Windows XP Service Pack 3 - Will it turn XP into Vista?
section: windows, for your questions: KezNews forum, 19.10.2007
Microsoft is currently cooking the third and last service pack for Windows XP. Released back at the end of 2001, and overhauled in 2004 with the introduction of Service Pack 2, the next refresh for XP is long overdue.
Microsoft's own game with Service Pack 3, involving numerous and repeated delays, helped not only XP SP2 to dig in its roots deep enough to provide a consistent inhouse competition to Windows Vista, but also managed to starve XP users, already terribly hungry for a major update to their operating system.
In mid July, concomitantly with the pre-beta release of Vista SP1, Microsoft also delivered a limited preview of XP SP3, confirming that the service pack was right on track for general availability in the first half of 2008. With Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008, formerly codenamed Longhorn, pushed to the foreground, the next development milestone for XP SP3 shipped after the first beta for Vista SP1 and the Release Candidate 0 of Microsoft's last 32-bit server operating system. The late availability date for XP SP3, in comparison with the synchronized releases for Vista SP1 and Windows Server 2008 is a clear indication that the operating system is being strategically kept in the background.
But while this is indeed valid for the company, Windows XP users and Microsoft partners play to a different tune. According to data from Net Applications, Windows XP still accounts for 79.32% of the operating system market. This while Windows Vista's share has grown from near to nothing at launch to over 7.3%, an indication that Microsoft has passed the 70 million shipped licenses in the operating system's first eight months on the market. And if Vista keeps its current adoption pace, it is unlikely that Microsoft will reach the 100 million sold copies mark, roughly equivalent to 10% of the operating system market by the end of 2007, even taking into consideration the holiday shopping spree.
In this context, Windows XP will continue to account for the lion's share of the estimated 1 billion install base of the Windows platform, in the first half of 2008, despite the release of Vista SP1. Undoubtedly, some XP users will ignore Vista SP1, wait for XP SP3, and ride the aging operating system launched in 2001, until 2010 when Windows 7, Vista's successor is planned for launch. Microsoft's perspective in this case is that such a move is nothing more than ignoring the inevitable, and the inevitable is of course synonymous with Windows Vista, for the company.
At this point in time, Microsoft will retire mainstream support for Windows XP in 2009, and extended support in 2014. But after caving in to the sheer pressure from end users and original equipment manufacturers, the company will continue to sell XP via the retail and OEM channels throughout mid 2008, and via system builders until the end of January 2009. This, along with XP SP3 is bound to deliver quite an impact onto the operating system market, that XP is already hugging to the point of asphyxiation, leaving Vista with little room to breathe, SP1 or no SP1.
Installing SP3 on top of XP SP2 won't make the operating system a Vista equivalent. Sure enough, Microsoft has backported some Vista specific features, functionality and capabilities to XP via SP3, and more could be in the works, although the company did not confirm such a scenario. Still, the Vista additions to XP SP3 involve revamped descriptive options to the graphical interface of the Security Center. On top of this, XP SP3 will also support FIPS 140-1 Level 1 cryptography implemented as a DLL at kernel level, opening up new algorithms to developers via the Kernel Mode Cryptographic Module. The black hole router detection system will be evolved along with the integration of Vista's Network Access Protection module.
SP3 will also feature a range of items previously available as standalone downloads including: Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS) 2.5; IPsec Simple Policy Update; Microsoft Core XML Services 6.0; Microsoft Management Console (MMC) 3.0; Digital Identity Management Service (DIMS); Peer Name Resolution Protocol 2.1; Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) 2 and Windows Installer 3.1 v2. So it is obvious that SP3 won't turn the operating system into Vista, but as far as end users are concerned, this is nothing short of a positive aspect.
Microsoft has now opened Windows XP SP3 Beta Preview Build 3205 to over 12,000 Windows Vista SP1 beta and Windows Server 2008 testers. The build has also been leaked to peer-to-peer file sharing networks, and Microsoft is preparing a public beta of the service pack.
source:
news.softpedia.com
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Windows XP Service Pack 3 FINAL || Inside Windows XP Service Pack 3w || Complete Overview of Windows XP Service Pack 3 || Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) FAQ || Windows XP Service Pack 3 Released to Manufacturing
Comments(17)
i hope not!
i'm glad that xp is making such a strong stand as it should do, vista is not just bloat,
it's extreme bloat and have xp turn into something like that, i would have to move to
linux or mac and i'm not alone either, none of my tech savvy friends like it either, i
just can't do with microsoft's dumb stunts anymore.
the best xp is a simple xp!
