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Windows XP SP3 Released To Manufacturing
mike_diack was one of many readers to send word that Windows XP SP3 been released to manufacturing. It will be available to OEMs and enterprise customers on April 29. Here is a summary of features and changes. The company will wait till "early summer" to enable SP3 downloads through Automatic Updates.
I will slipstream it and add the driver pack to my disks.
http://driverpacks.net/DriverPacks/
don't care post about Windows.
if sp3 is really at RTM status that is a waste, the end of retail XP is nigh, and vista is pretty much the only thing on the shelves right now with OEM builds, we are all boned...
Wasn't this release a while ago with an April date for downloading via windows update? Now it's end of summer? I've been using it for quite some time now. Seems to be working fine. My wife primarily uses that computer and never complains of any problems. It is also the computer with the shared external drive for all of my media and backups. No networking problems either.
Remember when XP SP3 was impossible which was why everyone had to change to Vista?
Engineering is the art of compromise.
OMG, I can't wait, only 8 more days until I can patch my system with SP3! So exciting... patches... wooo!!!
Isn't it kinda late to be releasing to manufactures? How much more will they be able to use it?
While I love the fact that my OS is being helped along and that they are keeping it up to date, I am still a little annoyed that the "follow up" OS is really still about as useful as a bucket full of random sized bolts.
Though I love gaming, each month seems to bring me closer and closer to blowing away all three of my windows boxes and replacing them with a distro of Ubuntu or something similar. My lack of knowledge is the one thing keeping that at bay for now.
When will Microsoft simply get the fact that a flashy desktop DOES NOT COMPENSATE FOR A SHITTY OS.
Moved to http://soylentnews.org/. You are invited to join us too!
I have to build machines occasionally and I haven't slipstreamed all the hotfixes into my WinXP cd - so just to be able to install it without having to download 70 patches and reboot forever... PRICELESS!
"The story so far: In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and has been wide
So if you paid full retail thinking you could drag XP with you when you upgrade your system...
You're stuck. Kaching. Thanks for playing.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
Windows XP SP3 rev. 5503
mmm...muffins
Is the fact that this was posted on April 1st a bad thing?
It will be available to OEMs and enterprise customers on April 29. ... The company will wait till "early summer" to enable SP3 downloads through Automatic Updates.
So the bad guys, who can automatically generate exploits from updates in minutes will have MONTHS to generate and deploy their malware.
Good job, Microsoft!
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
This reminds me of another turd....
A few years ago, while browsing around the library downtown, I had to take a piss. As I entered the john, a big beautiful all-American football hero type, about twenty five, came out of one of the booths. I stood at the urinal looking at him out of the corner of my eye as he washed his hands. He didn't once look at me. He was "straight" and married -- and in any case I was sure I wouldn't have a chance with him.
As soon as he left, I darted into the booth he'd vacated, hoping there might be a lingering smell of shit and even a seat still warm from his sturdy young ass. I found not only the smell but the shit itself. He'd forgotten to flush. And what a treasure he had left behind. Three or four beautiful specimens floated in the bowl. It apparently had been a fairly dry, constipated shit, for all were fat, stiff, and ruggedly textured. The real prize was a great feast of turd -- a nine inch gastrointestinal triumph as thick as a man's wrist. I knelt before the bowl, inhaling the rich brown fragrance and wondered if I should obey the impulse building up inside me. I'd always been a heavy rimmer and had lapped up more than one little clump of shit, but that had been just an inevitable part of eating ass and not an end in itself.
Of course I'd had jerkoff fantasies of devouring great loads of it (what rimmer hasn't?), but I had never done it. Now, here I was, confronted with the most beautiful five-pound turd I'd ever feasted my eyes on, a sausage fit to star in any fantasy and one I knew to have been hatched from the asshole of the world's handsomest young stud.
Why not? I plucked it from the bowl, holding it with both hands to keep it from breaking.
