Microsoft yesterday made Service Pack 3 RC2 available to both testers and the general public. They have provided a small script to run on your XP SP2 machine that will allow for SP3 to be available through Windows Update.

The build, now at v3311, cannot be installed over previous SP3 betas. Versions of Windows XP Service Pack 3 prior to Release Candidate 2 should be removed before attempting to use the registry key. Windows Update will not offer Release Candidate 2 to machines with previous versions of the Windows XP Service Pack 3 beta.

Link: Windows XP SP3 RC2 via Windows Update Script @ Microsoft Downloads


There are 16 additional comments
Poll: Are you brave enough to run SP3 RC2?
Yep, bring it on
 24
Nope, will wait for the final
 30
I am not running XP
 13
Total votes: 67
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Quote this comment Reply to this comment #1 Posted by darkmanx21 on 20 Feb 2008 - 11:03
Does anyone have the problem of not being able to install WMP11 after installing SP3? I have a Media Center Laptop, did a clean install, installed SP3 but was unable to get WMP11 to install..hmm..

..anyways, nice release..I wonder if it will be like Vista SP1 RC and be made straight to RTM? Or do they have to do the Refresh thing first? ;-)
Quote this comment Reply to this comment #2 Posted by miguel_montes on 20 Feb 2008 - 11:51
Impressions, people? How is it!?
Quote this comment Reply to this comment #3 Posted by Corona on 20 Feb 2008 - 12:23
i just installed it no problems so far
(1 reply) Quote this comment Reply to this comment #4 Posted by albertux on 20 Feb 2008 - 12:56
Is it only available to U.S.? I'm from Spain and it doesn't appear in Windows Update.
Quote this comment #4.1 Posted by Borimol on 20 Feb 2008 - 14:57
(albertux said @ #4)
Is it only available to U.S.? I'm from Spain and it doesn't appear in Windows Update.

I have the same problem
Quote this comment Reply to this comment #5 Posted by OldDoc on 20 Feb 2008 - 12:58
Yup, same problem as Albertux, is it only available in english?
(3 replies) Quote this comment Reply to this comment #6 Posted by tsupersonic on 20 Feb 2008 - 13:10
I'm not trying this, but I can't wait for the release of SP3.

Up to 10% speed increase
Quote this comment #6.1 Posted by jesse on 20 Feb 2008 - 15:48
(tsupersonic said @ #6)
I'm not trying this, but I can't wait for the release of SP3.

Up to 10% speed increase

ive asked people on every rc thats been released so far, and no one has said they noticed any real significate speed increase. so i gotta see it to believe it. im looking forward to it too though...ill wait for the final to come out too
Quote this comment #6.2 Posted by NightmarE D on 21 Feb 2008 - 02:24
(jesse said @ #6.1)
(tsupersonic said @ #6)
I'm not trying this, but I can't wait for the release of SP3.

Up to 10% speed increase

ive asked people on every rc thats been released so far, and no one has said they noticed any real significate speed increase. so i gotta see it to believe it. im looking forward to it too though...ill wait for the final to come out too


I installed the last build "3300" on 3 of my systems and there was an obvious boost in performance on each system.

Not saying it happens on all systems, but on all of mine I noitced a nice difference.
Quote this comment #6.3 Posted by jaffar on 21 Feb 2008 - 17:32
(NightmarE D said @ #6.2)
I installed the last build "3300" on 3 of my systems and there was an obvious boost in performance on each system.

Not saying it happens on all systems, but on all of mine I noitced a nice difference.

me too
Quote this comment Reply to this comment #7 Posted by Typhon on 20 Feb 2008 - 13:12
I just installed it also no probe so far. Says Service Pack 3v.3311.
(1 reply) Quote this comment Reply to this comment #8 Posted by KevinRGood on 20 Feb 2008 - 13:24
I thought the postpone the update until mid March? Is this the final version?
Quote this comment #8.1 Posted by ir0nw0lf on 20 Feb 2008 - 16:24
Er... This is not Vista SP1, this is XP SP3 and this is a RC, not the RTM or RTW final code, short of them signing off on this as final.
(1 reply) Quote this comment Reply to this comment #9 Posted by Kushan on 20 Feb 2008 - 14:38
How has this ran for those installing it no top of an SP2 installation?
SP2 was great for me as long as it was a brand new install, but installing the service pack on top of SP1 machines caused me nothing but trouble.
Quote this comment #9.1 Posted by Scirwode on 20 Feb 2008 - 15:11
Have had no problems so far. Installed on top of SP2 and everything worked well, and the system does feel a bit snappier. There was a bit of problem with the Tango Patcher and Uxtheme but a couple of restarts and a search through Google made it all better.

All in all, quite good.

Scirwode
Quote this comment Reply to this comment #10 Posted by Regression_88 on 20 Feb 2008 - 18:08
I installed it on one of my laptops 9 hours ago (an hour or so before this news story broke) and posted the link in the beta forum: http://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?show...amp;p=589219681

Anyways, it installed fine- not a single problem during install. It took about 20 minutes to install and clean up before login after the reboot. Haven't noticed any speed improvement, and actually the laptop ran slower for the first 30 or so minutes- probably the installer finishing some clean up.

I also noticed that many of the DX9 bits were upgraded to *.3311 dlls.

@Kushan- this was an OEM > SP2 > SP3 upgrade.

@Darkmanx11- I had a similar problem with 3282 not letting me install IE7 so it's probably a version check in the installers.
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