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Windows XP SP3 Build 3205 Released w/ New Features

Posted by Zonk on from the new-tricks-for-an-old-dog dept.

jBubba writes "Windows XP SP3 build 3205 is the first official & authorized release of the next Windows XP service pack; and has been made available to testers as a part of the Windows Server 2008/Windows Vista SP1 beta program. NeoSmart Technologies has the run-down on the included 1,073 patches/hotfixes including security updates. Contrary to popular belief, Windows XP SP3 does ship with new features/components, most of which have been backported from Windows Vista. Some included features: 'New Windows Product Activation model: no need to enter product key during setup. Network Access Protection modules and policies have been brought to XP after being one of the more-well-received features in Windows Vista. New Microsoft Kernel Mode Cryptographic Module - the Windows XP SP3 kernel now includes an entire module that provides easy access to multiple cryptographic algorithms and is available for use in kernel-mode drivers and services. New "Black Hole Router" detection - Windows XP SP3 can detect and protect against rogue routers that are discarding data.'"

71 of 286 comments (clear)

  1. is IE7 included? by A+little+Frenchie · · Score: 2, Interesting

    all in the subject

    1. Re:is IE7 included? by Bacon+Bits · · Score: 2, Informative

      I doubt it. Windows 2000 SP4 was still shipped with IE 5.01 (the version that shipped originally), and, indeed, it is the only way to apply the last service pack for IE 5.01.

      --
      The road to tyranny has always been paved with claims of necessity.
  2. yeah by Almir · · Score: 3, Insightful

    i can't help thinking sp3 will make xp so much like vista, that you might as well go the whole way. sure hope i'm wrong though.

  3. Elegant MS, really elegant by rueger · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Windows XP SP3 build 3205 ... has been made available to testers as a part of the ...Windows Vista SP1 beta program."

    God, I love this company!

    --
    Three Squirrels
    1. Re:Elegant MS, really elegant by ScrewMaster · · Score: 5, Funny

      God, I love this company!

      Well, between you and Steve Ballmer, that's two.

      --
      The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
    2. Re:Elegant MS, really elegant by ScrewMaster · · Score: 2, Funny

      and Bill promised never to call him "Uncle Fester" in public. The rest, as they say, is history.

      Can't argue with that, but personally I think Ballmer more resembles an evil Peter Boyle.

      --
      The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
  4. I hate new features. by khasim · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I was a service pack to only fix the bugs.

    If there are new features, release them as a separate "upgrade".

    Having both mixed together makes testing a real pain.

    1. Re:I hate new features. by tacocat · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You're missing the real significance to this. They are back porting features from Vista!!! That's removing the incentive for migration from XP to VISTA on features alone. Considering the historic business model they have used, this is reason for further thought.

      Dell and others have pushed Microsoft into a position where they (OEM) are allowed to continue selling XP software beyond the originally intended dates set by Microsoft. This is the first time anyone ever successfully told Microsoft what to do, including the US Government (interestingly enough).

      Now that there is a continuance of XP in the market, the best thing that Microsoft can provide that customer base with secure products. If they fail to then it gives credence to the competition laying claims on security. If I remember, one of the points Microsoft was selling XP on was the security it provided above the Windows 2000/98/95 platforms. So there is something of a commitment they have made to keep it secure.

      If there's a diminished reason to migrate to Vista, as already demonstrated, then what?

    2. Re:I hate new features. by hedwards · · Score: 4, Insightful

      You're missing the real significance to this. They are back porting features from Vista!!! That's removing the incentive for migration from XP to VISTA on features alone. Considering the historic business model they have used, this is reason for further thought.

      That's one way of looking at it. Another way is that if they backport a few features it might make less technically inclined people a bit less apprehensive about getting a new computer with Vista on it.

      I suspect that the features aren't going to be any of the most important ones, and will probably be ignored by XP users, but I doubt that it will really hold people back from upgrading. The main reasons people are not upgrading have little to do with the new features, and much more with things like the lack of driver support.
    3. Re:I hate new features. by suv4x4 · · Score: 3, Informative

      You're missing the real significance to this. They are back porting features from Vista!!! That's removing the incentive for migration from XP to VISTA on features alone. Considering the historic business model they have used, this is reason for further thought.

      I've been thinking the same thing, and still, I don't know if pressure alone made them backport Vista features. People just want the patches rolled up in a SP. Vista security features was unexpected move.

      Put this next to the toned down Vista campaign.

      I have the feeling Microsoft are fully aware of the problems of Vista, and I wouldn't be too surprised to see them gradually backporting the better accepted core/security Vista features to XP until they arrive at a slimmer Vista, and throwing away or redoing the ill mouthed Vista features (such as the current allow/deny security model which often asks the wrong questions and doesn't learn, or clarify the source of the action).

