Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 3 started appearing on Windows Update early this morning. Windows XP Service Pack 3 covers all previously released updates. Also included will be some private hotfixes that you could only acquire through special request. There are genuinely new features - not just patches and security updates, but services that could substantially improve system security without overhauling the kernel like with Windows Vista. These new features will not significantly change customers experience with the operating system.
Windows XP SP3 Build 5512 is the final release, also known as the Release To Manufacturing (RTM) build that made it's way to TechNet, MSDN and OEMs. Service Pack 3's size for the English release is 316MB. Other language releases may vary. There are several new features that come with SP3, they are Network Access Protection (NAP), Kernel Mode Cryptographic Module (KMCM) and the hardening of the TCP/IP stack with the new "black hole router" detection.
Network Access Protection (NAP) has been added with the release of Service Pack 3. This will help System Administrators to ensure that their network is both secure and healthy. Sysadmins will be able to set policies that determine if a computer is healthy or not by meeting set system health requirements. Examples of those requirements can be having the most recent OS updates installed, having the latest version of the anti-virus software including detection definitions, or if the computer has a host-based firewall installed and enabled.
Kernel Mode Cryptographic Module (KMCM) is a FIPS 140-1 Level 1 compliant, general-purpose, software-based, cryptographic module residing at the Kernel Mode level of the Windows Operating System. It runs as a kernel mode export driver (a kernel-mode DLL) and encapsulates several different cryptographic algorithms in an easy-to-use cryptographic module accessible by other kernel mode drivers. It can be linked into other kernel mode services to permit the use of FIPS 140-1 Level 1 compliant cryptography. It premiered in Windows 2000, and its first implementation in a Windows client was for the first edition of Vista.
Microsoft is also hardening the Windows IP stack. With this addition comes Microsoft's new "black hole router" detection. Black hole router detection is a way for routers to detect in advance the shortest path to send a large number of datagrams, without having to fragment them too seriously along the way. As it turned out, some receiving routers that were pegged by sending ones as PMTU members were responding to datagrams with "do not fragment" messages by simply throwing them out. These were referred to as "black hole routers," and have been a perennial plague to streaming operations. The new router detection scheme enables IP routers along the way to flag misbehaving PMTU candidates in advance and steer around them.
well as an official microsoft partner, the "official" sp3 relase hasnt happened yet and is NOT on the windows update. the only version of sp3 you can obtain is an RTM version which are not EVER released on micrsoft update site
i urge all who reads this post not to click the links which are included in this persons post and if you wish to obtain a version of the RTM head to micrsoft website youself!! MSDN only though
The file on lunarsoft is kb936929 (Release Candidate), in other words, is a BETA, do NOT install it!
David Mcnutt
MCP, MCSE, CCNP, A+, N+
Last edited by Devine [TIGO]; Apr 29, 2008 at 06:31 PM // 18:31..
Well, I could cite at least one: reverse-engineering. It's well-known that hackers have perfected the most lazy and most effective method of creating viruses by reverse-engineering MS patches to discover the vulnerabilities that have been corrected. So while the "window of opportunity" is getting smaller with automatic updates, it is still large enough that people get infected.
It's never a good idea to voluntarily postpone an update, unless you've got reasons to believe that it'll break your system (that happens ...). So if you don't "rush", make sure that you apply it soon. A Service Pack is not a normal patch, it makes deep and profound changes that will secure your computer a (significant) little bit more.
Thanks for the info Tarun! I'll download after 9pm since it's >300Mo and I'll may get capped for the big size.
I'm not normally one to say too much on this, but i've noticed that the op has been using various updates/programs to plug his site. now if he is doing that and this site doesn't mind, great...but at least give the people the correct info.
Ty.
/edit
not so much 'correct info'...but some user feedback is helpful. copy/paste doesn't help much. It's nice to know if the OP is using said updates, if there are any known conflicts etc..etc..
Last edited by gone; Apr 29, 2008 at 07:14 PM // 19:14..
I installed it last night and it made my system to bluescreen every time I booted it up.
"Stop:C0000139 Entry point not found
Procedure entry point gdigetbitmapbitssize could not be located in the dynamic link library GDI32.DLL"
So no SP3 for me...
