PN
06-02-2008, 10:09 PM
I have downloaded SP3 on two laptops without incident. I have decided not to install SP3 on my laptop because I am hearing and reading about problems with this update. I have not seen any improvement in functionality on the two laptops that have SP3 on them. At this time I cannot install SP3 on my Intel iMac because there is a problem with the new Boot Camp update 2.1.
Transcripts from Security Now!
Steve: Also I was talking with some bit of excitement about Service Pack 3 of XP last week. And I have been bitten by it, and my tech support guy Greg has been bitten by it. I actually had to remove it from this main, brand new, recently built system of mine because twice - and that's all it took - in the day after I installed Service Pack 3, my Start Menu died. Which I have never had happen before.
Leo: That's a weird thing, yeah.
Steve: I could press the Start button, and up comes the menu. But it was completely dead. That is, mousing over and clicking and things, nothing happened. And in several cases, I mean, I put up with it briefly. I could log out and log back in again, and it would bring it back to life. But it's like, okay, this is ridiculous. So I just backed out of Service Pack 3. And that was last week, and it hasn't happened again. So it does...
Leo: From a security standpoint, is there any negative to doing that? I mean, are you now going to be more vulnerable?
Steve: Well, it's not clear what's going on with Service Pack 3. When you use Windows Update, you still do all the pre-Service Pack 3 updates. And then it gives you a new version of the Windows Genuine Validation tool, and then that says oh, we recommend you install Service Pack 3. So it's like, oh, good, you know. And I have had people say that even that non-network install, where it says it's only going to be 66MB, actually downloads the whole thing.
Leo: Oh, that's interesting. So you still get a huge file download.
Steve: Yeah. Anyway, so what I'm going to do is - and I wanted to bring this up to our listeners because they may want to consider this, too. When this happened I did a little bit of Googling, and lots of people are having problems with Service Pack 3. Just weird sorts of things like I ran across one where somebody's Control Panel applet doesn't run after installing Service Pack 3. Took it out, and it's back again. So it's looking like Microsoft is having some problems with this service pack. And my feeling is let's give it a month, and they may be patching the service pack.
Leo: What's discouraging is this is a new machine that you're having trouble with. I mean, it's not like you have a lot of crap on it; right?
Steve: Right. It's brand new. No age on it at all. And again, I took out Service Pack 3, and now it's been behaving itself just fine.
Episode #146 (http://www.grc.com/sn/SN-146.htm)
Transcripts from Security Now!
Steve: Also I was talking with some bit of excitement about Service Pack 3 of XP last week. And I have been bitten by it, and my tech support guy Greg has been bitten by it. I actually had to remove it from this main, brand new, recently built system of mine because twice - and that's all it took - in the day after I installed Service Pack 3, my Start Menu died. Which I have never had happen before.
Leo: That's a weird thing, yeah.
Steve: I could press the Start button, and up comes the menu. But it was completely dead. That is, mousing over and clicking and things, nothing happened. And in several cases, I mean, I put up with it briefly. I could log out and log back in again, and it would bring it back to life. But it's like, okay, this is ridiculous. So I just backed out of Service Pack 3. And that was last week, and it hasn't happened again. So it does...
Leo: From a security standpoint, is there any negative to doing that? I mean, are you now going to be more vulnerable?
Steve: Well, it's not clear what's going on with Service Pack 3. When you use Windows Update, you still do all the pre-Service Pack 3 updates. And then it gives you a new version of the Windows Genuine Validation tool, and then that says oh, we recommend you install Service Pack 3. So it's like, oh, good, you know. And I have had people say that even that non-network install, where it says it's only going to be 66MB, actually downloads the whole thing.
Leo: Oh, that's interesting. So you still get a huge file download.
Steve: Yeah. Anyway, so what I'm going to do is - and I wanted to bring this up to our listeners because they may want to consider this, too. When this happened I did a little bit of Googling, and lots of people are having problems with Service Pack 3. Just weird sorts of things like I ran across one where somebody's Control Panel applet doesn't run after installing Service Pack 3. Took it out, and it's back again. So it's looking like Microsoft is having some problems with this service pack. And my feeling is let's give it a month, and they may be patching the service pack.
Leo: What's discouraging is this is a new machine that you're having trouble with. I mean, it's not like you have a lot of crap on it; right?
Steve: Right. It's brand new. No age on it at all. And again, I took out Service Pack 3, and now it's been behaving itself just fine.
Episode #146 (http://www.grc.com/sn/SN-146.htm)