      If only they realized this, they wouldn't waste 5 years on grand vision ideas and arriving at an OS that's basically worse than the sum of its parts.

      Vista: the spare parts OS. Backport and reuse as needed.

    4. Re:I hate new features. by RAMMS+EIN · · Score: 3, Funny

      ``Dell and others have pushed Microsoft into a position where they (OEM) are allowed to continue selling XP software beyond the originally intended dates set by Microsoft. This is the first time anyone ever successfully told Microsoft what to do, including the US Government (interestingly enough).''

      In Soviet Russia, government controls commerce.

      --
      Please correct me if I got my facts wrong.
    5. Re:I hate new features. by ShieldW0lf · · Score: 5, Insightful

      That's another way of looking at it. Another way is that they were given a shitload of money from people in the large media industries, and a red carpet right into the service-provider model that they so desperately want, only people are attempting to rebel against this, so they need to find another way to deliver the locks and keys onto peoples desktops.

      --
      -1 Uncomfortable Truth
    6. Re:I hate new features. by Allador · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Funny, I'm an IT department for many companies, and I'm not cringing in fear or having nightmares over Vista.

      For corporate IT, Vista is easy. Roll it out when and only when, its been tested, proven, and your organization is ready for it. Until then, just dont roll it out. Easy as pie. Now, if you've got end-users buying machines and trying to connect them to corporate resources without your control, then thats not corporate IT, thats just a bunch of people doing whatever they want.

      And the black hole router detection is useful, and makes a lot of sense. If you're seeing problems with it, then it just may not be fully baked yet, and you need to give it time to settle out.

      I mean geez, its not like anyone is forcing anybody to upgrade or anything. Your orgs should probably be at least considering buying vista with all new machines now, or as part of your VM purchasing, and just use the downlevel install options for now, that way you own it when you're ready.

      If you're encouraging your clients to install Vista, when you know they're not ready for it, and its not ready for them, then you're a bad consultant.

      If you're telling them its not ready, and they're doing it anyway, and then calling you for help, then you deserve every penny and more from those hours, cause you've got bad clients. :)

    7. Re:I hate new features. by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Hmm... Wouldn't it be easier to sneak in a time-sucking loop into another patch? A user would go, "Gee.. My computer is much, much slower since Patch Tuesday. I need to buy a new Windows Vista computer!"

    8. Re:I hate new features. by cmacb · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I suspect that the features aren't going to be any of the most important ones,


      Right.

      The most important features of Vista were dropped before it ever hit the street.
    9. Re:I hate new features. by paganizer · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Just to be clear, you are implying that they are taking the worst parts of Vista, the DRM and hassle, and putting that into XP? this would be to make it so that there is no reason not to "upgrade" to Vista, as both products will suck pretty much equally?
      Sounds about right. Darn good thing I'm sticking with Win2k until they pry it from my cold, dead hard drive.

      --
      Why, yes, I AM a Pagan Libertarian.
    10. Re:I hate new features. by Bazar · · Score: 2, Informative

      You mean delivering just the locks.
      the reason most people hate DRM, is because even if we legally own the product, the key to open it is in someone else's hand...

      --
      To avoid criticism; Say nothing, Do nothing, Be nothing.
    11. Re:I hate new features. by Allador · · Score: 2, Informative

      I'm an IT consultant for many companies as well, not just small companies with under 50 users. Any serious user base (100+) is an immediate NO GO for Vista, most larger companies are running at 256-512MB ram and are subpar for Vista performance, and do not have the budget for 2007-08 to do a large rollout of new end user workstations (and a lot of the budget issue can be due to ERP costs building up due to migration from older systems such as TOMS, to JDE/Cognos, SAP, Peoplesoft, etc., see this story [slashdot.org]). Anyone concerned with the end user experience, as you should be, is not upgrading to Vista any time soon. End user training, local performance issues, network performance issues, application compatibility issues, those are the first issues that come to mind. For what it's worth, I agree. Sounds like many reason to make the choice NOT to go to Vista this year. There's nothing wrong with that.

      Its easy to sideline quarterback this when you haven't attempted such a rollout for a client that seemed 'ready' for it, even after cost analysis and technical analysis. The beast that is Vista itself is not at all ready for a managed corporate environments with uptime requirements and user productivity concerns. I'm a little confused why you thought they were ready for it, but werent. What happened when you did a test-deploy to a small but representative part of the userbase? Were there needs/issues/requirements present for the company at large that you didnt find in the test rollouts?

      And if so, sounds like maybe its not time to do the rollout. Thats a fine choice.

      I'm not being a 'sideline quarterback', I'm in the same business, and face the same concerns. Thats why I havent done any significant vista rollouts yet, and have none in the plan for the moment. Other than small groups or individuals within various groups, the timing isnt right.

