thief 3 Ed crash or not load up I never touched it again. I use Bitdefender now, which is pretty much the same as ZA, but less annoying.

 

I use Service Pack 3 since today too, because of a reformating due to a hdd crash. I was a little bit confused at first when the windows update didn't start after reinstalling, as I was used to. You have to go to a website instead and run an update from there, because the new update system doesn't (somehow) work the same way as the old one. The Advantage of all this is that you don't have to bear that mass of windowsupdate-restarts anymore.