32-bit Windows Vista Eats Up RAM
Windows Vista is a system resource hog. There is little doubt as to that. But to go from there to Windows Vista actually eating up RAM... Well, in fact you shouldn't blame Windows Vista for
missing RAM in a certain scenario.
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17.3.2007
64-bit Vista SP1 Runs Faster than 32-bit Vista SP1 and 32-bit XP SP3!
The 64-bit edition of Windows Vista delivers not only support for larger quantities of system memory, with the high-end editions supporting as much as 128 GB of RAM, but also some extra horse power hidden under the hood.
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29.4.2008
Vista SP1 Won't Resolve the 4 GB RAM Limitation of 32-bit Windows Vista
32-bit Windows operating systems, and Windows Vista makes no exception whatsoever to this rule, are limited in terms of the amount of system memory that can be addressed to no more than 4 GB.
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4.1.2008
Forget 32-bit XP SP3, It's All About 64-bit Vista SP1
Back in 2007, because of the ubiquity of 32-bit architectures, and the market's slow migration pace toward 64-bit computing, Microsoft announced that the next version of the Windows client, Windows 7, would be delivered in both x86 and x64 flavors.
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15.8.2008
From XP SP3 and Vista SP1 to Windows 7 - the Slow Death of 32-bit Windows
Moving onward from Windows XP Service Pack 3 and Windows Vista Service Pack 1 to Windows 7, Microsoft is gearing up for the death of 32-bit versions of the Windows client. On the server-side, Window's transition to 64-bit only architectures is almost complete, with Windows Server 2008 being the last server operating system from Microsoft with support for 32-bit CPUs.
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31.7.2008
Tweak-XP Pro v4.0.8 Download
The original tuning and optimization software for Windows XP. Tweak hundreds of hidden features of Windows XP, optimize your machine and customize it to your needs.
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13.12.2006
Pirates Offered Windows XP Pro Retail at $100 Discount
Users running illegal copies of Windows XP are being offered discounted purchase prices.
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15.5.2006
Microsoft to target Windows XP Pro users with Genuine nagware notifications
Microsoft is stepping up its war on software pirates by rolling out new Windows Genuine notification software for what it is calling its most pirated version of Windows: Windows XP Professional.
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26.8.2008
It's Time to Face the Ugly Truth, SP3 or No SP3, the Clock Is Ticking for Windows XP
As 2008 has kicked in, it's now time to face the ugly truth. The clock is ticking for Windows XP. And while Microsoft may view this as a natural stage in the evolution of a product introduced all the way in 2001, a healthy proportion of end-users and businesses will fail to see eye to eye with the company on this one.
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5.1.2008
Vista SP1 RC Leaves XP SP2 in the Dust, but What About XP SP3?
Although Microsoft has indicated a strong disapproval of benchmarking tests involving development milestones of Windows Vista Service Pack 1, the temptation is simply too big to ignore.
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17.1.2008
Microsoft Makes Its Own Vista SP1 vs. XP SP2, Leaves XP SP3 Out
Ever since the advent of Window Vista, at the end of November 2006 for businesses and in January 2007 for the general public, Microsoft has virtually invited the comparison between the two operating systems.
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8.5.2008
Microsoft Hands out XP SP3 beta – Final SP for XP
In an email sent to selected testers telling them they have been accepted to begin testing XP SP3, Microsoft has also informed them that this will be the final Service Pack for the now aging OS.
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5.10.2007
XP SP3 Does Not Support Windows XP
Believe it or not, but Microsoft does not support Windows XP with XP SP3. Well, maybe that's not entire true. But it is true nonetheless. End users will find they they are unable to deploy XP SP3 on top of XP. What is the catch?
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16.1.2008
MEMORyAL 4.3 - Unleash Your RAM
MEMORyAL 4.3 is a Indicator control system resources and memory speed.
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4.1.2009
Vista Smoker Pro 1.1
Vista Smoker Pro allows you to change various settings in the Windows Registry.