I lifted it to my nose. It smelled like rich, ripe limburger (horrid, but thrilling), yet had the consistency of cheddar. What is cheese anyway but milk turning to shit without the benefit of a digestive tract? I gave it a lick and found that it tasted better then it smelled. I've found since then that shit nearly almost does. I hesitated no longer. I shoved the fucking thing as far into my mouth as I could get it and sucked on it like a big brown cock, beating my meat like a madman. I wanted to completely engulf it and bit off a large chunk, flooding my mouth with the intense, bittersweet flavor. To my delight I found that while the water in the bowl had chilled the outside of the turd, it was still warm inside. As I chewed I discovered that it was filled with hard little bits of something I soon identified as peanuts. He hadn't chewed them carefully and they'd passed through his body virtually unchanged. I ate it greedily, sending lump after peanutty lump sliding scratchily down my throat. My only regret was the donor of this feast wasn't there to wash it down with his piss. I soon reached a terrific climax. I caught my cum in the cupped palm of my hand and drank it down. Believe me, there is no more delightful combination of flavors than the hot sweetness of cum with the rich bitterness of shit. Afterwards I was sorry that I hadn't made it last longer. But then I realized that I still had a lot of fun in store for me. There was still a clutch of virile turds left in the bowl. I tenderly fished them out, rolled them into my hankercheif, and stashed them in my briefcase.
In the week to come I found all kinds of ways to eat the shit without bolting it right down. Once eaten it's gone forever unless you want to filch it third hand out of your own asshole -- not an unreasonable recourse in moments of desperation or simple boredom.
I stored the turds in the refrigerator when I was not using them but within a week they were all gone.
The last one I held in my mouth without chewing, letting it slowly dissolve. I had liquid shit trickling down my throat for nearly four hours. I must have had six orgasms in the process. I often think of that lovely young guy dropping solid gold out of his sweet, pink asshole every day, never knowing what joy it could, and at least once did,bring to a grateful shiteater.
Will it need WGA to install?
Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
Overview of Windows XP Service Pack 3.pdf - 428 KB Download
Overview of Windows XP Service Pack 3.xps - 634 KB Download
AT&ROFLMAO
Still no directX 10.
But at least I got some patches!
Enjoy it while you can people! http://fakesteveballmer.blogspot.com/
The Secret Diary of Steve Ballmer
... does "early summer" mean we have to wait until next March?
Don't get too excited. Remember the Microsoft motto: "Our customers are our beta testers." Remember that Microsoft is the Chief of Grief -- Let someone else have the pain. Wait until the bugs are found; SP3 version 3 may be the one you want.
... the 100+ updates that Microsoft has shipped since SP2 can
be a nightmare to deploy.
Windows XP was first released in 2001. Windows XP created severe problems for us until SP2 was released in 2004.
So, Windows XP gave us 3 years of misery and 3 years of relative usefulness, but with extreme vulnerability to malware. And now Microsoft has declared the death of Windows XP in June 2008.
Is it any wonder why people don't want Windows Vista?
An indication of the hassle people had with downloading 3 years of updates is this quote from Paul Thurrott, who is over-the-top pro-Microsoft, and who often apologizes for Microsoft's abusiveness in a way that tries to make abusive behavior sound less destructive:
My opinion is that Microsoft is very badly managed. Windows XP gave us 50% big hassles and 50% mild hassles. Do you want to partner with a company that has so frequently abused you in the past?
Early Summer!
So somewhere around December then?
First post!
College-Pages.com - Online Colleges, Degrees, and Programs
I'm aware there are third party ways to update fresh builds of XP in a more straightforward fashion (or integrate the updates in to the install disc), but where is mighty Microsoft on this? Where is the value here?
come on piratebay, it should already be out there!
The whole OS is supposedly going to be withdrawn from the channel at the end of June. That's not a lot of time for customers to experience Clippy's Girlfriend Alexa, or whatever doodads they put in there.
Unless, of course, the end of life in June story from Redmond is as bogus as the house lights coming on at the supposed end of a Wayne Newton concert.
So for those of us who opted out of installing WGA will we be able to make use of SP3 without installing unnecessary trojans from MS?
I am becoming gerund, destroyer of verbs.
can be found here at http://www.news.com/8301-10789_3-9924689-57.html?tag=nefd.lede
Orbis terrarum est non altus satis
a standard practice, and Microsoft does this for the convenience of its customers and partners. Users no
longer need to install three to four years worth of updates when installing Windows XP, and partners have a
new, updated baseline on which to test their applications and hardware. Microsoft Kernel Mode Cryptographic Module (Fips.sys) is a FIPS 140-1
Level 1â"compliant, general purpose, software-based, cryptographic
module in the kernel mode level of the Windows operating system. In other words, not much new. There's a few new things (this crypto driver, a black-hole router blocker, network management stuff), but it's mostly a big ol' rollup so it's not a pain in the tush to install everything.
I have developed a truly marvelous proof of this comment, which this signature is too narrow to contain.
