Following the announcement earlier this week that Vista Service Pack 1 had been shipped to manufacturing, Microsoft today confirmed that it seeded another build of Windows XP SP3 to a closed set of testers. "Yesterday, we released Windows XP SP3 RC 2 to private beta testers," a Microsoft spokeswoman said in an e-mail. "This release catches the build up on previously released hot fixes and responds to critical feedback from previous betas."
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Member since:2006-07-04
Member since:2006-02-11
There are more than just current updates rolled together. There are some new security features backported from Vista like blackhole router detection, the new product activation system from Vista, and of course they have to test and make sure all of the "rolled up" patches install properly and don't break anything. I believe they also include a lot of patches that aren't available on Windows Update (the kinds you would have to specifically request from them before now).
Member since:2006-12-06
The reason why it needs to be tested is this lets start with RTM during the beta they wind up with a list up bugs most are fixed some are not this is kind of like a snapshot of the OS (It acts a certain way and all the known bugs are heavily documented so they can be planned around) then comes the security updates which are not as tested as much but are not meant to change the way the OS behaves under certain conditions. The Service Pack which is basically what you said a collection of updates which together as a whole change the way the OS behaves, which get tested, heavily documented and so on.
IT departments depend on this documentation when deploying or migrating their systems.
Member since:2008-02-01
I seriously hope you were joking there. Imagine all the outcry if they released service packs without testing!
There are four minor features in this SP (not a huge update like SP2 was):
Network Access Protection compatibility.
Announced years ago, this feature allows Windows XP machines to interact with the NAP feature in Windows Server 2008. This functionality is built into the RTM version of Windows Vista as well.
Product Key-less install option.
As with Windows Vista, new XP with SP3 installs can proceed without entering a product key during Setup.
Kernel Mode Cryptographics Module.
A new kernel module that "encapsulates several different cryptographic algorithms," according to Microsoft.
"Black hole" router detection algorithm.
XP gains the ability to ignore network routers that incorrectly drop certain kinds of network packets. This, too, is a feature of Windows Vista.
They are discussed in greater detail here:
http://download.microsoft.com/download/6/8/7/687484ed-8174-496d-8db...
Member since:2005-08-11
With MS's track record, I'm surprised and dismayed you'd have this attitude. Not all the fixes in SP3 are available elsewhere at this time.
Check this out:
http://download.microsoft.com/download/6/8/7/687484ed-8174-496d-8db...
Member since:2006-10-10
Well, if you've released any updates through WSUS, you'll know that each time is a "hold your breath, and close your eyes" mouse-click. I've personally taken out a user32.dll error by releasing an update to a small group of compaqs. Turns out something in the update hosed the Realtek audio driver. MS had released a patch for it, that I found rather quickly, but it was nerve-racking to say the least.
I, for one, am glad that MS is doing some due-diligence by taking the time to make XP3 as bullet-proof as they can. Will make adoption much quicker/easier on my end as an admin.
Member since:
2006-05-02
Personally, I find it irritating that something like SP3 has to be tested at all. As I understand it, SP3 is essentially a collection of updates that have been available anyway for some time and thus have been used and tested extensively before. (Via Windows Update, c't Offline Update or whatever.)
There shouldn't be notable bugs anymore. Or have I missed something?