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26.2.2007
The Vista RAM puzzle: Is 2GB enough?
A couple weeks ago, my buddy Dwight Silverman asked whether he should be tempted by low, low prices to bump the RAM in his Windows Vista machine from 2GB to 4GB.
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13.8.2007
See Windows Vista Run with 0 (Zero) RAM
That's right! Windows Vista can run using a total of zero system memory. Well, bear with me, it will all make sense in the end.
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5.10.2007
The Only Way for Windows XP SP3 Is Down
SP3 will do nothing for XP, but still more than what SP1 will do for Vista - The third and final service pack for Windows XP will do little to nothing for the operating system, but will manage to deliver a superior boost to the platform's momentum in comparison to Service Pack 1 for Windows Vista.
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12.4.2008
Vista Start Menu 2.1 PRO
Vista Start Menu has been in development as an attractive and efficient alternative to the Start Menu in Windows XP and Windows Vista for one year.
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28.1.2007
CDBurnerXP Pro 4.0.013.220
CDBurnerXP Pro is a free CD/DVD burning solution. With this software you can burn CD-R, CD-RW DVD+R/RW DVD-R/RW discs.
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23.9.2007
CDBurnerXP Pro 4.0.024.439
CDBurnerXP is a free application to burn CDs and DVDs, including Blu-Ray and HD-DVDs. It also includes the feature to burn and create ISOs, as well as a multilanguage interface. Everyone, even companies, can use it for free.
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12.3.2008
OS X versus Vista, RAM division
As I noted earlier this week, I’ve begun using a MacBook (the basic white model) and keeping a log of my experiences.
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26.10.2008
Office XP SP3 Info
Office XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) provides the latest updates to Microsoft Office XP. SP3 contains significant security enhancements, in addition to stability and performance improvements. This service pack applies to any level of Office XP.
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Sneak Preview of XP SP3?
An unofficial preview pack containing what purports to be Windows XP Service Pack 3 has been uploaded to The Hotfix web site. The Hotfix is an independently-run site that specializes in downloads and discussions of Windows patches and bug fixes.
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Microsoft Delays XP SP3
Bink has an interesting article up on his site concerning Windows XP SP3. Microsoft has apparently pushed back the scheduled release date of SP3 to the second half of 2007.
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16.1.2006
Windows XP SP3 Preview No. 5
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11.2.2006
Windows XP SP3 On The Horizon
According to Microsoft press release about Unified Access Control and Network Access Protection, Windows XP service pack 3 (SP3) is in development and will be released later this year.
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24.5.2007
Windows XP SP3 Available for Download!
In two weeks too :) Microsoft confirmed officially that Windows XP Service Pack 3 will be made available for download in the next couple of weeks.
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29.8.2007
Windows XP Closes In on SP3
Microsoft's most successful operating system, ever, has inched closer to Service Pack 3. Release Candidate 1 is now available from MSDN and—so I hear—from TechNet. I can only personally confirm MSDN availability.
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4.12.2007
Deploying Windows XP SP3
With a pre-Release Candidate build of Windows XP Service Pack 3 available for download, the imminence of the final version of the refresh is starting to take contour.
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13.12.2007Despite rumors, Windows XP SP3 still not quite ready
With Windows Vista Service Pack 1 out the door, Microsoft was largely expected to release Windows XP SP3 last week or this week. It didn't, instead
making public a refresh build of SP3 Release Candidate 2...
betanews.com -
26.03.2008Microsoft continues to warn of IE8 lock-in for XP SP3 users
Last year when Microsoft launched Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2, Jane Maliouta announced that consumers using Windows XP SP3 would be locked-in with the
IE8 if they had installed the IE8 beta prior to upgrading to SP3. Microsoft again yesterday issued that same warning to it's consumers. If you are
still one of the millions of users on Windows XP with SP3 installed, Microsoft has provided crucial steps to follow if you're ready to upgrade to
IE8 RC1. You can obtain IE8 RC1 from the links on this page. To see if you're one of the people who will have IE8 locked in, follow these steps.
