The Warring States of NPF - Windows XP SP3

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- - Windows XP SP3 (http://www.nuklearforums.com/showthread.php?t=26390)

As we all probably know by now, SP3 is set to launch in early 2008. What I don't know is, does anyone know if it's going to be free, or do we have to pay for Microsoft to fix its own mistakes?

Generally, the servicepacks are free, unless Microsoft suddenly changed their policies with the rising of glorious Vista.

Eh... we'll see.

I have a feeling it's a nerfpack designed to get people off of XP and into Vista.

I'm still running SP 1.

I don't think that's even remotely legal. That of course doesn't stop it from happening but if they did intentionally reduce the capabilities of a previous product to force a switch I think there would be ample grounds for a class action lawsuit. Probably some anti-trust activity as well; which in my opinion is way over do in Microsoft. They so need to break that up into several companies at least.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sithdarth

Probably some anti-trust activity as well; which in my opinion is way over do in Microsoft. They so need to break that up into several companies at least.

Yeah, another thing to file under "things that ain't gonna happen at least until we've got a new president in office." I mean hell they even already had the big Microsoft anti-trust suit that the justice department had actually won and then the Bush people came in just as they were getting into what Microsoft's punishment was supposed to be and the Bush Justice Department was like "oh um... naw it's cool, we're calling the whole thing off."

The RC of SP3 was released a short time ago. I've got it installed and no problems to report as of yet. In fact it seems to run a bit faster as well.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Melfice

with the rising of glorious Vista.

I have Vista, and yes it is glorious. I love not being able to play Starcraft, Diablo, or any of my other old games without it telling me that I am at risk destroying my PC.

I wish I could take it off, but the hassle would be ridiculous, I would have to install all new drivers on my compuer because it was build only ot run Vista.

Vista is like Mac OSX only colorful.

SP3 is essentially a bundling af all the other packs you've been downloading and updating Windows XP with since SP2, with a few minor features introduced in Windows Vista.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Winsupersite.com

Q: What are these new features I keep hearing about?

A: Windows XP Service Pack 3 will not include any major new features, but it will include four minor new features that improve the system's reliability and security. Contrary to reports, Microsoft has been very up-front about these functional additions for quite some time now.

These new features include:

Network Access Protection compatibility. Announced years ago, this feature allows Windows XP machines to interact with the NAP feature in Windows Server 2008. This functionality is built into the RTM version of Windows Vista as well.

Product Key-less install option. As with Windows Vista, new XP with SP3 installs can proceed without entering a product key during Setup.

Kernel Mode Cryptographics Module. A new kernel module that "encapsulates several different cryptographic algorithms," according to Microsoft.

"Black hole" router detection algorithm. XP gains the ability to ignore network routers that incorrectly drop certain kinds of network packets. This, too, is a feature of Windows Vista.

And that's about it. Nothing dramatic, as promised.

Source.

So, they're not gonna charge for it, and it's not designed to nerf out or ruin XP to get people to switch to Vista, because that'd cause a chunk of people to switch over to Mac or Linux at this point. It's mostly a nice, easy, and convenient method of updating Windows XP, instead of the all-day excursion of updating and rebooting that's needed now. So stop your conspiracy theorizin', Microsoft's too smart to alienate a very large userbase using the still popular Windows XP.

So what's this "no product key installation" deal about?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fifthfiend

So what's this "no product key installation" deal about?

It's for the new bundles of Windows XP SP3 they'll be selling, I guess it gives an option of skipping the product key step when installing XP.

Which I always thought was a feature. i mean, I know that I was able to use XP before setting up the product key when I installed XP on this box, and the copy of XP I have is pre-SP1.

Maybe it allows access to all features of XP now, including Windows Update and the like for 30 days. I'm not sure, and I can't be buggered enough to research it more; it just seems to be an update that minor.

Needless to say, it will only affect an extremely small amount of XP users.