not a stupid all rigged with security(that half the
people don't use)shit!
i installed vista to play around with it, just as many people here have. ultimate is, as
dc said, bloated as slow.
since i use my pc mainly for business, i used vlite
to build a vista business pc - scrapped all but necessary items - and turned off the most
stupid feature of all - uac. installed and further disabled all unneeded services.
ultimate booted from the bootmenu to the password prompt in about 45 - 70 seconds. with no
startup items, the desktop took another 30-40 seconds.
with business model i
built, boot-up is 21 seconds and that's with office 2007, acrobat, quick books and nod32
and sw doctor installed. the desktop appears in 2-3 seconds and is usable in about 10
seconds. applying the performance and reliability really helped.
an additional
trick is to set non-essential services that must be started to automatic-delayed so you
can use your pc sooner.
xp is still my main squeeze and vista is starting to
get somewhat usable. i still just play with it. the big problem here is that most people
and all businesses do not want to go through the crap i just described. they install vista
with defaults and the defaults is what makes it so fricking unusable.
all this
was done using an amd opteron 175 and 2gb ram. heh, my performance is index is a whopping
2.7 since my video card is geforce 6600 with 256mb. i'm using aero and it runs somewhat
well.
still, i won't trust it until at least sp1, which is actually what most
"in the know" folks i've talked to have said all along.
your hard drives must be going or something... desert rat... because it shouldn't take
45-70 seconds to boot to the password prompt, even under half those specs.. i think i get
to the password prompt in... 7-13 seconds... and about 3-5 seconds for the desktop...
even people with top spec computers would find it hard to get 7-13 seconds even on
windows xp, i don't know what planet your on but this is earth.
making aero for xp would be really cool, but they can't, vista won't sell if they do
this...
apple dot com !
i'm on vista right now as it just came with my laptop! but i've had more than enouh of
it, and going back o xp.
i mean, what's good about fency graphics when i can
properly run the applications that get my job done?
i mean, what's good about fency graphics when i can't properly run the applications
that get my job done?
thanks bills
if they would have had vista ready by 2005 perhaps they would have a chance to overshadow
xp. too bad that m$ messed up and couldn't deliver. vista is the "windows me" of
operating systems. more like an interim until windows 7 in 2010. newbs will buy comps with
vista pre-installed and be crying and complaining like all those winme people. meanwhile,
winxp folks are like the windows 2000 users of yore who can ride it out, until a decent
operating system becomes available. i'll be using windows xp professional sp3 and wait it
out. i'll definitely need a new computer by the time "windows 7" comes out but that's
okay. i'd need a new computer to run vista anyway. as i see it, i cannot foresee a *need*
to upgrade to vista when my current hardware runs so great on winxp and will continue to
do so.
you stupid lamerz there isnt going to be any new big got to have improvements...
your talking about the biggest greedyest corp on the planet thay first dont care and
secound wouldnt care if you were personaly ivolved...
if you want to play your
games in xp then join falling leaf other wize just shut the lamer stuff up...
ok... what kind of pc does everyone else in the world have... im sorry, but everyone
whinges about vista, ive had it for a month or 2 and it loads altogether in around
20-25seconds, which im happy with. i understand xp would be faster and all, but vista is
so much more efficient, at least for me it is, i also find all the quirky little touches
in vista so much nicer to use, if i click something im rewarded with a lovely little
animation, or pleasant little sound. i know this doesnt appeal to alot of people, and i
have made no sense whatsoever, but i just had to say that =d
can you say "system resources"?
well i will go all out and say that vista is a resource hog. i say this from a gamer
stand point. most xp games for example need lets say 256 ram, while vista(for the same
game)needs 512. if they keep this up i will be out dated using vista. also another anger
issue is that most new games and those going crossplatform (pc-xbox360) need to be running
windows vista. siiiiigh. so i bit the bullit and meet them half way. still using my tried
tested and true xp, but using ms open sorce vpc2007, i use xp for every thing stable now.
and for those games were i need to run vista, just click on vpc2007,run vista, takes about
a minute give or take. and with a press of the alt key i can jump to vista for those new
games and features and alt back out when i am done. completely seamless. now i know that
vista has it's probs but, that method has caused me no heartache at all.
have
your cake and eat it to!
andry words cloud the issue, facts and clairity is the
way to get your message across. rid the worls of dumb and angry post
right now, i have the vista look & feel on my windows xp using the vistamizer 2.0.0
software. best of all, i still have my my speedy fast system with zero vista bloated
craps and zero vista problems.
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Jenny
By Hummm.... on 19.10.2007 - 22:10