Is your computer running Windows XP SP3?
Read full story.....
neowin.net -
27.01.2009Windows XP SP3 moves closer to completion
Beta testers have received access to a release candidate of Windows XP Service Pack 3, but general consumers still have a long wait until they'll see
SP3 available for download...
betanews.com -
20.11.2007Is Microsoft Playing Games With XP SP3?
Call it a Hamlet moment for the PC industry, filled with political intrigue and machinations worthy of the great Shakespeare play: to wait for XP SP3
or move to Vista now that Microsoft has released Vista SP1? Or in other words: "To XP, or not to XP?" That is the question.
It's a
question that is burning up the blogosphere with some speculating that Microsoft has delayed XP SP3, a long awaited release that could boost the
performance of XP, to get more users to adopt Vista, a potential cash cow for Microsoft and PC makers given the operating system's robust hardware
refresh requirements.
With many in the blogosphere speculating that Microsoft could release the final version of XP SP3 this week,
Microsoft late Tuesday snuffed out all hope that users would see the service pack, originally slated for release in 2006, any time soon.
Read full story.....
neowin.net -
26.03.2008Windows XP & Office 2003 mainstream support ends April 14
Just a quick reminder to Neowin users, both Windows XP and Office 2003 will leave mainstream support and enter extended support on April 14, 2009.
This applies to the following Windows XP editions: Windows XP HomeWindows XP Pro 32-bit and 64-bitWindows XP Media Center EditionWindows XP Tablet PC
Edition However, for ultra-low cost PCs like netbooks, Microsoft has set June 30, 2010 as the End-of-Sales date even though the general End-of-Sales
date for Windows XP was February 28, 2009. The last Service Pack for Office 2003, SP3 was released in September 2007. The Outlook 2003 Junk Email
Filter will continue to receive updates with new junk email definitions through the end of the extended support phase.
Read full story.....
neowin.net -
04.04.2009XP SP3 RC Preview Clarification
I just noticed a post at
Bink.nu where Steven mentions that the XP SP3 RC Preview is now available on Connect. Just to clarify, Microsoft have not
released any new build of XP SP3 to the general Windows Beta Program. While there is the possibility that he may be talking about a different private
beta program on Connect, the main Windows Beta Program on Connect which houses the Vista SP1/Server 2008/XP SP3 betas was last updated with the XP SP3
Beta (Build 3205) in early October.
winbeta.org -
24.10.2007Firms need to plan for XP Service Pack 3
Organisations that expect to be running Windows XP in mid-2010 should plan to test and deploy XP SP3, Gartner has advised.
Microsoft is planning to release Windows Vista Service Pack (SP) and Windows XP SP3 will be available in the first half of 2008.
According to Gartner, deploying Windows XP SP3 should be significantly easier than testing and deploying SP2, which many users considered a major
change of the operating system.
Annette Jump, a research director at Gartner, said, "We will probably see a mixture of Vista and
XP SP3 deployments in 2008. Jump believed some businesses would deploy Vista and some could stick with XP, in which case, they would be looking at
installing the SP3 service pack.
winbeta.org -
01.12.2007New Features Discovered in Windows XP SP3: Is It Better Than Vista?
The principal reason given for the tremendous under-the-hood changes to Windows unveiled early this year in Vista was the need to overhaul the
security model. Now it seems many of those changes are also coming to XP in SP3...
betanews.com -
10.10.2007Don't slipstream XP SP3 on Windows Vista!
This just in from Bink, seems he had a pretty interesting weekend attempting to Slipstream XP SP3.