Will there be retail boxes of WinXP with SP3 on store shelves some time?
Attention zealots and haters: 00100 00100
Will it make it out before the proposed "EOL" for XP in June?
I'm sorry, I'm to tired to be witty at the moment so this message will have to do.
"This update also includes a small number of new functionalities, which do not significantly change customersâ(TM) experience with the operating system"
Isn't that a bit pejorative for a so long awaited update?
Am I the only one that noticed this?
ISO or BIN/CUE? :)
plz seed thx
No, this commment would classify you as a bit of a n00b. You still using Ubuntu? You can get broadcom cards to work using firmware from linuxwireless + the b43 kernel module. I personally prefer to just compile the Zen Kernel from git (not to be confused with Xen). It's bleeding edge and fast. http://waninkoko.info/?q=node/14 Otherwise, just build the kernel module and get the firmware. I'm graduated from Kubuntu to Arch, and now am switching from Arch to Gentoo so I can have even more control and more speed.
Yeah, I know. How the fuck do you think I'm on the net right now? Still, it takes a bit of homework and pre-planning to get it to work properly, which is a bit above and beyond for the average XP user thinking about Linux. Good luck with Gentoo, btw. I used it for about six months a few years back and "never again" is all I gotta say.
Jesus is coming -- look busy!
What about the 10% speed improvement that was advertised a few months ago?
http://vista.blorge.com/2008/04/19/benchmarks-fail-to-explain-why-vista-falters-and-server-2008-succeeds/
Just wanted to say thanks; driverpacks.net has saved me so much time and hassle slipstreaming and integrating images for work. Between driverpack.net, RyanVM, WPI, nlite and msfn.org forums, I've saved countless hours. I would have spent all that time either collecting files, writing scripts, etc. or just going through a Dell 'clean' install (which, even at my fastest, takes about 3 hours to slim down and then install the company apps, and configure/add to domain). Your driver packs saved my bacon a few months ago when the Dell cd drive died and I had to use one off the shelf. I've also pulled raw infs from them on occasion when I've needed a driver that I didn't want to hunt down. Thank you!
If I mod you up, it doesn't necessarily mean I agree with what you've said, sorry.
excellent. any other plans tonight?
I was about to observe that having just finished summer a month and a half ago, I wouldn't be having another till mid next year, and wonder why Microsoft would take so long to release it, and why the heat would have anything to do with it. Then I realised I don't run Windows anyway, so it's a moot point.
Look out!
What's a phone booth?
Windows 3.1x calc: 3.11 - 3.10 = 0.00
Microsoft has a crappy product with a super marketing and sales staff.
You described a good half day for a reinstall and what a waste of time. Barring serious hardware problems, either the install before was crappy or the product is crappy.
if you steal from one source, that is plagiarism, if you steal from many, well, that's just research.
I dunno about you fella's but I've already booked my time off work, perhaps I can check out SP3 some time in May.
http://www.rockstargames.com/IV/
XP SP2 is ancient, and doesn't have tons of drivers for things as basic as SATA (for your harddrive), or new network interface cards. This makes win XP installation on newer machines a nightmare.
Are they going to be selling win XP SP3 cd's with SP3 and drivers?
As a side note, reading the download page and spec was pretty funny. They must have mentioned "XP SP3 doesn't contain new features" (it actually does contain new features if you read further) like 5 or 6 times. Someone is pretty scared that XP is going to kill Vista.
At work I've got 10mbit fiber, so the last time I had to download them all wasn't that bad (I didn't have my image updated, and I only need to do one box, so I just went from the Dell cd w/ base SP2), but I think it took about 5 reboots. Is that still accurate? I think this was about 6 months ago, maybe more.
I've now made it my personal policy to install bootvis right after the install finishes, because the only thing less fun than watching a bar cross the screen (if you don't watch, you'll come back in an hour to find a modal dialog with an 'OK' option for installing IE 7 or something, and it hasn't done anything until you acknowledge it - I was furious!) is watching a box reboot, install a handful of patches and then reboot again.
If I mod you up, it doesn't necessarily mean I agree with what you've said, sorry.
... does "early summer" mean we have to wait until next March? No. You won't be getting it that early.If I mod you up, it doesn't necessarily mean I agree with what you've said, sorry.