      What do you do for clients whose last Licensing agreement was for Win2k (and W2k Terminal Servers) and has NO SOFTWARE ASSURANCE. Check the costs on full SA licensing for Vista then get back to me. Thats a tough position for the owners of that business to be in. Your job (or mine, were I in that role) would be to explain the situation to them, and the options they have, including costs, both short & long term, tangible and intangible. Then make a recommendation, or a decision tree. This was also one of those known side-effects to being in their licensing situation. There's nothing wrong with it, as long as it was come to with good information and known risks.

      I apologize if I seem like I'm criticizing, I'm not. But every step along the way with making the decision to roll out vista should be made with lots of information, and known risks. Thats also why you do staged implementations. Start with a few people, the IT group, power users, etc. Then move to a larger representative group. Then start pushing out dept by dept. Take your time, figure out what goes wrong at each stage, and dont move to the next until you've solved it.

      Or maybe take a different strategy. Do some test work in small groups, and then roll out as machines are refreshed. I'm not a fan of that, but its possible.

      To be clear, I'm NOT doing any rollouts to anything but small groups right now, and not many of those.

      But back to your original post: there's no cringing, there's no nightmares. And why would there be? There's no pressure to move, so you can do it when you're ready and not before. So take your time, make your decisions, be fully informed. If those decisions end up being not to move to vista at all for the foreseeable future, then thats great.

      I just dont see the need for all the drama. You're a professional, make a plan, and work it. Make good decisions, test before you deploy. All of those things. This isnt rocket science.

      But in any case, I hope your business is doing well, and growing, and all your ratios look good (assuming its your business, and you're not an employee).
  5. Re:Windows Product Activation? by HaloZero · · Score: 5, Informative

    2K SP3 & SP4, and XP SP1 and SP2 provided the ability to merge the service pack into the base install for the operating system. The final product is usually referred to as a 'slipstream' install - it allows you to install Windows XP without having to patch to the absolute gills, just the muck from after the latest slipstreamed service pack.

    After slipstreaming SP2 into my base XP install disk, a flat-format install did take a bit longer, but device propagation was FAR, FAR IMPROVED. There were a few other niceties, but they go beyond the scope of this post. I wouldn't be surprised if they're referring to changes made in the slipstream of the base install.

    --
    Informatus Technologicus
  6. Re:question by ahaning · · Score: 2, Funny

    Please take a hint from your buddy.

    --
    Withdrawal before climax is very ineffective and those who try this are usually called "parents."
  7. I would like to note something by Daimanta · · Score: 4, Funny

    The Windows Server 2008/Windows Vista SP1 beta program is not in charge of Gundam.

    --
    Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power lost.
    1. Re:I would like to note something by yanos · · Score: 2, Informative

      Read me

      For those too lazy, apparently some people over the ministry of agriculture of Japan were caught editing the Gundam page on Wikipedia while they were supposed to work. Hence the phrase "The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam".

  8. Re:But... by Bacon+Bits · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Yes it does.

    --
    The road to tyranny has always been paved with claims of necessity.
  9. WGA will doom it. by Deathlizard · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If it's got WGA like Windows Vista? Then no thanks.

    That's the only reason we're staying away from Vista, and if this new activation is anything like that then it's SP2 until they drop support for it, and maybe something else (Linux, OSX) after that.

    I've said my reasons we stay away from Vista In my Journal. I'm sure we're not the only workplaces saying the same thing. Especially if the computers are not anchored to the network and are off the network for months at a time like our systems are.

    --
    In Soviet Russia, Trojan exploits YOU!
    1. Re:WGA will doom it. by alexhs · · Score: 2, Interesting

      if it's got WGA like Windows Vista? Then no thanks.

      That's the only reason we're staying away from Vista, And I guess it was the same reason to keep w2k and stay away from xp ? Why are you using xp then ?
      If this is your only reason, you better switch right now, as applications will soon require this sp anyway, or require vista.
      --
      I have discovered a truly marvelous proof of killer sig, which this margin is too narrow to contain.
    2. Re:WGA will doom it. by Deathlizard · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Why are you using xp then

      At the time we made the OS decision, We were running Windows 98/ME for whatever reason and XP was out for 5-6 months. Since we knew 2000 was on the way out and XP didn't have WGA or activation at the time for corporate accounts, we didn't see any reason not to switch to XP.

      Eventually WGA came out, but it was still optional with corporate accounts. WSUS servers don't send out or receive the WGA updates Even if you wanted them. You would only get the updates by going directly to Windows Update or if you did not setup a WSUS server on the local PC's.

      Right now, from the sound of this article, it looks like SP3 is going to try to push Volume Activation 2.0 on XP users, where previously Volume Activation 1.0 was used. and our IT depatrment does not want to deal with MAK keys or KMS servers.

      --
      In Soviet Russia, Trojan exploits YOU!
  10. And best feature of all! by Chas · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Are you SURE you wouldn't like to upgrade to Windows Vista?"

