If you are using Windows XP.....
By Ray on May 16, 2008 - 8:54pm
If you, like me, are still using XP Pro, and you've been repeatedly nagged by Microsoft to download and install their SP3 cummulative update for Windows XP, there may be problems.
One of those problems is that any changes you've made to the appearance of your user interface (GUI) will be wiped out by the installation of that SP3. Many of us have been using third party themes, such as the Vista Transformation Pack, to give our reliable old XP Pro the newer appearance of an interface like Vista uses. There are free themes available for that. But if you've done that, and you install the SP3 update, none of those will work, because their enabling executive files have been removed by the update. To get those back, you must use 'System Restore' to revert to your previous setup. The good news is, now that you've installed that SP3, you shouldn't be nagged about it. So just leave it in a dark corner, and carry on as before. If you've been keeping up to date with your updates, then you probably don't need it anyway.
what does it say about an OS when it's users suggest not using newer versions of it? move onto something else is my advice.
This isn't a newer version of the O/S - that's called Vista. This is the third Service Pack issued for Windows XP, which many in the business world are reluctant to stop using, because it is more reliable and better proven than Microsoft's newer O/S, the Vista version.
This Service Pack 3 simply summarizes all the many ( and I mean 'many') updates and patches and fixes already applied individually to Windows XP via their Automatic Updates or manually via Windows Update or Microsoft Update. Hence my comment that if you've been keeping up to date with those, then you don't need to repeat more than 66 Mb of them in this SP3 download. All it does is clog your files and render some of your past working patches inoperative. Microsoft, as many of us know, is famous for 'shooting itself in the foot' with crap like this. I've discussed that with them to no avail.
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