"Black Hole" Router Detection
Network Access Protection (NAP)
Descriptive Security Options User Interface
Enhanced security for Administrator and Service policy entries
Microsoft Kernel Mode Cryptographic Module
Windows Product Activation
Sig is for Signature, so you don't have to manually sign every post.
Damn... I opened that document and started to be cross-eyed. It's nothing knew that Microsoft's Designs are bloated kindergarden stuff. But the creator of this document deserves to be blinded with a needle after reading these pages -- remembering this ugly shit till the end of time.
Who thinks Microsoft is introducing out of the kindness of their good hearts, a new feature which I'm sure everyone wanted in XP SP3? It's called "Network Access Protection". Which Microsoft claims it basically enforces compliance with system health requirements. What that means is in that NAP can deny network access, until you install Microsoft's own proprietary draconian stipulations source code which the public isn't allowed to review. Who wants Windows to tell Microsoft what networks your trying to gain access, unless for national security interests by the NSA, CIA or FBI? As if already having all communications spied upon, wasn't enough? This is just another attempt of Microsoft's strategy to extend, embrace, and then extinguish all other competition. All Microsoft needs is just some excuse to show how their networks are better protected using NAP than those who don't use NAP.Then, everyone ends up installing their dependent monthly security patches. Haven't you noticed that it's become easy for Microsoft like others to run hash checksum values of your files and then take appropriate action, to report back or by claiming the file was a threat. Anyone finding the so called glitch would just hear, that the software which had accidentally corrupted your data/files or had accidentally deleted the offending data/files, was indeed just a bug. Denial from Microsoft will be the first response here, etc... The point I'm trying to make known, is to remind everyone NOT to become dependent upon Microsoft. Especially, when Microsoft has been convicted, with it's long history of antitrust violations, for monopolistic business practices. Microsoft has frequently sought to establish proprietary monopolies--and then leverage its dominance into new, adjacent markets. There is no win-win situation here other than for Microsoft's own short sighted economic benefits. Let me remind everyone, Microsoft's strategy has been focused upon entering product categories involving widely used standards, extending those standards with proprietary capabilities, and then using those differences to disadvantage its competitors. Another marketing strategy of Microsoft is a sale of Fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD) tactic! In addition, Microsoft creates the environment in which networks of social fanboyism employees and followers utterly devoted with obsessions work actively behind the scenes to orchestrate "independent" praises of their technology. While at the same time are bashing any perceive threats, competition or anything that prevents their dominance. If all the above doesn't work, Microsoft has a habit of killing off competitors by either buying them or their technologies. And let's NOT forget how Bill Gates obtained a cloned design of Gary Kildall's CP/M, QDOS, from Tim Paterson of Seattle Computer products and MSDOS/IBMDOS was born. Did you realize 486's are still usable machines if you're running something other than Microsoft's latest software? And who wants their XP operating system to be turned into Vista DRMed machine by installing Vista like code which could lead to your computer being disabled? What are the benefits of applying XP SP3? No real new features, only a whole lot of patches... Is this anything to get excited about?
I vividly recall numerous slashdot readers making the point that SP3 will never be released because it would discourage upgrading to Vista and give extra life to the aging XP OS. Just another (in this case) unjustified instance of slashdot anti-MS FUD.
Where are the naysayers now? Just....all gone quiet?
you know you're preaching to the choir.
Point is many of us don't have a choice if we want to collect a paycheck. These driver packs make the daily grind that much less unpleasant.
-nB
whois gawk date unzip strip find touch finger mount join nice man top fsck grep eject more yes exit umount sleep dump
Ha, ha, ha, ha... We must be optimists! This remember me the Kill Rate's Strip
Actually, their marketing is pretty shitty - otherwise you (and most anyone with a pulse) wouldn't notice that they have a crap product.
That'll teach me for browsing at -1...
GTA4 is going to smash it!
Getting Broadcom support is not as easy as the one-click that some people imply.
First you have to know that you need ndiswrapper
You have to know how to get the wrapper
You have to know which of the many versions matches your wireless card
You have to install it (which for me required several sessions with a terminal window)
You have to figure out how to get your wireless security set up
You have to figure out why you can ping the router but firefox cannot find the server
Why the hell was this guy modded Troll? Seemed like the perfect reply to M$'s latest piece of crap to me!
You will not be able to take out the secretly NSA-mandated backdoor that will be discovered in three months until you find exactly where it is.
Ergo, SP3.
Man, if you waited just two months more, X would have compiled and then it is not that bad... :-)
(For me it was about a year of Gentoo. I moved to Ubuntu at the end, but with Gentoo I learned a lot...)
