Windows XP Service Pack 3 for all ... finally

If all goes as planned, Microsoft should begin rolling out the public version of Windows XP Service Pack 3 today.

We've been using it for a few days...

Some thoughts and considerations.

Installation: There have been a few reports of installation issues. We did not encounter any of these problems during the testing of RC1, RC2 or the newly-released final version on XP Home or Pro.

Most likely, there are more than a few messed up registries out there and/or people are trying to load the service pack without administrative privileges. (Another good idea is turning off any resident virus scanning during the install).

There are a variety (LOTS) of updates and file replacements, and yes, some minor improvements in this Service Pack. The best part for most is that this is a significant roll-up of previous updates and current files including NUMEROUS DLL's.

Installation may be slow on some machines. Allow some time. Ours averaged 10-25 minutes depending on the version on XP and the usual memory and processor issues. The full version is over 300 MB so if you download it from the Microsoft Download Center, factor in the download time as well (if you're on a slower broadband connection).

In general, Service Pack 3 could very well could aid system administrators and others in cleaning up a few boxes and bring them current in one shot as was the case with the final release of XP SP2.

We reported absolutely no issues (just our experience) to MS with SP3 RC1, RC2 or the final.

From our view, it's a solid upgrade / roll-up.

Support continues for XP ... so far :)

Update: Microsoft delayed the deployment via Windows Update (See the piece by Mary Jo Foley here) however we have found links to the Microsoft URL on numerous websites and BetaNews has (at this hour) the entire Service Pack (if you want to be the first on your block :)