"So I build a new Windows XP ISO with
SP3 integrated, this is a Volume License editions (VOL) which only accepts Volume License Keys (VLK). When I want to install it on a clean machine, I
noticed that setup prompts for a product key and it does not allow me to continue, which should be a new feature in XP sp3. OK so I fill in the VLK
but it does not accept it, I try another one from a customer of mine, does not work either. Angry
I found out that the problem is when you
do the XP Sp3 slipstream process on a WIndows Vista machine, the API gives a different response and screws up the PID process. This is a bug and
Microsoft knew about this in December, still the bug remained and made it all the way to RTM, nice work Microsoft.
So XP SP slipstream only
on XP or 2003 machines!!!"
neowin.net -
05.05.2008Windows XP SP3 Not Until Late
2007
According to an update on
Microsoft's support lifecycle
Web site, the next service
pack for Windows XP isn't due
out until the second half of
2007 -- one full year after
Windows Vista launches. XP SP3
will likely serve as a
cumulative update for what
will soon become Microsoft's
legacy operating system...
betanews.com -
18.01.2006XP SP3: TechNet and MSDN subscribers to get beta in two weeks
Microsoft provided an update on the timing for Windows XP Service Pack (SP) 3 on August 29.
Company officials said on Wednesday
that the Windows team plans to deliver a near-public beta of XP SP3 (its going to all TechNet and Microsoft Developer Network subscribers) by
mid-September.
The final version of XP SP3 is slated to hit some time in the first half of calendar 2008, officials said. (Thats
the same date the Softies have been promising officially for a while now. Microsoft wont be any more specific on XP SP3 timing.)
Company officials did not release a feature set for XP SP3 on August 29. The only new piece of information available was the public-beta due
date.
Microsoft made available to a set of private testers a preview of XP SP3 earlier in August. I saw an alleged fix list at
that time: It consisted of nearly 1,000 items.
The last time Microsoft provided a cumulative update to Windows XP was in 2004,
when it released XP SP2.
winbeta.org -
29.08.2007Microsoft to ease XP activation with SP3
Microsoft Corp. will change how users activate Windows XP when Service Pack 3 launches in the first half of 2008, a company white paper said.
New installations of Windows XP SP3 will give users the same 30-day grace period currently offered to Windows Vista customers before they're
required to enter a product activation key, the 25-character code that proves the copy is legitimate.
Read full story.....
neowin.net -
28.12.2007Windows XP SP3 now available via Windows Update
Windows XP SP3 is finally here for those that use Windows
Update, and
here is a direct link to the stand-alone version of SP3 for x86 XP systems (32 bit). Thanks
Bink! I can't confirm if the 64bit version of SP3
is available from today, can anyone confirm?
Here is an interesting
article regarding SP3 performance, ignoring the fact that Vista SP1 is still faster than XP SP2/SP3 users will enjoy a performance boost
over SP2. When will people learn that Vista ain't all bad!
Windows® XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) includes all previously released
updates for the operating system. This update also includes a small number of new functionalities, which do not significantly change customers’
experience with the operating system.
This white
paper summarizes what is new in Windows XP SP3.
neowin.net -
29.04.2008Microsoft: XP SP3 an 'Update Roll-up'
Although Windows Vista Service Pack 1 is the big news of the day, Microsoft is concurrently preparing the third service pack for Windows XP. But SP3
won't introduce much of anything new for XP users, and will simply serve as a roll-up of already released fixes, Microsoft says...
betanews.com -
30.08.2007Rumor: Vista SP1 coming February 18, XP SP3 on March 23
French tech website
PC INpact is reporting that
it got its grubby little hands on the exact release dates of Windows Vista Service Pack 1 as well as Windows XP Service Pack 3. According to a source,
Vista SP1 is to be released on the night of February 18 while XP SP3 will be released on the night of March 23.
Although Microsoft has not
given a tight timeframe for when to expect XP SP3, it did state earlier that Vista SP1 will be available in mid-March. The screenshots should be
therefore taken with a grain of salt. It is possible that these memos were sent out before Microsoft delayed Vista to mid-March. Could it be that the
Vista date is wrong but the XP one is correct?