Does anyone know if the remaining available copies of windows xp you can buy, will come with the sp3 cd with it, to avoid downloading from the net or need to download and be vulnerable to malware seeing as 2 minutes into patches, you have viruses...
: (
Of course for me, with the latest ubuntu. I had to do none of these things. My wireless works with the supplied drivers (I think I had to do one apt-get install)
If Vista didn't suck, you'd have no reason to complain...
That's a pretty big "if" right there. If Vista didn't suck, I'm sure some of the anti-MS zealots would still complain, but there would be a lot more of us (myself included) that would be willing to move off of XP.
As it is, the choices are:
a) XP: Doesn't run things like DX10, newer hardware, and support is being curtailed
b) Vista: Make powerful machines run like crud, and base-level machines cause you to reminisce fondly of your old 386. Extra, useless cruft. Familiar menus relocated for no apparent reason.
c) Alternate OS (Linux, etc) Learning curve (for some). Doesn't run all software that the above may run. Doesn't run all hardware. Less (but growing) industry support/recognition
None of these are exactly a perfect choice... I would have been happy with a Vista/Linux dual-boot if not for the suckitude of Vista.
Dude...
dd if=/dev/sda of=hd-backup.img
So long as all my hard drives are the same size and I've got all the drivers I'll ever need already installed! :-) And, one should use ddrescue to skip over bad blocks! ;)
If I mod you up, it doesn't necessarily mean I agree with what you've said, sorry.
Am I the only one that can't find any info on what exactly this service pack does?
From TFA:
"Windows® XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) includes all previously released updates for the operating system. This update also includes a small number of new functionalities, which do not significantly change customersâ(TM) experience with the operating system. This white paper summarizes what is new in Windows XP SP3."
And that would be what exactly?...
Ext2 IFS for Windows.
http://www.fs-driver.org/
Since you'll be using Ext3, make sure you shut down from Ubuntu before booting into Windows if you want to be able to access your files on the Linux partition from there. There's a conf file tweak you can do so that you won't need to shut down (just do a restart), but someone else will have to help you out with that, I'm not that good with Linux yet.
Any takers?
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
I think we'll need a little more proof of SP3 being "just fine" than it working well on YOUR particular PC.
I recently had a customer of mine ask me to replace a dead hard drive in her HP Pavilion P4 notebook computer. After I did that, I did a fresh Windows XP Pro re-install, followed immediately by the latest beta of SP3. (I figured, hey, it might be beta - but it HAS to be better than trying to download 80+ patches after applying SP2. I just want to get her a reasonably secure, working system without spending all day working on the thing!) Well, turned out that was a bad decision. After updating it to SP3, I wasn't able to get the audio or software modem drivers to work at all. I wound up having to reformat and go back to XP with SP2 before the sound would install properly.
Oh, those menus in Vista were moved for a perfectly good reason. It's called *training*. Do you realize how big an industry the whole MCSE certification thing is? And additionally, how many people have employment as certified Microsoft trainers?
I'm completely convinced MS juggles around things in each major new OS and application release on purpose, to ensure you have to spend thousands on re-certification to keep up with the current systems.
It's the silly installers. Not really a SP3 issue other than the OS version presented to the installer. Shrug.
"Consistency is contrary to nature, contrary to life. The only completely consistent people are the dead." A. Huxley
You don't have to use ndiswrapper, dude. You can just use b43. It's easy. I have a broadcom running natively in linux. See here: http://linuxwireless.sipsolutions.net/en/users/Drivers/b43 Ubuntu's (big, slow) default kernel uses bcm43xx by default, a deprecated driver, unless you're using Hardy. I didn't mean to flame there, I'm sorry. I'm just a little...well, passionate.
Convicted yes, but at what cost? The Justice Department is busily converting over damned-near everything to Microsoft platforms. Near as I can tell, judging from the outcome, that if you're Microsoft it pays in spades to get convicted.
The TARDIS just happens to be stuck in the shape of a police box, but it is much much more. Then again... It would not be so much of an amazing feat if said Vista-Elephant jumped into the TARDIS. That thing is huge inside. It might only have a problem with the door.
