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Windows SP3
Has anyone experienced any problems installing SP3? Any problems running applications after installing SP3. A Google search highlights some difficulties. Is it necessary to REMOVE SP2 before installing SP3.
Windows XP SP2 Excel Word Dimension 8250
Sherr
ky331
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August 5th, 2008 22:00
You might try reading through the following thread:
http://www.dellcommunity.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=sw_winxp&thread.id=253012
it starts by giving several links to sites that indicate
a) preparations you should make/consider before upgrading to SP3
b) some known problems with the SP3 installation [at least, problems at that time of that posting --- hopefully, some/most of these may have been corrected by now].
the thread, with all its many responses, is quite long (5 pages), and I have not considered all the comments posted there.
Personally, I have upgraded from SP2 to SP3 on at least 4 different XP systems without having any problems. However, it may depend on the particular configuration of your system -- for example, which anti-virus, firewall and printer you're running --- and so yes, other people have had problems. there's no way i can predict how smoothly it will go for you. but researching the matter for any known problems is certainly a good first step.
NOTE: If you do decide to go ahead with the upgrade, do *NOT* uninstall SP2 first
VCraig
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August 6th, 2008 03:00
ky331
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August 6th, 2008 11:00
Yes, one of the factors to consider in the SP3 update:
if you already have ie7, and then upgrade to SP3, you will lose the ability to "simply" uninstall ie7 (and roll back to ie6): if you go to add/remove programs, you'll find that the REMOVE button has been greyed-out (disabled). in such a case, if you absolutely needed to do a rollback, you'd have to first UNinstall SP3, and then UNinstall ie7 (rolling back to ie6).
in contrast, if you still have ie6 on your system [or alternatively, if you have ie7 but choose to uninstall/rollback first to get ie6] and then upgrade to sp3, you'll still have your ie6... with the option to upgrade to ie7 any time you want... and if you do it this way [ie7 AFTER sp3], you will be able to uninstall/rollback ie7 without going through any "contortions".
granted, there may be no compelling need NOW to upgrade from sp2 to sp3. however, the expectation is that at some future date [no idea how soon or how far off], microsoft will REQUIRE xp users to have installed sp3 in order to be able to use windows updates. at that point, you'll have no choice but to install sp3... or else, forfeit any future windows critical/security updates.