Slashdot Mirror
Windows XP SP3 Postponed Until 2008
Rockgod quotes an article saying "With Microsoft now saying that its next major service pack for Windows XP will not ship until 2008, some Windows users are wondering whether the software upgrade will ever be released." and then later "Michael Cherry, an analyst with Directions on Microsoft, agrees that Microsoft may very well decide to drop XP Service Pack 3. "It absolutely could happen. Microsoft is under no obligation to produce any service packs, ever," he explains. "They feel that because these fixes are available through the auto-update that there's less need to create a service pack."
Slipstream SP2 into your installation CD.
I don't understand how, but installing SP2 over a fresh SP0 install of XP causes the boot process to slow down to nothing compared to SP0's boot time, but if you slipstream SP2 onto an install CD and install from there, the boot process is now just as fast as SP0's. WTF? I still don't get how such an improvement is possible, but I'm swearing by slipstreaming now...
Plus it's convenient, since you have most of the updates already (By most I mean you'll only find 70 some items on Windows Update instead of 200).
Service packs are largely comprised of all the service updates and software patches that MS releases between major service packs. They're basically a "catchup" package that allows people to ensure that their software is completely up to date up to a certain time. They occasionally bundle in extra stuff, but IIRC they didn't do that all too often before XP SP2.
Since people's machines are nominally downloading and applying these updates automatically, there's less of a need to release a "catchup" package, since most people are supposedly already caught up.
Because you can read the SP from a CD and have the fixes installed before you connect the computer to the internet at all.
In the past, there have been some security holes that could be exploited as soon as your PC is on the net, making it a race between the malware and the patches which gets to your PC first. Loading the SP from a CD removes this problem.
C - the footgun of programming languages
I wasn't going to reply, but I kept seeing more and more of the same posts as I was reading through. Try a test. Connect a simple out-of-the-box router to a DSL/Cable connection with default settings. Connect an unpatched Windows XP SP0 machine to the router and make sure it has web access. Don't use that computer. See how long it takes to get rooted/malware. Answer? It NEVER will. Because the router blocks all unsolicited incoming traffic, unless you've monkeyed with the config to change this. The only way a computer can get rooted/malwared through a default-settings router is by stupid user tricks, or by another already infected machine on the NATed network.... which would have got infected by stupid user tricks.
I did that when SP2 was released. What I'm talking about is the large amount of patches needed to apply against SP2 after doing a fresh install. There is a large amount of updates needed, here's a list:
Windows XP SP2 - Critical Updates
KB873339: Security Update for Windows XP (...extra text for lameness filter...)
KB885835: Security Update for Windows XP (...extra text for lameness filter...)
KB885836: Security Update for Windows XP (...extra text for lameness filter...)
KB886185: Critical Update for Windows XP (...extra text for lameness filter...)
KB887742: Critical Update for Windows XP (...extra text for lameness filter...)
KB888302: Security Update for Windows XP (...extra text for lameness filter...)
KB890046: Security Update for Windows XP (...extra text for lameness filter...)
KB890859: Security Update for Windows XP (...extra text for lameness filter...)
KB891781: Security Update for Windows XP (...extra text for lameness filter...)
KB893756: Security Update for Windows XP (...extra text for lameness filter...)
KB896358: Security Update for Windows XP (...extra text for lameness filter...)
KB896422: Security Update for Windows XP (...extra text for lameness filter...)
KB896423: Security Update for Windows XP (...extra text for lameness filter...)
KB896424: Security Update for Windows XP (...extra text for lameness filter...)
KB896428: Security Update for Windows XP (...extra text for lameness filter...)
KB899587: Security Update for Windows XP (...extra text for lameness filter...)
KB899589: Security Update for Windows XP (...extra text for lameness filter...)
KB899591: Security Update for Windows XP (...extra text for lameness filter...)
KB900725: Security Update for Windows XP (...extra text for lameness filter...)
KB901017: Security Update for Windows XP (...extra text for lameness filter...)