Read full story.....
neowin.net -
07.02.2008Windows 7: Not only faster than Vista, XP too
Instead of using benchmarking programs, Adrian Kingsley-Hughes from ZDNet put together 23 real-world scenarios to see which operating system would be
the quickest to complete all of the tasks.
He tested the 32-bit versions of Windows 7 build 6.1.7000.0.081212-1400, Windows Vista SP1,
and Windows XP SP3. Two separate test machines were used:
An AMD Phenom 9700 2.4GHz system fitted with an ATI Radeon 3850 and 4GB of RAM
An Intel Pentium Dual Core E2200 2.2GHz fitted with an NVIDIA GeForce 8400 GS and 1GB of RAM
Neither of these computers is top of the
line, but Windows 7 managed to outperform both Vista and XP on both. Kingsley gave a 1 to the operating system that finished each test first, a 2 for
second place, and a 3 for third. Windows 7 scored 25 points on both systems, placing first in 21 tests, and second in two other ones. On the AMD
system, XP scored 61 points and Vista scored 52, while on the Intel system, XP scored 56 points and Vista scored 57.
jcxp.net -
03.01.2009Effects of XP SP3 update on gaming
Adrian Kingsley-Hughes: Does XP SP3 boost gaming performance? Lets find out!
The tests will be carried out on the AMD Spider
platform that I have set up in the lab (Phenom 9700, Radeon 3850 graphics card, 2GB of RAM ¦). Ive used this system as the platform for a number of
benchmarks over the past few months (for a full spec, see this
post).
winbeta.org -
28.04.2008How to use more than a gig of RAM on 32-bit Linux
Nowadays, many machines are running with 2-4 gigabytes of RAM, and their owners are discovering a problem: When they run 32-bit GNU/Linux
distributions, their extra RAM is not being used. Fortunately, correcting the problem is only a matter of installing or building a kernel with a few
specific parameters enabled or disabled.
The problem exists because 32-bit Linux kernels are designed to access only 1GB of RAM by default.
The workaround for this limitation is vaguely reminiscent of the virtual memory solution once used by DOS, with a high memory area of virtual memory
being constantly mapped to physical addresses. This high memory can be enabled for up to 4GB by one kernel parameter, or up to 64GB on a Pentium Pro
or higher processor with another parameter. However, since these parameters have not been needed on most machines until recently, the standard kernels
in many distributions have not enabled them.
neowin.net -
24.09.2007Microsoft: XP SP3 RTM date a typo
WB: One more small note: the
XP SP3
Overview that Microsoft posted yesterday is also not for the final version as can be seen on the second page of the doc: "This is a preliminary
document and may be changed substantially prior to final commercial release of the software described herein."
Mary Jo
Foley: Some sharp-eyed folks over at Neowin.net noticed Microsoft had posted to its Support Live Cycle Web site
a release-to-manufacuturing date of March 31, 2008, for Windows XP
Service Pack (SP) 3.
winbeta.org -
03.04.2008Windows XP SP3 Release Candidate Goes To MSDN
Microsoft made available on December 3 for download the near-final Release Candidate (RC) of Windows XP Service Pack (SP) 3.
The
RC is available to all Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) and TechNet subscribers. This isn't yet a generally available, "public" RC of XP SP3;
that is still coming at some future date that Microsoft hasn't disclosed.
Microsoft provided an RC "preview" of XP SP3 to
15,000 testers in mid-November.
Microsoft is still on track to ship the final XP SP3 in the first half of calendar 2008. XP SP3
is a rollup of all previously released XP updates, according to Microsoft, "including security updates, out-of-band releases, and hotfixes."
Lately, Microsoft has been releasing XP SP3 and Vista SP1 builds in lockstep. (The same 15,000 testers that got XP SP3 RC preview also
got the Vista SP1 RC preview.) Given that Microsoft told its own employees to expect the company to make the RC of Vista SP1 more broadly available
some time this week, it seems logical that the Vista SP1 RC is right around the corner, too.
jcxp.net -
05.12.2007