SP3 Teething Problems For XP Users

[GhostShip]

Its wait and see time again folks 

http://www.informationweek.com/news/windows/operatingsystems/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=207600950

Within hours of its release, Microsoft's Service Pack 3 for Windows XP began drawing hundreds of complaints from users who claim the update is wreaking havoc on their PCs. The problems with XP SP3, according to posters on Microsoft's Windows XP message board, range from spontaneous reboots to outright system crashes.

"My external disks are having trouble starting up, which results in Windows not starting up," complained user Michael Faklis, in a post Wednesday. "After three attempts [to install XP SP3] with different configurations each time, System Restore was the only way to get me out of deep s**t," said 'Doug W'.
Another user said the service pack prevented him from starting his computer. "I downloaded and installed Windows XP Service Pack 3 Network Installation Package for IT Professionals," wrote 'Paul'. "Now I can't get the computer to boot."

Some users may balk at a feature in XP SP3 that prevents them from downgrading their browser from Internet Explorer 7 to the older IE 6 once the service pack has been installed. XP SP3 also won't install on systems running beta versions of the yet-to-be released IE 8.

Lets hope we dont see any issues that are likely to cause us problems, any reports on this subject would be greatly appreciated   

[Cobra]

I will say it again:  "Newer is not always better."

Was anyone actually surprised this would happen? I certainly wasn't.

[White Stripes]

the reason for not being able to roll back to IE6 after installing SP3
from the IEBlog; http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2008/05/05/ie-and-xpsp3.aspx

Internet Explorer 6 Users
XPSP3 will continue to ship with IE6 and contains a roll-up of the latest security updates for IE6. If you are still running Internet Explorer 6, then XPSP3 will be offered to you via Windows Update as a high priority update. You can safely install XPSP3 and will have an updated version of IE6 with all your personal preferences, such as home pages and favorites, still intact.
If you are currently running IE7 or IE8 on  Windows XP SP2 (XPSP2) and you are thinking of upgrading to XPSP3, read on.

Internet Explorer 7 Users
If you are currently running IE7 on XPSP2, Windows Update will offer you XPSP3 as a high priority update. If you choose to install XPSP3, Internet Explorer 7 will remain on your system after the install is complete. Your preferences will be retained. However, you will no longer be able to uninstall IE7. If you go to Control Panel->Add/Remove Programs, the Remove option will be grayed out.

This behavior is by design and here is why. When we install IE7 on Windows XP SP2, we backup the existing IE6 files in an uninstall directory.  Those IE6 files are the ones that shipped on XPSP2 plus all the security updates you’ve installed while using IE6. Windows XP SP3 contains a newer version of the Internet Explorer 6 files. If you have XPSP3 on your system and uninstall IE7, your system would revert to the backed up (older) version of the IE6 files rather than the newer XPSP3 version. You would end up in a mixed file state in Windows where most files would be the upgraded XPSP3, except for the IE6 files restored when uninstalling IE7. This state is not supported and is very bug prone. To ensure a reliable user experience, we prevent this broken state by disabling the ability to uninstall Internet Explorer 7.
If you must uninstall IE7 after you have upgraded to XPSP3, then you have to first uninstall XPSP3, and then uninstall IE7. After this series of uninstalls, you will be reverted back to a XPSP2, and a stable version of IE6, so feel free to upgrade to XPSP3 again.
If you install IE7 after you install XPSP3, then you will be able to uninstall IE7 at any point and be reverted to the newer IE6 version that ships in XPSP3. The restriction on uninstalling only applies to when you install a Windows Service Pack release on top of a standalone IE release.
Keeping this in mind, you might want to uninstall IE7, upgrade to XPSP3 and then install IE7 again so you can uninstall IE7 in the future if need be.

IMO it would be best to block SP3, uninstall IE7 (or dont install it in the first place), then install firefox or opera and be done with it...

[Lagerlout666]

All i can say is OMFG

I am now running SP3 on my home machine. After a succesful install on the works pc i decided to do at home. Christ ive been baraged with a few problems here.
Im running a AMD 4200 with 3 gig of ram, so its not a bad machine. It took ages to install, i got bored starting messing with things till it asked me to reboot.
Then the fun began

Loaded up in the little "please wait........"  screen took ages here, then took ages while it reloaded my settings, finally got to the login screen. I thought yay, SP3 no problems load up firefox to come post here, no internet. Thought that was weird, went straight to the network connecting page in control panel. All my network devices are disabled. All of them. I have two network cards, one onboard from nvidia which is hate and dont trust and breaks on everyone of their update's. And a realtek. a brand ive come to trust over the years. Both of them where disabled. By the time i was ready to active one of these, widows had finally finished loading when i was faced with a box, the usual *BINK* windows makes and what i couldnt belive it was asking me was "C:/Program Files" is the wrong name and would i like to change it to "C:/Program Files1"   I mean wtf. are they trying to break everyone computers. I said no, im left with a file in my C:/ drive now called Program,   Its labeled with no icon but called "file". Im scared to delete it as i dont know wtf it is. But yes. clicked No on that box. Re-enabled my realtek network card back online in a few secs.

I opened up the programmes i usually use and noticed the internet seemed really boggy. I was like wtf, it was fine 5 mins ago. WTF is going on now. Checked about and noticed half my network tools hadnt loaded on boot up. PG most of you will know but xnetstat was working and a few other bits and bobs. Checked back in network properties and blam, all the drivers where gone. that bloody qos rubbish was back and it dawned on me. Internet settings, Threw out the old tcp patch, yup back to 10 half open concurrent connections. Bumer rwin, destroyed back to default crap. all my network connection which fortunatly i wrote down are gone. Basicly installing SP3 has returned my computer back to its first install state. I certainly would of liked to know it had done that before doing this as i would of said FU and done it when what i was doing wasnt time sensitive.

So yes. Ive got SP3 installed, i dont see anything running diffrently. ive now got to reinstall winpcap and all the other network device drivers i have installed. and a fair few settings to mess about with. and find out why the programmes i have have suddenly stoped loading on start up . Not a massive job for me, but a nightmare to the novice.

[Joshua203]

Only problem i noticed was that it refused to download wich made me doubt the genuine stuff again.. this was not the cause

the cause was .. my puter is pimped up alittle (like some start screens etc) and removing all that and some register lines made things download and install ok...after install a repimp and no wories (.....yet  )

greetings, ...Joshua203

[Cobra]

Maybe they should have updated the phrases a bit. Errors returning "I'm afraid I can't do that" for instance.

No updating here. No plans to either. I would probably even consider downgrading if a PC I bought had SP3 reinstalled.