KB901190: Security Update for Windows XP (...extra text for lameness filter...)
KB901214: Security Update for Windows XP (...extra text for lameness filter...)
KB905414: Security Update for Windows XP (...extra text for lameness filter...)
KB905749: Security Update for Windows XP (...extra text for lameness filter...)
KB908519: Security Update for Windows XP (...extra text for lameness filter...)
KB908531: Security Update for Windows XP (v2) (...extra text for lameness filter...)
KB911280: Security Update for Windows XP (v2) (...extra text for lameness filter...)
KB911562: Security Update for Windows XP (...extra text for lameness filter...)
KB911564: Security Update for Plug-in do Windows Media Player (...extra text for lameness filter...)
KB911567: Cumulative Security Update for Outlook Express for Windows XP (...extra text for lameness filter...)
KB911927: Security Update for Windows XP (...extra text for lameness filter...)
KB912919: Security Update for Windows XP (...extra text for lameness filter...)
KB913580: Security Update for Windows XP (...extra text for lameness filter...)
KB914388: Security Update for Windows XP (...extra text for lameness filter...)
KB914389: Security Update for Windows XP (...extra text for lameness filter...)
KB917422: Security Update for Windows XP (...extra text for lameness filter...)
KB917537: Security Update for Windows XP (...extra text for lameness filter...)
KB917953: Security Update for Windows XP (...extra text for lameness filter...)
KB918439: Security Update for Internet Explorer for Windows XP SP2 (...extra text for lameness filter...)
KB918899: Cumulative Update for Internet Explorer for Windows XP SP2 (...extra text for lameness filter...)
KB919007: Security Update for Windows XP (...extra text for lameness filter...)
KB920214: Security Update for Outlook Express for Windows XP (...extra text for lameness filter...)
KB920670: Security Update for Windows XP (...extra text for lameness filter...)
KB920683: Security Update for Windows XP (...extra text for lameness filter...)
KB920685: Security Update for Windows XP (...extra t
"It ain't a war against drugs.it's a war against personal freedom" --Bill Hicks
Most people who are responsible for such systems are presumably intelligent enough to slipstream the latest Service Pack AND all current security patches onto a WinXP installation CD which can then be used to install a machine - in fact, this would be the recommended procedure, as it results not only in the machine having the latest SP from the start but also all the miscellaneous security updates which have been published since the last SP.
Remember, a fresh install of Windows XP + Service Pack 2 is still vulnerable to known exploits. Being able to incorporate all the security updates which are available at the time the machine is brought online results in a signifigantly more secure situation (although Microsoft's well-documented history of ignoring certain inconvenient security holes until they get their collective nose rubbed in them would still make me nervous, personally).
Of course, this only works for i386 versions of Windows - from what I can gather, it's not possible to slipstream the x86_64 version. If I've got that wrong, somebody please correct me (and provide a link to instructions).
you CAN slipstream all updates into windows. I suggest you get up to speed where the rest of us have been for over a years now...
nlite integrates ALL patches, fixes, hotfixes, etc... into a windwos install CD. hell I can even automate the de-xpify process so I dont have to do it on every machine.
Service packs and traditional slipstreaming is very old hat as microsoft does not care anymore.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
I live in a rural area where most of the people are on dialup. I like to provide my friends and family with the security patches so they need so they don't have to spend weeks downloading them through dialup. A service pack would make this job a LOT easier, but as it is I have to rely on AutoPatcher to handle this.
Microsoft doesn't seem to want to make it easy. If you want to get your patches from Microsoft, you have to either use Windows Update on every single machine, or sift through hundreds of pages to individually download the updates you need. It shouldn't be that hard.
I have four computers running Windows. I want to download updates ONCE for all of them, without wasting bandwidth and without all the hassle that Microsoft wants to put you through to do that. AutoPatcher does this (and hats off to those guys for doing so) so why can't Microsoft get their act together and start putting out something similar?