The September 11th edition of the Windows Secrets newsletter included a couple stories about Windows XP SP3, trying to answer the questions of when and whether to install it. Back in April, when Service Pack 3 was released, I advised against rushing into it. But, it's been almost five months, is it safe to go into the SP3 water?
According to Scott Dunn, who wrote the lead article, you don't need to install Service Pack 3 for another year and a half. He says "... overall support for SP2 expires in early 2010, [so] you'll need to have SP3 installed by that date if you want general support for XP."
I view the SP3 issue as a risk vs. reward decision and the reward still seems small compared to the risk. But there can be a Defensive Computing advantage to not installing SP3 that has nothing to do with avoiding potential problems.
The risk of SP3 causing a problem, while persistent, decreases daily as more software, people and hardware get acquainted with it. You can get a sense of the risk involved by reviewing the Microsoft Knowledge Base article Steps to take before you install Windows XP Service Pack 3. As for reward, in one of the articles Scott Dunn tries to make a case for the upside of SP3. I wasn't impressed.
A New Reason To Wait
But, this assumes you're dealing with a normally functioning copy of Windows XP. Installing SP3 can be a great ace in the hole to have when dealing with a problematic or infected copy of Windows XP. I learned this hard way working on a couple computers for clients. In each case the near total refresh of Windows that SP3 provides proved invaluable.
One computer had been sent to the hardware manufacturer for repair and when it was returned, it was forgotten about, since it was old and just serving as a backup. But, when it became important again, it needed 99 bug fixes. Downloading the patches went fine, but only seconds after the installation process started, it ended with a useless error message and no error code.
Suspecting that the install logic for 99 concurrent patches might not have been well-tested, I tried installing just one patch and it worked fine. Then I removed a few that I suspected might be problematic but the remaining 90 failed to install. A random clump of 5 patches installed cleanly, but I wasn't going to sit around installing a couple patches at a time.
Service Pack 3 to the rescue. It downloaded and installed just fine.
Another computer was blue-screening at startup, just after the Windows desktop was displayed. By the time I got it, things had improved, only a background process was crashing, Windows itself remained up. But, as soon as I clicked OK to the warning about a serious failure, it failed again. The Microsoft online crash debugger reported that the offending driver was for the WiFi network adapter. But, updating the driver didn't fix the problem. In fact, the new driver had a new name but the crashes kept occurring in the old driver according to Microsoft.
There were dozens of available Minidumps, but I didn't feel like tracking down and installing the software to read and format the dumps. Much of the information in the dump is over my head anyway.
Here again, Service Pack 3 came to my rescue. Since it was installed, no more crashes.
SP3 is like doing a repair install of Windows, only better. It's a nice fallback option to have when things go wrong.
What To Do?
There is no one right answer for when to install Service Pack 3. Me, I'm hanging back for now. But one thing every techie can agree on, is the need for a disk image backup before installing any service pack.
If you haven't installed SP3 yet, then be aware that Microsoft offers free technical support for installing it until April 14, 2009. Depending on where you live, you may be able to speak to someone from Microsoft on the phone, use an online chat or communicate with them by email.
And take a look at the Windows Secrets newsletter. I find it worthwhile.
Updated September 12, 2008: Re-wrote introductory paragraphs to make things clearer.
See a summary of all my Defensive Computing postings.
The Internet is littered with stories about the soon to be released third service pack for Windows XP. Here's an uncommon wrinkle. Don't install it when it's officially released on the 29th. Not yet, it's too soon.
I say this at the risk of not being a team player. Fellow CNET blogger, Robert Vamosi, recently wrote "Starting April 29, all Windows XP SP2 users should upgrade to SP3..." If this is my last posting, you'll know why.
A fundamental tenant of Defensive Computing is not to install newly released software. With Windows XP SP3, the reason to wait is software incompatibilities. Even though SP3 has underdone much testing, it's a big world and there are bound to be problems with some software. By waiting, you let everyone else find and fix the problems before you face them.
If you are using software that's impacted adversely by SP3, you don't want to be among the first people to call the software vendor for help. It's far better to call a couple months later when the problem and the solution are well known and grooved in.
Deciding when to install new software involves balancing the risk vs. the reward. While the risk with SP3 should be small, so too is the reward. In fact, the reward is pert near zero for anyone who is up to date on Windows bug fixes. Granted, this is one person's opinion, and reasonable people may disagree, but from what I've read, the new features added to XP by the third service pack are a big yawn.
The suggestion to wait on installing SP3 is not based on specific problems, issues or incompatibilities. That said, it's not hard to find them.
Just today, ComputerWorld noted that Mac users need new versions of Apple's Boot Camp and VMware's Fusion to be compatible with XP SP3. On The Personal Computer Show this week, the host, Joe King, told of problems using a Trend Micro anti-malware suite of software with SP3. If you go to TrendMicro.com and search for Windows XP SP3, there's nothing there about compatibility issues with the new service pack. It's too soon.
How long to wait? I'd give SP3 at least a couple months, maybe three or four.
How to Install a Service Pack
When the time comes to install SP3, the right approach is to first make a disk image backup of the partition containing Windows. Anything else is risky. No doubt SP3 was designed to be un-installed should the need arise, but putting your full faith in this would be a mistake.
Also, the installation process is going to exercise the heck out of the file system, so I suggest first running a thorough Check Disk. If you have any other hard disk diagnostic utilities, it would be good to insure the hard disk is healthy before installing the service pack. And a defrag can't hurt. At the very least, make a restore point.
Update. April 30, 2008: I told you so. On April 29th, Ina Fried wrote that Windows XP SP3 has been delayed to a newly discovered software incompatibility. See XP update delayed over glitch. As XP SP3 gets distributed to more and more people, we can expect still more software incompatibilities to surface.
Update. May 9, 2008: From ComputerWorld: XP SP3 cripples some PCs with endless reboots. One of the problems described in this article is a mistake by HP - running software meant for Intel processors on computers running AMD processors. Normally, this is not a problem, but for some reason it causes a problem after installing XP SP3.
Update. May 9, 2008: FYI: From the Microsoft Knowledge Base How to remove Windows XP Service Pack 3 from your computer.
Update. May 22, 2008: FYI: XP SP3 triggers false positives in security apps by Scott Dunn.
Update. July 23, 2008: After taking my own advice for three months, I installed SP3 on a guinea pig machine and it broke Windows Update. The next day, on a different computer, the same thing happened. See Post-SP3 patch breaks Windows Update.
Note: Paul Thurrott wrote an excellent Windows XP Service Pack 3 FAQ
See a summary of all my Defensive Computing postings.
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