    [Upgrade Now] [Upgrade RIGHT NOW] [FUBAR Existing System]

    --


    Chas - The one, the only.
    THANK GOD!!!
  11. Full text by sr243 · · Score: 5, Informative


    Following our coverage of the Windows XP SP3 beta leak almost a month ago in August, here's some more info on the official beta, which just had its first authorized distributable released earlier today. Say hello to Windows XP SP3, build 3205!

    While the newly-released build and the one leaked a month ago (Build 3180) may share the same name, we can exclusively reveal that they are not identical releases. This release, also shipped as windowsxp-kb936929-sp3-x86-enu.exe, is 334.2 megabytes and has been made available to tier-one Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista SP1 beta testers. Hashes are as follows:

    CRC: 56e08837
    MD5: c8c24ec004332198c47b9ac2b3d400f7

    Along with the standalone installer redistributables (in English, Japanese, and German), Microsoft also provided the usual release notes and a list of all the hotfixes included in this release. Contrary to popular belief, Windows XP SP3 does ship with all-new features - not just patches and hotfixes, most of them backported from Windows Vista:

            * New Windows Product Activation model: no need to enter product key during setup. Thank God for that!
            * Network Access Protection modules and policies have been brought to XP after being one of the more-well-received features in Windows Vista. You can read more about NAP here.
            * New Microsoft Kernel Mode Cryptographic Module - the Windows XP SP3 kernel now includes an entire module that provides easy access to multiple cryptographic algorithms and is available for use in kernel-mode drivers and services.
            * New "Black Hole Router" detection - Windows XP SP3 can detect and protect against rogue routers that are discarding data.

    Windows XP SP3 is compatible with all versions of Windows x86, included Embedded, Fundamentals, Start, Professional, Media Center, and Home Editions.

    Windows XP SP3 now contains 1,073 patches/hotfixes, not including those in previous service packs. Of the 1,073 included updates, 114 are for security-related issues. The remainder are updates to performance & reliability, bugfixes, improvements to kernel-mode driver modules, and many BSOD fixes.

    As with Service Pack 2, these include both previously publicly-available updates (whether through support.microsoft.com or via Windows Update) as well as any and all privately-redistributed updates for select customers or partners with specific problems/scenarios.

    The first included update: KB123456 (April 7, 2006). The last: KB942367 (September 29, 2007).

    We're checking with our MS contacts if we can provide you with the actual comprehensive list of updates included in Windows XP SP3, along with their descriptions and KB article links.

  12. Re:Slashdotted by thsths · · Score: 4, Funny

    > Never mind. I should get on with work I suppose.

    Work? Didn't you get the memo that Sunday is off?

  13. Re:Windows Product Activation? by corychristison · · Score: 4, Informative
    It should be noted that Slipstreaming is not as daunting as most people expect... nLite can help that problem and adds a lot of 'hacks' for the install as well. These hacks I speak of are more like features, such as adding Vendor information, as well as including the Serial # right in the install. You can setup an Unattended Setup... that is, you can pre-set all of the questions Windows Setup usually asks during installation.

    :-)

  14. Protection against black hole routers? by adam613 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    So that when Windows wants to secretly download an update or send your data back to Microsoft, and you prevent them from doing so at the router level, they'll be able to detect it?

    1. Re:Protection against black hole routers? by pchan- · · Score: 5, Informative

      So that when Windows wants to secretly download an update or send your data back to Microsoft, and you prevent them from doing so at the router level, they'll be able to detect it? No. A black hole router is a router that incorrectly handles MTUs that are bigger than it can pass. That is, instead of fragmenting the packets, it just silently drops them. This makes for some very unreliable connections as only the bigger packets get dropped and smaller ones get through. This is usually a problem at the ISP level and has nothing to do with Windows updates. I now return you to your regularly scheduled tin foil hat.
    2. Re:Protection against black hole routers? by Super_Z · · Score: 2, Informative

      Well, according to this article: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/community/columns/cableguy/cg0704.mspx ,
      PMTU black hole router detection seems to have been included in Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows Server 2003.

      So I guess it was a feature of the BSD TCP/IP stack they put in there?

      As an aside, the same article describes the alternaltive way to change the IP MTU: Edit the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Network\{4D36E972-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318} registry key.
      You just gotta love those keynames.

  15. The only thing that's interesting by Opportunist · · Score: 5, Interesting

    most of which have been backported from Windows Vista.

    Including DirectX 10? Few things about Vista are interesting besides that.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    1. Re:The only thing that's interesting by n+dot+l · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Not a chance. MS has chosen to tie DX10 to their new display driver model (they completely rewrote the line between user-space DX and kernel-space DX), which is tied to changes in the kernel...which interacts with all sorts of other shit in Vista (etc, etc). It's not that it can't be implemented without the new driver model (after all, NVIDIA's already supporting DX10 equivalent OpenGL extensions on XP - and Linux), just that it has been implemented that way. There's no way MS will spend money doing a massive re-write/back-port of DX10...especially since that's one of the main selling points of Vista (now that an actual DX10 game has been released).