Exactly the same thing happened to me on my laptop.I had to reinstall XP but i used a copy slipstreamed with sp3 and it was fine then.I was using custom Omega drivers for my ATI graphics and i got a suspicion it was those that caused it.
Cool, but I was hoping for that 10% performance boost I kept hearing about.
There is a slightly noticable performance improvement on several aspects, including boot time.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ec]-[oMaN
Once installed how much space this thing suck up?
There will be a small increase because SP3 includes some hotfixes that were not released to the public. One example is MMC 3.0.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Painbringer
So if you are happy with Service pact 2 is it worth the download?
I would highly recommend getting the update as it includes unreleased hotfixes and includes new functionality to improve performance and security.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Brianna
There's no real reason to rush to SP3, IMO.
However I'll be getting it on my other computer soon here, I'm just going to wait it out and see what people find in SP3, such a bugs/problems etc.
While you may not want to rush to get it, there are definitely benefits from updating.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Devine [TIGO]
well as an official microsoft partner, the "official" sp3 relase hasnt happened yet and is NOT on the windows update. the only version of sp3 you can obtain is an RTM version which are not EVER released on micrsoft update site
i urge all who reads this post not to click the links which are included in this persons post and if you wish to obtain a version of the RTM head to micrsoft website youself!! MSDN only though
The file on lunarsoft is kb936929 (Release Candidate), in other words, is a BETA, do NOT install it!
David Mcnutt
MCP, MCSE, CCNP, A+, N+
Quote:
Originally Posted by Devine [TIGO]
i suggest a mod close this thread or remove it as the first poster has links to a beta version, which can be buggy
get on it guys
If you're as certified and qualified as you have claimed, then you would have researched into this and seen that SP3 is indeed out and stable.
You could also have easily downloaded the SP3 from the link on my website and checked in a Virtual Machine environment. I already have and I also checked the MD5s.
This is not a beta release, either. This is the official RTM release. The knowledge base ID number is the same. They have no reason to change it.
The MD5's are also available. MD5 checksums can be generated by MD5summer which you can get at: http://www.md5summer.org
MD5 for English Version: BB25707C919DD835A9D9706B5725AF58
MD5 for German Version: 265246926AA44BD767B0C11F80C084F1
MD5 for Russian Version: E38B5C19A3D12AE8DE0A12B1E098DD73
MD5 for Spanish Version: A3FC7285F1EE00CA57B06C6E7C875CA8
Still don't believe me? Check on MSFN.org, BetaNews, MajorGeeks, etc. They also have SP3 news posted or an article about the file.
So please don't troll in these threads.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Allanon754
And I assume XP can finally register more then 3 GB of RAM with this update?
32 bit Windows has a limitation of 4GB of RAM. If you wish to use more than 4GB you need 64 bit, including a processor that supports it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nightow
I installed it last night and it made my system to bluescreen every time I booted it up.
"Stop:C0000139 Entry point not found
Procedure entry point gdigetbitmapbitssize could not be located in the dynamic link library GDI32.DLL"
So no SP3 for me...
You may want to check for viruses and other malware, and also run sfc /scannow to make sure all the files are present. You should try the same thing, Big John Thomas.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Fril Estelin
A Service Pack is not a normal patch, it makes deep and profound changes that will secure your computer a (significant) little bit more.
Thanks for the info Tarun! I'll download after 9pm since it's >300Mo and I'll may get capped for the big size.
A service pack is a type of rollup for updates released over a period of time. I briefly explained this in my original writeup.
And you're quite welcome Fril. You may want to update your security thread to recommend people get this.
Quote:
Originally Posted by flubber
I'm not normally one to say too much on this, but i've noticed that the op has been using various updates/programs to plug his site. now if he is doing that and this site doesn't mind, great...but at least give the people the correct info.
Ty.
/edit
not so much 'correct info'...but some user feedback is helpful. copy/paste doesn't help much. It's nice to know if the OP is using said updates, if there are any known conflicts etc..etc..
Sorry if it seems like I may be spamming. I've only ever posted about DirectX updates and the service packs (Vista SP1 and XP SP3). I figure it would help people who come here with issues about their computer who then see there are updates available. This is especially good for those who do not normally update their computer (manually or automatically).
To answer your question, I have been deploying Service Pack 3 across my home network and I have not encountered any issues. In fact, on one machine SP3 actually resolved a few issues! I have also been deploying this at work and not encountered any issues at all.
