That's quite a list. I don't run the vast majority of those programs anyway & of the few that I do, I've never experienced any problems with SP2 or SP3. "If my answers frighten you then you should cease asking scary questions" - Jules Winnfield (Samuel L. Jackson) in Pulp Fiction

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I was actually able to get everything working under WinXP Pro SP2, by installing everything first and then installing the SP2 upgrade; now everything works just as it did before. The problem last time was that I installed the SP2 upgrade before the other software and while some of it installed and worked fine, games and other programs; some programs refused to work even after allowing them as an exception in the SP2 Firewall or turning it off, anyway it seems to work fine now. What is the story with SP3, is it problematic, is it necessary?

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It sounds like you have the original XP or XP with SP1 updates. SP3 updates is all the things in the SP2 updates that still apply, plus the newest of all the updates since SP2 updates that still apply, and a handful of new updates. If you're installing Windows from scratch, since about three months ago, if you go to the Microsoft Updates web page, after you install a few updates needed to use the current Microsoft Updates site, that's what it wants you to install first rather than SP2 updates. It takes a lot less time to install that rather than SP2 updates then the updates since then. I've installed SP3 updates that way on several computers for others and had no problems, but I did that before installing anti-malware software, and they didn't have much older software. The SP3 updates downloads IE 7, but you can choose NOT to install it when the install screen comes up for that, IF you install it via the Microsoft Updates page - if it is installed by Automatic Updates, I believe it is the case you DO NOT see that install screen and IE 7 is installed automatically. If you opt out of installing IE 7 at that point, it becomes an Optional item on the Microsoft Updates site, found when you search using a Custom search, rather than one in the Express list Automatic Updates uses. At least, that applied when I did that a couple of months ago on someone else's computer. If you are installing SP3 updates on an existing installation, only the updates it has that you don't already have are installed, but apparently SP3 updates sometimes makes mistakes in that situation and many problems have been reported. There are probably sites that list the problems you can have during or after installing SP3 updates you could look at. One common situation is if you have anti-malware software installed that may interact with what the SP3 updates do, and either the SP3 updates install will abort, or it completes but some things that used to work no longer work. For that reason it is a good idea to install the SP3 updates before you install anti-malware software, or if it is already installed, un-install it. E.g. - on a computer with an existing installation that already had all the SP2 updates and all the updates since (that show up for Automatic Updates / an Express search), she had Norton Internet Security installed, and the SP3 updates install aborted with a false message about not enough free space, despite my having disabled everything I could in NIS's settings, and my trying other things as well. - if you have other Norton products installed, SP3 updates may complete but afterward some things in Windows that used to work no longer work. The problem is caused by the way SP3 updates messes up editing the registry regarding the Norton software. Symantec has the cure for that, and Microsoft has a similar registry patch. - similar problems may be encountered if you have other anti-malware software installed. As well as some some older burning software and some other software not working properly when IE 7 has been installed, there are also some that don't work properly when the newset WMP has been installed.

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I have WinXP SP2 installed acording to System Properties as of now with no problems and am seeing how this goes for a while before considering SP3 and IE7; although I have come across some bugs and problem reports with certain systems concerning SP3 and IE7, but those were a while ago so I am still looking into this.

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"It sounds like you have the original XP or XP with SP1 updates." I meant that's what your Windows CD has. "I have WinXP SP2 installed acording to System Properties " Yes, that's what you see in System Properties once SP2 updates have been installed. If you install SP3 updates that will say SP3. " am still looking into this." It is wise for you to do that, regarding problems you may have while installing SP3 or problems you may have after it is installed.

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"I meant that's what your Windows CD has." I have all of the updates on CD’s, but prefer directly downloading them from M$ to see the latest update. "Yes, that's what you see in System Properties once SP2 updates have been installed. If you install SP3 updates that will say SP3." One would certainly hope so, but considering that its M$. "It is wise for you to do that, regarding problems you may have while installing SP3 or problems you may have after it is installed." Yeah, that will have to do for now and we will see how SP2 does and then onto SP3 and IE7...

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""I meant that's what your Windows CD has."" "I have all of the updates on CD’s, but prefer directly downloading them from M$ to see the latest update. " As far as I have gathered there have been absolutely no changes to the SP2 updates since they were first released, so if your CD has SP2 updates there is no point in wasting your time loading the SP2 updates from the Microsoft site and installing them. If the CD has SP2 updates that is printed on the original CD. If it has SP1 updates that is NOT printed on the CD, but when Windows is installed from a CD that has SP1 updates, you see in System Information it has SP1 updates.

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Yeah, I am aware of that; I just have the SP Update CD's on hand from M$, but prefer the the direct DL is all, like I said its M$...

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SP2 has performed very good and so I went ahead and installed SP3 and it has functioned quite well so far; anyway glad everything worked out so well. Thanks.

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I'm glad to hear SP3 updates installed for you fine. Thanks for tying up the thread. ....... "I was actually able to get everything working under WinXP Pro SP2, by installing everything first and then installing the SP2 upgrade; now everything works just as it did before." Does your XP CD have SP2 updates? If it does, that's printed on the original CD.

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"I'm glad to hear SP3 updates installed for you fine. Thanks for tying up the thread." Yeah, I thought that it might help someone else possibly doing the same. "I was actually able to get everything working under WinXP Pro SP2, by installing everything first and then installing the SP2 upgrade; now everything works just as it did before." "Does your XP CD have SP2 updates? If it does, that's printed on the original CD." I have all 3 M$ WinXP CD's, one CD is the M$ WinXP Pro O/S and the other 2 CD's are M$ SP2 and SP3 Upgrades and yes they are original CD's with the version printed on the CD.

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