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Author Topic: Thank You M$  (Read 4110 times)

jazz

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Thank You M$
« on: May 10, 2008, 06:50:25 PM »

It's not often that Microsoft get praised so I thought I ought to record my "Thank You" to them when it seems due.

I have had great trouble this week trying to download Wnidows Service Pack SP3 - it just would not start downloading and kept giving an error code that third party software must be interfering.  I have never had a problem like this before. I messed for ages switching off AV and Firewall etc and went through all the Microsoft "self help" solutions on their web site, all to no avail.

By Friday afternoon I was sick of it and filled in a customer service form to ask for help (free service when related to Windows updates).  I got a full reply during the night ready for me when I switched on this morning.  The person concerned had clearly read all my details and referred to them in what was otherwise obviously a fairly standard reply to a routine (to them) problem.  The email gave me a link to an alternative download site to allow me to download to my desktop and then install in safe mode (details of how to do this were very full and clear).  A follow on action list was included for what to do if this didn't work.  It did work though and the job was completed in about an hour.

I knew the theory of what I might need to do but didn't have the experience (or the nerve!) to just launch into it.  I found the Microsft email very thorough, very reassuring and very easy to follow.  I hope I never need to use such a service again but I am very impressed with the speed and effectiveness of their response  ;D
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UncleUB

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Re: Thank You M$
« Reply #1 on: May 10, 2008, 06:57:32 PM »

Just goes to show,there are even good guys in Microsoft. ;).Glad you got it sorted. :)
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dave.m

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Re: Thank You M$
« Reply #2 on: May 10, 2008, 08:10:21 PM »

Jazz,
I have to agree with you that M$ have done a decent job (from my experience) with SP3.

I will not download ANYTHING that only 'Runs' and installs on line, and cannot be saved and run at my leisure.
As the M$ update site for SP3 only performed a download and Run operation, I looked elsewhere for it.
This third party site had the SP3 download and so I got it and saved to Desktop.

http://www.softwarepatch.com/windows/windows-xp-service-pack-3.html

I know it is a big download because M$ cannot scan your computer and only download the relevant bits, so you get the lot. Which is good if you want to load on more than one computer because you have the full SP3.

I set both my machines to download at almost the same time and the XP Pro was showing estimated time as 10 minutes. The XP Home showed 1 hour 22 minutes so I stopped the download.
When I had it on the desktop of the Pro machine I burned it to CD which took another 8 minutes.
I then clicked to install on the Pro machine and that took another 12/15 minutes.
Ran it for a day and a half with what I thought was no after effects so I used the disk and installed onto the second PC.
Everything went fine again.

Just discovered one small flaw. . .  the thumbnails in My Pictures had all lost their names, the ballon showed the names when I scrolled over them but no name box under the thumbnail.
If that has happened to anyone else, here is the quick cure.
Open My Documents and then hold down the Shift Key and double click on the My Pictures Folder.

dave
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setecio

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Re: Thank You M$
« Reply #3 on: May 10, 2008, 09:12:07 PM »

That seems a good site dave. As a paranoid windows user, how do you know some malware wont appear as one of their downloads?

Is that site well known and trustworthy ?
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jazz

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Re: Thank You M$
« Reply #4 on: May 11, 2008, 10:49:42 AM »

The link that I was given by Microsoft for the download was  http://download.microsoft.com/download/d/3/0/d30e32d8-418a-469d-b600-f32ce3edf42d/WindowsXP-KB936929-SP3-x86-ENU.exe

- quite a mouthful, but one of their own sites.  The moment I got there it started automatically downloading (316Mb) but it downloaded in less than 20 minutes (although my connection is not a particularly fast one) 
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scottiesmum

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Re: Thank You M$
« Reply #5 on: May 11, 2008, 11:26:44 AM »

From the SP3 white paper:

"Windows XP Service Pack 3
(SP3) includes all previously
released Windows XP updates,
including security updates and
hotfixes. It also includes select
out-of-band releases, and a small
number of new enhancements,
which do not significantly change
customers’ experience with the
operating system."


In view of the above do I necessarily need to download SP3 ?  .... I have kept up the MS Updates on a regular basis .... my understanding of the above is that this is a collection of all past updates  .....  advice would be appreciated  ...merci !
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jazz

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Re: Thank You M$
« Reply #6 on: May 11, 2008, 11:32:58 AM »

I had also downloaded all previous updates - and SP3 is principally a consolidation of all that has gone before but also contains a few more bits though Microsoft say these will not noticeably affect functionality (whatever that means). Hence, although the full SP3 pack is a big download, only parts of it are actually needed by any machine - the pack sorts out itself which bits to load.  I assume that you will need to have installed SP3 in order to be in a proper position to download future updates - for instance, those who have SP1 but not SP2 have received no upgrades or support for quite sometime.  i presume the same will apply to SP2 users eventually.
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dave.m

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Re: Thank You M$
« Reply #7 on: May 11, 2008, 01:18:20 PM »

Just a point regarding SP3 containing all the previous updates, if you look at a Belarc Advisor report or the Add/Remove section, with the Show Updates ticked, in the Control Panel before installing SP3, you will find a list as long as your arm of all the KB updates and Hotfixes.
After the installation of SP3 the list is almost non-existant. A few remain for additional specific software but not a lot.
So it replaces most of the hotfixes and updates into one folder. It looks tidier.

As for Setecio's comment about the download site, at least with the download saved to desktop, you can scan it with whatever AV and Antispyware software you have before you open it to install. At the first sign of a genuine warning check that it is not a false positive and then ditch the download if you are not sure. Mine was clean.

As I said previously the only thing I found was the thumbnail names missing in My Pictures but that was easy to rectify.
Nothing else has manifested itself since.
dave
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mr_chris

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Re: Thank You M$
« Reply #8 on: May 11, 2008, 05:14:46 PM »

Just to add, these are the Microsoft links for the SP3 "offline" downloads:

The first one is called the "Network Installation Package" - which is a bit misleading, as it can easily be installed on a single user PC. It just includes the facility to deploy it over a corporate network if you want to.

The second one is an .iso image of the SP3 CD-ROM, which you can burn to a disc and install from there.


I downloaded the ISO, but haven't installed it yet. I was impressed by the download speed though - screenshot attached! ;D

[attachment deleted by admin]
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Chris
 

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