Just to be sure the link was correct, I downloaded directly from Microsoft and checked the MD5. It matched the RTM that went out to OEMs, TechNet and MSDN.
I know that TechNet/MSDN users also got an ISO that was 544.86MB in size. It was a CD you could run to update to SP3 (but contained SP2 info, which is to be fixed). The SP3 release was also included on the ISO, which is why it was 540+MB.
May 6th is the official date that SP3 will show up on Windows Update. Right now it's showing up to a few people.
Quote:
Originally Posted by flubber
please dude, don't be sorry. it's a help, but feedback is just as helpful, if you know what I mean. even if it's bad, in a good way. ;D
I certainly do. I admit I tend to be more of a "get asked a question, give an answer" type guy.
I honestly am really enjoying SP3. It literally will have a more responsive feel to it which is very nice. It took 10 minutes to install on my 3 year old computer. 2GB RAM, 3.4GHz P4 with HTT, 320GB 7200 Western Digital HDD with 16MB cache (drive is only a few months old).
I mentioned having a computer (my grandfather's notebook) that had some issues that SP3 resolved. The last time I went to update his firewall (Comodo Pro 2.4) to the latest release, it was hanging on boot and very unresponsive. So I had to remove Comodo 3 and put 2.4 back on. After updating to SP3, I was able to update to Comodo 3 without any problems at all.
He rarely shuts down his computer, he simply lets it hibernate. Even the hibernation process is much faster than before. Heck, even on his computer which has 512MB RAM and I unfortunately don't have his processor memorized, it took under 30 minutes to install. I've had nothing but positive results from updating Windows XP to SP3.
read your own article then give me a ms download link to that instead of RC2 i have been using.
your article thats them not usums yet as all i get is RC2
Quote:
Today we are happy to announce that Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) has released to manufacturing (RTM). Windows XP SP3 bits are now working their way through our manufacturing channels to be available to OEM and Enterprise customers.
We are also in the final stages of preparing for release to the web, via Windows Update and the Microsoft Download Center. Online documentation for Windows XP SP3, such as Microsoft Knowledge Base articles and the Microsoft TechNet Windows XP TechCenter, will be updated then. For customers who use Windows XP at home, Windows XP SP3 Automatic Update distribution for users at home will begin in early summer.
Thanks to everyone here who installed the public betas – you not only gave us detailed feedback but also helped each other out with timely troubleshooting. Through the beta program we found several important issues and were able to confirm some essential fixes. We couldn’t have done this without you.
We will still be monitoring this forum during the next few weeks in case you have more feedback about the release of Windows XP SP3.
On behalf of myself, Shashank Bansal and Windows Serviceability, many thanks.
Chris Keroack
Release Manager, Windows XP Service Pack 3
Windows Serviceability
I did more research into your issues. With the help of a friend it turns out your file GDI32.dll was corrupt.
So here's what you two need to do.
Download SP3 and extract it using this command in your command prompt. It'll be easiest to put it into your C:\ directory So make a folder named xpsp3 and drop the XP SP3 exe into the folder. Be sure to rename it to make it easier to deal with. Something like xpsp3.exe will help.
Code:
xpsp3.exe /x
We have to expand the file, so here's what we do.
In the command prompt, enter this:
Code:
expand C:\xpsp3\i386\gdi32.dl_ C:\xpsp3
This will expand it from the source file to your destination directory.
Next you'll navigate to C:\Windows\System32\ and drag the GDI32.dll file onto the command prompt when you've run Replacer.
After that you need to drag the file that you will replace the original with onto the command prompt. If you followed my directions above, you just need to go to C:\xpsp3\ and drag/drop GDI32.dll onto the Replacer window.
well as an official microsoft partner, the "official" sp3 relase hasnt happened yet and is NOT on the windows update. the only version of sp3 you can obtain is an RTM version which are not EVER released on micrsoft update site
i urge all who reads this post not to click the links which are included in this persons post and if you wish to obtain a version of the RTM head to micrsoft website youself!! MSDN only though
The file on lunarsoft is kb936929 (Release Candidate), in other words, is a BETA, do NOT install it!
David Mcnutt
MCP, MCSE, CCNP, A+, N+
Are you on crack? They're direct links to windowsupdate.com.