    2. Re:The only thing that's interesting by TheRaven64 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      It's not that it can't be implemented without the new driver model (after all, NVIDIA's already supporting DX10 equivalent OpenGL extensions on XP - and Linux), just that it has been implemented that way. There's no way MS will spend money doing a massive re-write/back-port of DX10 They might if game designers start looking at nVidia's OpenGL extensions and thinking 'if we used OpenGL, we could get the same graphics quality as DirectX 10 with the same potential audience as DirectX 9. Maybe we could even do a Mac port cheaply...'
      --
      I am TheRaven on Soylent News
  16. DirectX 10 support? by shawnmchorse · · Score: 2, Insightful

    It might actually get some traction that way, if it's not just being used to shove Windows Vista at people...:p

  17. Re:Windows Product Activation? by Dunbal · · Score: 4, Funny

    Why would I need to enter the product key? After all, it comes in a .txt file called "serial" on the installation CD...oops

    --
    Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
  18. New features, backported from Vista ? by Hymer · · Score: 5, Interesting

    But didn't Microsoft say that it is impossible to backport features to XP from Vista due to major differences in the system ?
    ...and since it is possible, will we be getting DirectX 10 on XP too ?
    ...and if not, why not ?
    --
    btw. how can this be good for Vista ?

    1. Re:New features, backported from Vista ? by realdodgeman · · Score: 3, Funny

      It will make XP slower and it will feel more like Vista. So everybody will go "hey, now the difference is so small, I could just upgrade and get DX10 anyway".

  19. Network Access Protection by mugenjou · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Network Access Protection modules and policies have been brought to XP after being one of the more-well-received features in Windows Vista.
    What exactly does that mean, is this only the client for the Non-Windows-and-old-Windows-Client-Lockout-feature of Windows Server 2008?
    How can it be well received in Vista if Server 2008 is not yet out, and who well-received it? Or is there more to this feature?
    --
    DualBrain - Level Up Your Brain! - now available on your iPhone!
  20. Blackhole Avoidance? by 99BottlesOfBeerInMyF · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Does anyone have any details on the blackhole routing avoidance feature? While the summary claims blackhole routers are "rogue" routers, blackhole routing is the most common way to stop DDoS attacks and excessive worm traffic from giant botnets of Windows machines. If the OS now offers botnet operators an easy way to bypass that rerouting of malware traffic, this could have serious detrimental affects upon the internet as a whole.

    1. Re:Blackhole Avoidance? by the+unbeliever · · Score: 3, Informative

      black hole routers are not null routes.

      black hole routers just drop packets that are "too big"; null routes are self explanatory, and are how most ISP's stop DOS attacks.

    2. Re:Blackhole Avoidance? by Slashcrap · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Regardless of what you want to call it, if Windows is starting to try some sort of verification and automated avoidance of such routes it could interfere with said defenses, possible resulting in routing loops, DDoSing a router somewhere, or use of more advanced defensive techniques.

      You seem slightly confused about how the Internet works, so I'm guessing you work in sales. How exactly is your average Windows machine going to avoid these routes? Or influence the paths that its packets take once they've gone past the first router in any meaningful way whatsoever? Theoretically you can do some tricks with the various lesser known ICMP message types to change the routes that your packets take, but you don't seriously think that shit still works in real life do you? Just try doing some source routing from an average ADSL connected host and see how far you get. I guess if the Windows box was acting as a router for an ISP and running BGP then it could be an issue, but we're getting into the realms of surreal comedy here. Just remember that as a general rule your ISP decides how to route your packets, not you.

      I'm pretty sure that the "black hole" stuff they're talking about is the old PMTU black hole issue. I'm equally sure that Windows 95 had a registry setting that turned on black hole detection, so I'd love to know what's actually new here.

    3. Re:Blackhole Avoidance? by cnettel · · Score: 2, Informative

      A guess (but nothing else) is that it would also relate to the behavior when you have two interfaces providing theoretical routes to the target address, with different metrics, but one of them turns out to be unreliable. In that case, the strategy chosen by the local machine can clearly influence the result. (If your WLAN is actually more reliable than your cat5 that the cat toyed with yesterday...)

    4. Re:Blackhole Avoidance? by 99BottlesOfBeerInMyF · · Score: 2, Insightful

      You seem slightly confused about how the Internet works, so I'm guessing you work in sales.

      Nope.

      How exactly is your average Windows machine going to avoid these routes?

      That's a good question. Seeing as no one seems to have any details on how this is supposed to work, that's the reason I brought the topic up.

