If you install a copy of SP3, and manage to track down the screen, please add a comment to this story letting me know how to get there. Microsoft claims there is one, exceptionally minor interface change - according to the Release Notes, a Security Options Control Panel applet "offers more descriptive text to explain the settings and prevent incorrect configuration of settings." Doesn't make the pulse race, does it? But I couldn't find even that - my version of XP doesn't seem to have the applet in question. You'll have to go to System Properties and check your OS version just to make sure it installed properly. Reboot after the install, and you're in business.ĭon't bother looking around for any visible changes to the operating system you won't find any. Once I downloaded it, it took about 30 minutes to install on a 1.83-GHz Core Duo laptop with 1GB of RAM. The actual download of the service pack weighs in at 65.6MB. (You can find the instructions on my blog. If you are comfortable with editing the Registry, you can instead use a hack to tell your Registry to download SP3.
#WINDOWS XP SP3 .EXE#
exe file - instead, you download a small executable file that, when run, changes your Registry so that Windows Update will download XP SP3. Microsoft is using an interesting method to distribute XP SP3. In addition, one researcher claims it will slightly boost XP's speed as well. It won't make any noticeable cosmetic changes to your operating system, but underneath the hood are several security improvements worth having.
Windows XP Service Pack 3, just out from Microsoft as Release Candidate 2, may not necessarily be worth the download now, but when it's finally released, it'll be worth the effort. Rather than simply remove stories in which he is quoted, we have left them online so readers can weigh his data and conclusions for themselves. Given that he disguised his identity to Computerworld and a number of other publications, the credibility of Kennedy's statements is called into question. Kennedy, who presented himself as the CTO of Devil Mountain Software, no longer works at InfoWorld. Editor's note: The person quoted in this story as "Craig Barth" is actually Randall C.