A little good news for Windows XP users....
By Ray on February 23, 2008 - 9:44pm
I found this announcement last week, and volunteered to give it my best shot, so this morning, along came a really big download from Automatic Updates, with this new Service Pack. Maybe I should explain: this isn't the final version of SP3, but rather Release Candidate 2, which is more or less like a beta. If we find it OK, then the 'Carved In Stone' version will be released a bit later on.
If you're wondering what happens if you agree to accept this version now, here's the poop -
Automatic Updates will download a rather large file onto your computer. Then, your computer will be scanned to verify its contents, the space available on it, and your key codes. Next, it will take an inventory of everything related to Windows on your machine. Then it creates a back-up of all that. Then, it chooses a conveniently empty part of your drive on which to unpack and install this service pack. Only then does it actually begin to install files, and that process will go on for the best part of three-quarters of an hour. After that, it will do a clean-up of its work, update the Registry, and register the new installation. After all that, you are invited to reboot, and your new Service Pack 3 begins life on your machine.
The first thing you should do after all of that is do a defragment of the drive, because you do need all the little ducks lined up in a nice neat row. (Works for me!) If you watch the little information window while this whole process is going on, and your hard-drive is growling away with your processor running at 100% on the performance graph, then you might easily get the feeling that this SP3 is practically rebuilding Windows XP on your machine as it goes along through the various steps. At the end, you will have a whole new set of files in there, and on mine, that meant a faster boot-up, and quicker finding of files when you click to get something up on the screen. So it does improve the performance of Windows XP, and give it a new lease on life. I suggest you get it.
If you're as fond of third-party themes & theme managers as I am,
bad news - they don't recognize that new SP3 beta as being legitimate
Windows XP, so they won't work with it. Thank God for System Restore!
While trying out that SP3 beta, I discovered that none of the progress bars
such as those commonly found in downloading windows, or in some scanners,
would work at all. In my latest version of TrojanHunter, the nice large
graphic of the scanning progress bar not only wasn't there, but half of its
frame was also missing. And that's one thing I want working perfectly.
So don't rush into anything with vast ideas about half-vast programming!
Oldest Living Blogger wouldn't kid you, Kiddies.
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