How's Windows XP SP3 treating you?
by Paul Miller 
posted May 12th 2008 at 3:23PM
Well, Microsoft finally got SP3 out the door for you stubborn Vista-resistant XP users, and we're dying to know how you like it. That's right, you. See, our resident Well, Microsoft finally got SP3 out the door for you stubborn Vista-resistant XP users, and we're dying to know how you like it. That's right, you. See, our resident 
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
Technex @ May 12th 2008 3:29PM
I'm sticking with SP2 for the time being. 1 (14.3%)
Updated to SP3, but not seeing much difference. 1 (14.3%)
I'm finding SP3 noticeably faster. 1 (14.3%)
I'm finding SP3 noticeably slower. 1 (14.3%)
SP3 is crashing on me, time to revert. 1 (14.3%)
I don't run XP, but thanks for asking. 1 (14.3%)
Vista woot!
PS3gravy @ May 12th 2008 3:51PM
http://img140.imageshack.us/img140/9097/failge5.jpg
AJ @ May 12th 2008 3:37PM
Should be 16.66% each (100/6)
Technex @ May 12th 2008 3:37PM
I copied and pasted, strange eh!
ethana2 @ May 12th 2008 3:46PM
Heh. Or not.
Man. This would have been such an awesome opportunity to find out how many *nix users we have here..
Joe @ May 12th 2008 3:56PM
ethana: The engadget admins could just check the server logs to figure that one out. There's no real way to accurately gauge it based on user feedback on polls.
That said, I've always figured you can gauge that on any tech site by taking the overall distribution, and figuring the windows population on these sites would be about half the world average, and everything else would be increased proportionately.
Dean @ May 12th 2008 4:37PM
Why don't you guys just update to Vista? It's a cool OS, if you don't count its utter refusal to hibernate or even sleep. -_-
zephead @ May 12th 2008 5:32PM
@Dean: I quite like XP's ability to hibernate and sleep.
Dexter @ May 12th 2008 7:50PM
Down with Vista!!!
Option G: I use 64-bit XP.
Billg8s @ May 12th 2008 8:42PM
Please try to provide metrics or otherwise objectify your opinions -
Our benchmark desktop, an HP xw4600 'out of the box' using the HP OEM Windows XP Pro preload booted from "Post" (the BIOS screen which when it clears begins loading NTLRDR on a single-boot system) to a fully loaded desktop. (no more tray icons/delayed start items processing)
We saw an improvement from 33 seconds on SP2 to 21 seconds on SP3.
This same 33% improvement was seen on our corporate image as well. - We attribute much of this to the performance & stability hotfixes which came out about 2-3 months ago, but the fact that we don't need to apply 90+ security updates independently sure is nice as well.
Interested in others who have Winbench/WinMark or any other reference to a before/after comparison.
Viva Sp3 !
Forrest @ May 13th 2008 7:06PM
I have updated 2 AMD based computers and have encountered 2 BSODS that won't even let you in to safemode. I'd HIGHLY! recommend staying away for now.
ducky @ May 13th 2008 10:11PM
I've upgraded and I see no effect, neither positive nor negative. But that's to be expected, SP3 wasn't really aimed towards user-noticeable change. Some people feel speed increases, that's just an added bonus for them.
shichibukai @ May 12th 2008 3:30PM
sticking with sp2 for the time being
Thermos14 @ May 12th 2008 3:29PM
SP3 is good.
Keaton @ May 12th 2008 4:11PM
Yup me too... No difference... Not faster, Not Slower, Just Good.
Alijah @ May 12th 2008 4:50PM
I don't find it too much faster... A few noticeable speed bumps in loading times on some heavier applications, other than that, overall it's still good ol' XP.
vdogg89 @ May 12th 2008 5:19PM
no noticeable changes for me :(
blackfeather @ May 12th 2008 5:26PM
Mine failed to install. I was disappointed and unsurprised.
Tony @ May 12th 2008 6:53PM
So if you were unsurprised, how could you have been disappointed?
UKNigel @ May 12th 2008 8:53PM
Maybe he was expecting to be disappointed.
uShak @ May 12th 2008 10:43PM
HHAHAHAHAHAHA
granny down east @ May 13th 2008 12:00PM
No. it's not good. SP3 froze and crashed my nice AMD quad core. I knew there were issues with an install on an AMD machine, but 14 hours later, after full re-formatting of the HDD,and re-installation of all my music editing softie-ware, etc., I'm fit to be tied.
Ya could have told me, MS.
Digger @ May 12th 2008 3:30PM
Dugg:
http://digg.com/microsoft/POLL_How_s_Windows_XP_SP3_treating_you
Technex @ May 12th 2008 3:31PM
No one cares, go away.
JC @ May 12th 2008 3:33PM
Technex: Thank you.
