Just installed windows xp home on my sons machine with service pack 2 now windows is prompting to install service pack 3, But is it worth installing as I have heard loads of stories of how pc`s run very slow after service pack 3 has been installed. Just wondered if its worth having and would you leave it out. I dont know what the difference over service pack 3 is from number 2.

Just dont want to install it then have to mess around restoring or having a slow PC. Cheers.

Just installed windows xp home on my sons machine with service pack 2 now windows is prompting to install service pack 3, But is it worth installing as I have heard loads of stories of how pc`s run very slow after service pack 3 has been installed. Just wondered if its worth having and would you leave it out. I dont know what the difference over service pack 3 is from number 2.

Just dont want to install it then have to mess around restoring or having a slow PC. Cheers.

I'd install it - it has many fixes and stuff included. But then I like to always have the latest.

It has been around for quite a while now and is pretty well proven.

Yes install. You must have the latest security measures.

WIndows 7 is much better than XP and certainly Vista so if a half decent computer update to 7.

If it's a recent install do it, I've seen it cause issues on say a three year old install when there loads of other software installed.

HTH

Will give it a go and see how it goes. It just put me off with quite a few people saying that service pack 3 dragged their system down. I have an upgrade disc for windows 7 but this ran quite slow on his system its only a pentium 4 3 ghz chip with 1gb ddr800 ram and 128 ati vgs card. I think the ram would need to be more to get windows 7 to run a bit more smoother.

Yes install. You must have the latest security measures.

WIndows 7 is much better than XP and certainly Vista so if a half decent computer update to 7.

I'd agree - my homebrew runs so much better on 7 than on XP Pro - it's about on a par speed wise with 2000 ,but loads a lot faster . If your PC can run XP - I'd recommend you go for 7 .You don't need so much security -so it runs faster ( Windows defender hits the nasties) , and most security sites find that 7 with minimal additions defeats most attacks - so it gains on speed .My personal observations ,only .

I agree - 7 is much faster on my work laptop than XP was.

Work are in the process of installing SP3 on our machines so it must be several years out of date already.

I'm looking forward to the next couple of weeks when I get upgraded to IE7 too. We really are ont he cutting edge

Edited 2 November, 201015 yr by 'daiking'

Work are in the process of installing SP3 on our machines so it must be several years out of date already.

I'm looking forward to the next couple of weeks when I get upgraded to IE7 too. We really are ont he cutting edge

Ask about IE 8 ( OR EVEN ,WOW 9) .

But ,remembering the speed that IT dept's move at - ( passed by snail on homeward journey)- that's par for course . :rofl:

Ask about IE 8 ( OR EVEN ,WOW 9) .

But ,remembering the speed that IT dept's move at - ( passed by snail on homeward journey)- that's par for course . :rofl:

We are still on IE6, I have sneaked on a copy of Chrome to aid my browsing experience at work!

Yup get it on there.

'Puter will run much slower if it gets p0wnd through something you didn't patch.

If your son is still in education he (you) may be able to buy student versions of Win7 etc much cheaper than normal.

Ask about IE 8 ( OR EVEN ,WOW 9) .

But ,remembering the speed that IT dept's move at - ( passed by snail on homeward journey)- that's par for course . :rofl:

Did I say IE9- FROM MY INSTALL ,forget it .I;ve taken it off faster than it went on .

Edited 3 November, 201015 yr by VWD

If you cannot go Win7 (quite possible, there are a ton of older programs out there that just won't work, but there may be newer stuff about you can use instead etc.), then at the very least you should be on XPSP3 with whatever other patches are out. Not doing that means you'll be vulnerable even more.

I have a similar situation, running Windows 2003 Server on a laptop. Very much cr*ppy situation, and I cannot wait to get the RAM doubled from 4-8GB plus I'll be running W7 64-bit at long last. The speed of the machine will be WAY better, plus even though I'll still have to jump through some hoops to get W2008R2 hosted as a virtual image, it will do it.

More security built-in from the ground up. Less drivers available perhaps, but as I do not have that much hardware to connect to it anyway, should be just fine

We have just deployed SP3 and IE8 to around 200 workstations, and no problems to report here.

I installed service pack 3 and so far its been ok. It must of been because the last time i installed sp3 it was on an installation that was quite old. Will hold off for windows 7 until I can bang some more ram in as the machine in question only has 1 GB ddr 800.

Chrome runs quite smooth on it also, The mrs laptop is still on service pack 2 so may opt to do that next.