Windows XP SP3 - What I've found so far
Just some quick notes on what I've noticed, or been told by people I trust, about XP SP3 so far. My own experiences are based on a clean install at home and a few test upgrades at work (ah the benefits of being paid to do R&D).
What XP Service Pack 3 is - and is not.
Windows XP SP3 is a collection of hotfixes and patches that are rolled up into one giant patch for Windows XP. Unlike SP2, SP3 does not make substantial changes to the way Windows XP works and does not add a lot of new features.
The few new features that are added are more along the lines of fixing problems in the boiler room rather than a complete refit of the whole ship. This might sound a bit dull and if you're hoping SP3 is going to make Windows XP do something magic then you probably will be disappointed with it. However, it's an important update and I'd recommend it to any Windows XP user.
You can slipstream XP SP3 into any older version of the Windows XP install media to create a XP SP3 install disk, if you wish. However, do not slipstream XP SP3 from a vista machine, a bug has been reported where doing this invalidates the licence keys.
This version of SP3 is for 32-bit 'full' Windows clients only. It is not designed for the 64-bit version of XP Professional, Embedded XP or Windows Fundamentals and will give an error message if you try to install it on one of these systems. Apparently there will be a separate update for the embedded systems/Win Fundamentals later.
What does SP3 do?
Mass deployment should be easier, with built in support for the Intel High-Definition sound architecture (installing the XP hotfix in earlier versions of XP automatically sometimes proved tricky), and the ability to forgo entering a licence key during setup for those who don't use volume licences for some reason. You'll still need to do this and then activate afterwards though, but it's a nice feature for businesses that haven't taken up volume licence options and want to distribute a standard build based on their OEM licences.
XP SP3 is supported in Apple's BootCamp, but you will need to update Apple's BootCamp install on Windows itself because updates to various Apple drivers and components used in Windows are required. (Spotted by Colin Barnhorst and tested here).
Networking improvements add support for Black Hole detection and Network Access Protection (aka NAP), both implemented much the same way as in Vista. I'm not sure that I'm overly taken with the idea of NAP (possibly more on that in another article) but Black Hole detection should help people who have 'network weirdness' issues.
Both IE6 and IE7 are supported, that is, SP3 will provide the latest updates to whichever version you have installed. It will not force you to upgrade from IE6 to IE7. Neither does it force you to upgrade Windows Media Player (I don't think it applies any patches to either version of WMP though.
What does SP3 not do?
It doesn't make big changes to the way your computer works. It doesn't appear to break any of the apps I use (take that with a pinch of salt because there's a whole world of apps that I don't use).
It won't turn your XP machine into a half XP half Vista hybrid. It won't turn water into wine and it won't feel different at all in day-to-day use.
It doesn't change any of the limits on things like memory (e.g. it doesn't allow >4Gb support via PAE or anything) or file sharing or licences or whatever.
There's some debate over whether or not SP3 speeds XP up, and while it certainly feels pretty snappy to me, it's difficult to put a hard number on this. It certainly doesn't feel like it's slowed anything down.
So should you install it?
If you've got a fully patched XP SP2 system that you're really happy with, there's no rush but I'd still suggest you install it once it's been out for a little while and the rest of us have discovered the few problems with the update process that might still be hiding. If you're an obsessive geek about these things like me then you'll probably ignore that and actually be running it already, and more power to you.
If you're building a fresh OS install then I don't see any reason not to install SP3 as part of the setup. Heck, it'll make the setup routine slightly easier, that's a reason to do it right away. Just don't expect any major changes, this is a simple tune-up, not a new engine and re-spray.