Digger: If you're being paid by Engadget to submit stuff to Digg, then at least do it silently and don't bother us. On the other hand, if you're not being paid, then you're an idiot, and work for free. I have a fence I need painted, want to come over and do it for free?
rhogan @ May 12th 2008 3:35PM
Buried.
Ryan Block @ May 12th 2008 3:46PM
I love the conspiracy theorists that think we have these shady dealings with individuals to submit our stories to social news sites, or that we're on some super-secret Apple/Microsoft/Nintendo payroll to provide favorable or negative editorial. Grow up.
Pochi @ May 12th 2008 3:53PM
@Ryan Block
You're not fooling anybody. You're obviously in on the whole thing.
Joe @ May 12th 2008 3:58PM
@Pochi: You're obviously also paid by Engadget to throw the rest of us off the trail!
Or maybe I'm the secret triple agent! *checks walltet* Nope.
JC @ May 12th 2008 3:59PM
Ryan:
If Captain Obvious weren't answering other emergency calls right now instead of sitting beside you at your desk, he would point out that I was, in fact, mocking Digger for basically submitting your articles to Digg, giving you and your Mac lovin' site free hits, all the while not earning a red cent.
Reeding is gud.
spass @ May 12th 2008 4:35PM
@Pochi:
New Poll: is Engedget paid by:
a.Apple
b.Microsoft
c.Nintendo
d.All of the above
Technex @ May 12th 2008 5:15PM
D FTW!
Chris Macdonald @ May 12th 2008 6:21PM
WHEN RYAN BLOCK DAMN WELL GRACES YOU BASTARDS WITH A COMMENT YOU DAMN WELL RANK IT HIGH. THIS IS PATHETIC. WHAT IS THIS SITE COMING TO?
Abuzar @ May 12th 2008 7:38PM
Screw you Chris. If Ryan had something I agreed with I would rank him high. Why would I automatically just high rank him?
Chris Macdonald @ May 12th 2008 8:13PM
because you respect him
Jherez @ May 12th 2008 8:38PM
By the way Ryan, how's that Wii Fit program coming?
silverblackvoid @ May 13th 2008 6:57AM
i think ryan and chris mcdonald r the same person
TomFox @ May 13th 2008 12:40PM
@Chris Macdonald
Caps Lock is not cruise control for awesome ;D
Jason @ May 12th 2008 3:30PM
I have SP3 on my laptop and desktop...one is an AMD X2 and the other is a pentium m chip...both installed no problem at all...some performance gains on my desktop...nothing noticable on my laptop
Mikey @ May 12th 2008 7:12PM
I saw the same thing... Faster on the tower and no extra speed on my Vaio laptop, but it really did a number on my network adapters...
JC @ May 12th 2008 3:31PM
My comp boots slowly because of the fingerprint reader startup, but some apps seem to be opening faster. Not a very big difference though.
forg0ttenclone @ May 12th 2008 3:32PM
Unfortunately for me, SP3 crashed my system. Could not boot into safe mode to remove it. I was stuck in an infinite BSoD loop. I tried various solutions to no avail. Finally, I resorted to a new drive and fresh install of XP SP2. No SP3 for me, thank you veddy much! Thanks for nothing Microsoft. Could i get some lube next time? Yeesh.
OneLove @ May 12th 2008 4:52PM
first rule : backup yo shit!
second rule: no whining (cause you backed up yo shit first!)
forg0ttenclone @ May 12th 2008 5:01PM
Thanks for the encouraging and oh so insightful remarks. Had i known any better, i'd say that's pure genius. However; "my shit" as you referred to it - Just to clarify, was backed up.
m4dm4n @ May 12th 2008 8:59PM
@forg0ttenclone: Ok so you've completed step one, now proceed to step two.
crayzieman @ May 12th 2008 3:34PM
Ever since I've installed SP3 after a day or so of being on my screen randomly will go black and my PC wont respond to anything I do. It's still on, it doesn't reboot or anything, it pretty much just acts like it's in a sleep mode that it doesn't seem to come out of. Then I have to force restart my pc .
triforceOFcourage @ May 12th 2008 3:47PM
Oh, that's a feature. It's not sleep mode though, it's called "coma" mode. It's where your OS decides to stop listening to you, and blacks out. The only resolution to it is a healthy dose of Linux or OS X.
Sim @ May 12th 2008 4:17PM
I have this "Feature" on my laptop. I usually hit the button combo to switch the image from the lcd to the external monitor and that wakes it up. If it doesn't I have found that if I put it into sleep mode and then come back it is fine. really annoying.
josh @ May 12th 2008 7:00PM
Are you using a laptop? Most vendors hook into the power management system with their own implementations, which are many times less than stellar. It could be that the is some bug between SP3 and the pre-SP3 implementation of the power management system by the laptop vendor. If you have a laptop they might have an update available to download that would fix the problem.
KEROLiUKAS @ May 12th 2008 3:34PM
Too lazy.
Maybe when im bored i'll update.