      Theoretically you can do some tricks with the various lesser known ICMP message types to change the routes that your packets take, but you don't seriously think that shit still works in real life do you?

      Theoretically there are a lot of routing tricks you can use and there are even more if you don't mind violating standards. What I'm more concerned with is if they're using some routing tricks that cause problems now, but on a wide scale by Windows, then in systems where, for example, you're passing some traffic with a GRE tunnel that re-onramps it to a downstream router and blackholing other traffic you could end up causing a lot of stress on the system.

      The point is, if MS has enabled some wacky routing features by default it may well cause problems for people using blackhole routing as a tool to overcome the problems created by the glut of MS's easily compromised systems.

  21. Re:Vista Sound by QBasicer · · Score: 3, Informative

    It works by giving in addition to the main volume slider in the mixer/taskbar, providing a slider for each individual program using sound, like this picture. The way, you can have Gaim/Pidgin sounds quite low, while you listen to relaxing music, but are waiting urgently for that important e-mail notification. I've played games where the sound is quite low to begin with, but then I get a message on my IM client, which seems fit to play a deafingly loud sound. IMHO, it's the only thing that Vista got right. I'm not sure how it works, but sound in Linux seems to be flaky at best.

    --
    x86, oh yes, I'm pro.
  22. Re:Vista Sound by nuzak · · Score: 4, Insightful

    > knowing nothing about Windows Vista that sounds like an extremely stupid feature.

    Sounds like you've distilled the standard slashdot response to any Vista article.

    Of course as soon as Linux copies the feature, then it's a great idea.

    --
    Done with slashdot, done with nerds, getting a life.
  23. Re:Windows Product Activation? by nmb3000 · · Score: 4, Informative

    nLite can help that problem and adds a lot of 'hacks' for the install as well.

    nLite can also completely frak up an XP install. One specific instance that we encountered when someone in our office used nLite was the inability for anyone who was not an administrator to use USB devices. None. The only way Windows would recognize and install the drivers for things like mice, keyboards, and flash drives was if you were an administrator. I've seen others, but this was one of the most problematic.

    I very strongly recommend that nobody use it in a business setting or anywhere else you care about stability. If you want to customize an aspect of the Windows install process, do your homework and learn about it. Don't trust a black box to do it all for you.

    --
    "What do you despise? By this are you truly known." --Princess Irulan, Manual of Muad'Dib
    /)
  24. Re:Windows Product Activation? by schnikies79 · · Score: 3, Informative

    If you just want to slipsteam, don't mess with nlite as it can really screw up an install if you don't know what you are doing, instead try autostreamer.

    --
    Gone!
  25. Re:Vista Sound by Lennie · · Score: 4, Informative

    The pulseaudio sound daemon does this.

    screenshot

    It allows for setting the volume per audio source.

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  26. Mirror. by antdude · · Score: 4, Informative

    NeoSmart server seems to be down. Here's a mirror.

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  27. Re:adding gasoline to the fire by owlstead · · Score: 3, Informative

    Don't be an idiot. The libraries that do this have been within Windows for ages. Besides, you can easily use XOR encryption if you just want to hide something. Not really secure, but you'll have to do crypto-analysis to get to the code anyway. Hell, you could use ROT-13. Are you going to look for assembly XOR or ADD routines? You'll probably find a few. Calls to this specific Windows API will be much easier to find.

    I've been trying to find out what cryptographic features have been added to the FIPS security module in SP3. I'll be very surprised if there finally is some Elliptic Curve support or anything like that. It seems that .NET has some support for them, but Windows unfortunately still seems to lack support, even though the market is starting to show clear interest in EC crypto.

    Anyway, the only thing I can find using Google is some page of Microsoft that's 7 years old. For the same FIPS module - for W2K of course. Does anyone have a link to more recent information? Currently there is little to discuss (unless you mention the missing PKCS#11 support by this arrogant monopolist).

  28. Re:Windows Product Activation? by DigiShaman · · Score: 5, Informative

    I've never used nLite, but I have slipstreamed manually before. It's not hard at all! You can find a nice walk-through on performing your own slipstreaming and ISO building (bootable) here. The instructions are practically spoon-fed. =)

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  29. Re:adding gasoline to the fire by suv4x4 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    so now those viruses that morph and encrypt themselves to prevent detection ... we can't search for the little bit of code at the start that decrypts them because they'll just use a nice convenient windows API.

    The cryptographic API-s in Windows, just like the cryptographic API-s in OSX and Linux, are used for hashing and crypoting data using industry standard algorithms.

    This is what IE uses for SSL sessions, for example.

    Let me ask you something: why do you have to speak about things you have no clue about and make a fool of yourself in front of us? Yes, actually by spreading moronic FUD, you make people listen less to legitimate worries about the Windows OS.