I've been using Linux in a server environment for over 10 years as well as desktop on and off during that time, and have a decent amount of knowledge in how to get things to work with it. I really enjoy Linux. I really do. But it's comments like ilikenwf's that REALLY make me hate the community at times. Unless you can explain to somebody's grandmother what to do and get them to successfully do it without your help at a later time, never call somebody a n00b because they can't do it. Just don't. Ever. That comment needs to be more rated -1000 flamebait.
And yes I know I'm replying to flamebait, but my comment is also aimed at OTHERS who have made similar comments. People REALLY need to stop assuming everybody knows the intricacies of a computer and how compiling works and that if you're not using Linux you're an idiot. It does nothing but make the community look bad.
Pancakes. Oh I blew it.
I wouldn't take your suggestion seriously, but having flipped through MCSE materials and seeing how much of it is based on rote memorization, I'm inclined to agree.
You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
I may have geeked out in a moment of passion. Sorry. But broadcom works by default in ubuntu nowadays, and even better drivers are coming out.
Windows XP won't sold after June 31, 2008, 68 days from now (2008-04-22).
This is how it works in practice: Once Microsoft has started a product on its death march, it is difficult for a corporation to continue to be involved with it.
better to use something like partimage or ghost which will create images of used space only and can restore to a partition of different size to the original.
note: i'm known as plugwash most places but i screwd up registering that here somehow in the past and now can't register
System builder packs will remain availible until january of next year, volume license agreements come with very generous downgrade rights and iirc vista buisness OEM comes with downgrade rights to XP pro.
note: i'm known as plugwash most places but i screwd up registering that here somehow in the past and now can't register
"... very generous ..."
I've never heard anything Microsoft did called "very generous" before.
HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of people are protesting that Microsoft is killing the operating system they use, for the sole motive of making more profit. That's not generous, it's abusive.
The InfoWorld protest is only a tiny percentage of the people who will be enormously inconvenienced if they are forced eventually to change to another operating system.
Rather than "very generous", in my opinion the words "viciously destructive" apply.
Microsoft has scheduled the death of Windows XP at the same time that it has demonstrated an inability to deliver a new version. Even Steve Ballmer admits that Microsoft has been unable to deliver a finished operating system. He calls it "a work in progress".
Apparently good programmers don't want to work for Microsoft. If they are very skilled and creative, they want to work for Google.
Bill Gates leaves Microsoft soon. Steve Ballmer is trying to buy Yahoo, a company with 16,000 employees, many of whom don't want to work for him. Yahoo doesn't have skilled programmers, or they wouldn't be having financial problems during a time when Google is doing very well. Now does not seem a good time to consider buying anything new from Microsoft.
Actually, their marketing is pretty shitty - otherwise you (and most anyone with a pulse) wouldn't notice that they have a crap product.
They don't mind that you notice that after forking over the cashInteresting that this is modded flamebait when it describes an actual sequence of events that I went through trying to get Broadcom support for my laptop.
I know slashdotters are fond of Linux and think it can do no wrong. But there are real problems for non-technical users.
I have been using computers for decades and it took me an entire evening to get wireless to work. There are going to be many less technical users that will simply give up and stay with Windows.
Yes, newer laptops have fewer problems and it is possible to shop around for a system that will work without going into configuration scripts.
That does not mean however that everything just works. The next laptop I buy will probably be an Apple. From what I have heard from friends that have them, they really do just work.
Take a look at ctupdate.
Google c't Projekte - Offline-Update
Download ALL security fixes once, run from USB disk or burn CDs or DVDs, patch everywhere (automatically I feeld the need to add).
Still hundred of patches but at least you run the client, flag "autoreboot", "keep log", "install IE7" if you want to, and return some time later.
In some instances you'll get a message "please reboot manually now then rerun" (usually max 1 or 2 times), otherwise fully automatic.
THEN (if you want to) run Microsoft update for not-security fixes you'd like.
Oh, remember to install other MS stuff like Office and Mediaplayer you could want before patching, so you'll have to do that only once.
"A lot of people are exaggerating the situation."
..."
"... while at the same time screwing those
It's abusive. Microsoft has announced its intention to try to force its customers to pay more money, when most are happy with what they have. Whether or not Microsoft is successful is not the point. It's adversarial.
Remember, this is also an attempt to eventually force customers away from Windows XP in the future, only to get more money for Microsoft. It affects people who have thousands of copies and don't want or need new licenses.
EXTREMELY abusive.
was on a Lenovo X61, which would not run XP outside of emulation mode until I got new SATA drivers.
I guess there are *some* SATA drivers on XP by default, but they were definitely useless to me.