Do I update to Service Pack 3?
By coffeebreak
@coffeebreak (17798)
United States
February 3, 2012 5:13pm CST
I have windXP. PC is about 6years old, still going strong. I have Service Pack 1. I see now that there is upgrades to Service Pack 3. I remember while back I upgraded to SP2 and things went so oddly wrong, (partly cause I don't understand all that goes on!) that I just deleted it and went back to SP1. Now I see SP3 is available.
I am still on SP1...should I upgrade to SP3? and Why? What will it do for me? I am not having any problems with anything but at the same time I want to stay current on things so everything continues to work well...
Any advise?
4 responses
@owlwings (43914)
• Cambridge, England
3 Feb 12
Yes, you should. SP3 is the final security update for WinXP. I seem to remember that SP2 did give some trouble to some people but I believe that these were solved with the release of SP3.
After SP3 I don't think you'll be troubled with any more updates.
1 person likes this
@coffeebreak (17798)
• United States
4 Feb 12
Thanks owlwings...I will give it a try. I always do a restore point before I do things like this so if it does give me problems, I can always go back to that restore point and kind of "pick up" where I left off. I wonder..could this be the solution to my pattern download problem you have been helping me with? I guess I really don't know what SP does! Just that it is part of my software that came with the PC!
@owlwings (43914)
• Cambridge, England
4 Feb 12
SP stands for Service Pack. Service Packs include all sorts of bug fixes, updates and security 'patches' for the operating system. Very often they are just a compilation of all the updates which have gone before but they are usually a very necessary upgrade to Windows and some software even insists that the latest Service Pack be installed. Each Service Pack incorporates all the updates of the previous one, so, if you are still on SP1 you don't have to install SP2 (or 2a and 2b) before you can go to SP3.
It's a long time ago now (in relative terms, of course) but I do seem to recall that SP2 for XP caused some problems and some people were advised to roll back. SP3 seems likely to be the last Service Pack to be issued for WinXP and makes it the 'final version'. Since April 2009, Microsoft have only been offering the monthly Security Updates as support and this will finally end in April 2014.
It's generally highly advisable to keep Windows as up-to-date as possible. Not only is it likely to work better with any software you are using but you can be certain that the security of your system will be the best it can be.
There is a distinct possibility that SP3 will solve your problem with those downloads (because the error message was a Windows error message and was clearly caused by something other than a REAL shortage of disk space) but, unfortunately, I can't say for sure that it will!
I believe that Service Pack installations do create a restore point automatically unless the changes are so major that they cannot be rolled back but it does no harm at all to create your own restore point manually.
1 person likes this
@coffeebreak (17798)
• United States
7 Feb 12
Well I updated to SP3...no change and the coupons don't print either!
@alberello (4752)
• Italy
4 Feb 12
Dear friend, first I would like to know what operating system you're talking about: Windows XP, Vista or 7?
Clarifying this then I were you by any means always install the latest versions, as well as any upgrades available.
This wilt also say that to me was told that Microsoft does not always make things perfect!
1 person likes this
@coffeebreak (17798)
• United States
4 Feb 12
WinXP. I did try to update from SP1 to SP2 and had such massive problems, I deleted 2 and went back to 1 and it all calmed down. But now...I am wondering if the bugs are out and it might work and help me in other situations.
@mpsingh08 (102)
• India
5 Feb 12
SP3 has a few more security updates for your computer, there is really not a big difference in it but that. if you guys like customizing your computer a lot I do not recommend that you install SP3 because it limits the customization of your computer, also I realized that my computer ran very slow after installing SP3, so i do not recommend installing SP3....
@ravisivan (14079)
• India
4 Feb 12
coffeebreak: I had coffee just now. Happy to know PC is 6 years old and is in good condition.
What is service pack 1. I do not remember to have seen this in my laptop? Regarding anti virus I have AVG anti virus free edition and I update every day automatically.[i][/i]![](/Content/images/emotes/thumbup.gif)
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1 person likes this
@coffeebreak (17798)
• United States
4 Feb 12
All I know is it came with my PC and with I believe Microsoft system. I don't know what it does! owlwings (above) will tell me that. He is a great source of information and I value his talent very much!
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