  30. Re:Windows Product Activation? by mrsmiggs · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Technical problems are not the half of it, it is actually against the license to use nlite for commercial purposes. Which smacks of please don't sue us, so doesn't really inspire confidence if anyone were considering using the software in any situation.

  31. How much Vista badness will we get? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I don't care a flying fsck about Aero and other Vista crap, I'm a Unix user who is forced by a bunch of applications to keep at home one Windows machine working. I don't play games, music or movies on this machine and of course never use it to surf the web or reading emails: there's zero personal data in its disk, therefore any spyware from Microsoft backported from Vista will be no harm to my data.
    What I'm concerned about is the driver and software compatibility, stability and memory/resource consumption, and, more importantly, if these updates are forced to the user or can be refused/installed selectively.

    Anybody tested this SP and can comment on the subject?

    Yes, tried to get TFA, but it's /.'d.

  32. Re:But... by TheRaven64 · · Score: 2, Informative

    Not the best example. Try this instead.

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  33. What "massive rewrite"? by Joce640k · · Score: 4, Interesting

    DirectX is just a COM interface to the video driver.

    The main differences between DX9 and DX10 are new shaders and getting rid of all the legacy capability bits, neither of which has any dependency on the operating system or driver model.

    I bet that if Microsoft gave the go-ahead to ATI/NVIDIA/INTEL there'd be DX10 support for XP in the very next release. The only reason they aren't doing it is because Microsoft is artificially blocking them.

    They did the exact same thing with OpenGL when Vista was in Beta. Microsoft went around making a lot of noise saying "It can't be done!!" but the driver writers were saying it was easy. Eventually they gave in and Bingo! We have OpenGL on Vista.

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    1. Re:What "massive rewrite"? by n+dot+l · · Score: 2, Interesting

      DirectX is just a COM interface to the video driver. I wish (really, I do - I trust NV's engineers way more than MS's). Fact is the DX runtime does a fair bit of work before the driver gets to do its bit - DX calls aren't all implemented as jmp equivalent_driver_entry_point. True, the stuff the runtime does is mostly trivial but that hasn't stoped MS from tangling the implementation into the horrible mess they've made with Vista. This is all because, right from the start, DX10's runtime assumes the new driver model is available - so it is all, essentially, designed and built on top of a platform that includes (optional) virtualization of GPU resources (for god's sake, they should have just let the IHVs do this like before), automatic graphics system restarts if the hardware ever times out (yawn), some special hookups for Aero (yawn some more), and DRM (hate).

      I bet that if Microsoft gave the go-ahead to ATI/NVIDIA/INTEL there'd be DX10 support for XP in the very next release. The only reason they aren't doing it is because Microsoft is artificially blocking them. Believe me, I share your confidence in NVIDIA and ATI's engineers. I'm sure they could back-port their DX10 stuff to XP...but MS would still have to lead the way by backporting, testing, and then maintaining and supporting their part of the DX10 implementation - which they simply won't do, for obvious reasons.

      They did the exact same thing with OpenGL when Vista was in Beta. Microsoft went around making a lot of noise saying "It can't be done!!" but the driver writers were saying it was easy. Eventually they gave in and Bingo! We have OpenGL on Vista. That really isn't what I've heard from the IHVs. MS stalled on GL support because they actually had to do something on their side to properly support it (keep in mind that Opengl32.dll, which houses all the entry points up to GL 1.something, is written and maintained by MS and that the IHVs have to plug their drivers into that, and then expose everything else as extensions on top of it). I spent some time talking to one of ATI's devs at GDC06 about the framebuffer_object extension and, since this was still news at the time, the conversation drifted to OpenGL support in Vista. According to him it went more along these lines:

      1. Microsoft hands out the driver development kit and says, "This should be everything you need to implement OpenGL support."
      2. IHV's look at it and say "um, no, you forgot to add this bit"
      3. Microsoft says, "Huh, you're right. Tell you what, we don't have time for this (Vista's already behind, you know!) so is it OK if we support GL but just disable Aero while it's running?"
      4. Someone leaks the answer and the GL community is instantly outraged that their stuff won't work with the shiny new Aero experience (that half of them had been hating on for months already).
      5. Someone, again, makes the claim that MS is out to kill OpenGL (yeah, like they'd actually break Windows support for some of the all-time most popular games).
      6. Microsoft finally changes its schedule and puts in the feature.
      7. GL community declares victory, and then continues to gripe about how long it's taking to get Vista out.


      I agree 100% that the biggest roadblock to DX10 on XP is artificial, but it's not just the evil marketing guys trying to sell Vista. There's also the evil "discontinue XP" guys that don't want to dedicate resources to the old platform. As a game developer, I hate them for it, but it is good business sense - or would have been if Vista were actually the miracle it was supposed to be and people were actually adopting it at a decent rate.

