XP SP3 Confusion

Already downloaded close to 79K times too... damn. Oh well... I'd say: if it works, it works, that's what VirtualBox/VirtualPC/VMWare is for, this kind of testing and verification. Takes what, 10 mins to download, 5 mins to integrate into a new XP SP3 installer CD, 10 mins to install in a virtual machine, 10 seconds to check the build on a few .dll files, done.

What? :)
 
I've never been one to get excited about service packs, so I just wait for them to appear on Windows Update - but I seem to be in the minority!
 
Just did some checking using SigCheck by Mark Russinovich, great tool. There are several builds floating around, with different MD5 hashs, and different digital signatures. Some posted at the TechNet forums show a digital signature dated 4-13 at 9:30PM, others are showing a digital signature of 6:30PM on 4-14, and of course the hashes are different as well.

So yes, confusion is the principle at work here. :)

It does install, and it does work, but to be "safe," I think I'll hold off till it's "Official" from Microsoft's download center with an "Official" download link direct from them.
 
Waiting for the official release myself...this way I have no doubts...only six more days anyway.
 
I was reading on this just yesterday, if I remember correctly the final version was finished 4/13, with a build number 5512. I'd be hesitant to install any "final" version floating around at this point, there's a good chance it's not the final build.
 
can't wait to slipstream this into a sp2 disk. collecting all of the updates is a huge pain.
 
Oh, the versions floating around are all based on 5512 - my issue is the digital signature (which is verified, at least by me as I don't take other's words for such things - as people shouldn't take mine when they can check it the same way I did). There are two versions of the WindowsXP-KB936929-SP3-x86-ENU.exe file floating around:

One of them has this for the SigCheck info:

Verified: Signed
Signing date: 9:30 PM 4/13/2008
Publisher: Microsoft Corporation
Description: Self-Extracting Cabinet
Product: Microsoft« Windows« Operating System
Version: 6.2.0029.0
File version: 6.2.0029.0 (SRV03_QFE.031113-0918)
Click to expand...

and the other has this info:

Verified: Signed
Signing date: 06:30 14.04.2008
Publisher: Microsoft Corporation
Description: Self-Extracting Cabinet
Product: Microsoft« Windows« Operating System
Version: 6.2.0029.0
File version: 6.2.0029.0 (SRV03_QFE.031113-0918)
Click to expand...

Aside from that, the files are identical as far as I can tell, but I haven't been able to get the actual MD5/SHA1 hashes on the second one just yet. On the first, they are:

MD5: bb25707c919dd835a9d9706b5725af58
SHA1: c81472f7eeea2eca421e116cd4c03e2300ebfde4

and that info comes from using SigCheck to compute/verify it. So now it gets interesting because if the second one comes up with the same hashes, then something is wrong someplace: they technically aren't same files because the signing dates are different, and that should be enough to cause a totally different hash to be created...
 
For clarification, but I know I'll repeat it for years to come:

Windows XP Professional 64 Bit Edition, aka XP x64, is NOT Windows XP Professional 32 Bit Edition in a 64 bit format. XP x64 is based on Windows Server 2003, not XP Professional 32 bit and as such does not use the same service packs because it's not the same OS.

It's more appropriate to call XP x64 "Windows Workstation 2003 64 Bit Edition" because that's what it actually is: a workstation-tuned version of Windows Server 2003, in a 64 bit form.

As such, XP x64 does not share service packs with XP Pro 32 bit aka XP x86.

XP x64 is currently up to Service Pack 2 for Windows Server 2003/XP x64 - so try not to confuse them together with the 32 bit version of XP Pro.

Hope this helps... somewhat... maybe...
 
Are they bundling new drivers with the SP3 update? I have a recent laptop running Vista which I want to swap for XP, but finding the appropriate drivers has been a trial.
 
Considering the size of this "update" I'd say no, it doesn't appear to have any considerably new driver content.
 
Does SP3 have any performance gains in gaming or otherwise compared to SP2?
 
Mithent said:
I've never been one to get excited about service packs, so I just wait for them to appear on Windows Update - but I seem to be in the minority!
Click to expand...

You are not alone.
On top of not getting excited, I personally wait 2-3 weeks b4 I download a sp. Then I surf around a bit and find out what, if any of my software gets broken by the sp. If no software I use gets broken, or only some software that I can live without does get broken, then I install the sp.
 
Yeah, what's with the 3 sentences regarding this figure in the article??

I was referring to gaming performance or some other measurable benchmark/metric.
 
What, so I can now collate in 900ms instead of a full second? For the most part, Office suite benches kinda loose their value when the speed that modern systems and OS's run them at is already so damn fast. I never have to wait on Office, it is waiting on me.
 
You'll have to wait til next week to see the official performance testing of SP3. I'm sure it is going to be a little faster since MS has really polished this version of Windows.
 
Because of the popularity of Office and the market penetration that it has, benchmarks testing the performance of Office applications does have some merit, so...

Just because the [H]ard people around here could care less, and typically consider stuff like Sandra, 3DMark, Crysis, and other applications - ok, fuck it, GAMES - to be the end-all-be-all definitive choice of performance testing doesn't make the testing of Office applications any less relevant.
 
Joe Average said:
Just because the [H]ard people around here could care less, and typically consider stuff like Sandra, 3DMark, Crysis, and other applications - ok, fuck it, GAMES - to be the end-all-be-all definitive choice of performance testing doesn't make the testing of Office applications any less relevant.
Click to expand...

^^=Blanket statement.

Blanket statement= teh lose. Wait, Sandra is a game too, isn't it? :rolleyes:

Performance testing does not only equal games. At the same token, one can only wonder why I can word process just as fast on an old Pentium 486 DX60 than I can on a Core 2 Duo E6420. :p I guess that's what the previous posts were getting at.
 
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