      Oh well. So much for squeezing out that extra 2 FPS (wheee!) by writing a DX backend. Continuing to be an OpenGL shop...at least until we do an XBOX title.
    2. Re:What "massive rewrite"? by suv4x4 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      What "massive rewrite" [..] The main differences between DX9 and DX10 are new shaders and getting rid of all the legacy capability bits, neither of which has any dependency on the operating system or driver model.

      Oh you missed the part about the rewritten API and Object Model?
      Or about the new kernel mode / userspace mode separation of the GUI (DX10 does, in fact, depend on new kernel features)?
      Did you also miss the fact DX10 GPU's can natively multithread?
      Or that they can use virtual memory?

      Now, whether you can get it on XP or not: port enough of the Vista bits back and you can get everything in XP, you can in fact just slap XP label on Vista and call it a day.

      Whether Microsoft should do that is another issue. It's perfectly legitimate of them to put major efforts on their new OS. I'll be happy if they, however, are quicker next time with the stability/security fixes on their legacy OS. I've been waiting for XP SP3 forever.

  34. MOD PARENT UP!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    MOD PARENT UP!!!

    Slow-down code. Makes XP feel as sluggish as Vista

  35. Witch! Burn her! by Oriumpor · · Score: 3, Informative

    Don't throw something out because you don't understand it. nLite can be a very powerful tool in business to do the things you need to get done with a very nice pricetag. I've seen nlite do wonders for thousands of systems to streamline automated deployments.

    What nLite did to windows in that instance the user TOLD nLite to do to windows.

  36. Re:SATA Drive Support on Install by dbIII · · Score: 2, Interesting

    They would obviously want a driver for that chipset since that is really what an OS is about anyway. Some motherboards can pretend to be generic IDE anyway. I have seen win98 installed on a system with only SATA drives (the systems have very expensive A/D converter cards not supported by Win2k/XP).

  37. Re:Windows Product Activation? by ultramkancool · · Score: 3, Funny

    Nah, on most cracked CDs you don't even have to enter it cause they're slipstreamed... you also don't have to do any activation cracks because they're enterprise... oops :)

  38. Re: Windows Product Activation? by Allador · · Score: 2, Informative

    I've never used Windows XP very much, but I wouldn't imagine that it would normally allow a user without administrative privileges to load arbitrary code (like drivers) into the kernel, right? Or are normal users allowed to do that if the code is signed or something? Non-admin users canot load drivers, start drivers, etc. However, the plug-n-play behavior that is what people see when they plug in most devices to USB ports doesnt run as the logged in user. It's a system service that handles the hardware plug n play. So when it sees a new device installed, if it recognizes it and has the drivers built into the system (ie, already loaded and trusted), it will load the drivers and mount the device, and make it available to all user sessions.

    If it doesnt recognize it and/or doesnt have the drivers, then it does indeed require admin privs to install new drivers.

    I never really did understand why Windows doesn't come with all its own drivers installed by default, though. It does. It comes with many tens of thousands of device drivers. One problem you run into though is with craptacular (yes, thats the technical term) consumer peripherals. They must farm out their driver software writing to 10-year old farm laborers in china or something. Most of these drver packs are good for one and only one model, so not reusable, and they're really poorly done.

    So often, even if you have Model N1950 of this new digital camera, and windows ships with all drivers up to N1940 of the camera, its probable that you'll have to download drivers. Sometimes you can guess or know which drivers are compatible, but this is often plug n' pray (ie, might work, might not).

    Why do you have to install e.g. the USB mass storage driver that comes with Windows the first time you insert a memory stick? You dont. The only Windows OS that doesnt support the vast majority of usb memory sticks (as mass storage) out of the box is win98 and previous.

    Some specialized memory sticks, with security features, come with extra software, that can 'auto-run' when you install it, but thats just a security nightmare, and wont work for a non-admin anyway.
  39. Re:Windows Product Activation? by Neoprofin · · Score: 2, Informative

    You can also use it to do al sorts of problematic things like turn off wireless support for laptops just to name one. I have to wonder if what happened there was the fault of nLite or the fault of someone tweaking knobs they shouldn't have. Any tool is dangerous in the hands of someone who doesn't know enough to know they don't know enough.

  40. Halo 2? by charlieo88 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    But will XP SP3 be able to play Halo 2, a game that a pentium III Xbox can run, but apparently too complicated for anything less than Vista?

  41. So, Vista is testing, and ... by RandySC · · Score: 2, Funny

    XP is old reliable stable? Then they backport from testing to stable?

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  42. Re:Windows Product Activation? by fluffy99 · · Score: 2

    Actually I use nLite quite a bit and find it useful in a business environment just because I can enable things like this. In a locked down environment, do you really want non-admins to be able to plug in new devices?

  43. %$^^&, i hope not by someone1234 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I need only DX10, but that is definitely not in the package. So M$, screw your SP.

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