By Michael Santo
Contributing Writer, RealTechNews
With all the attention focused on Vista, not many eyes are on XP (with the exception of security vulnerabilities, of course). Aside from keeping up with Patch Tuesday and AutoPatcher (covered in David’s article here) I’m not really paying attention to specific dates for anything XP-related. I had been thinking, based on the last dates I had seen, that Service Pack 3 was due out at about the same time as Vista, either slightly before or slightly after depending on the source. And there was a page at Microsoft that said summer 2006 (last time I looked). I was therefore really surprised to see the story at Bink.nu that said it had been pushed back to 2007 … and the second half, too.
We Say: If you go to the Windows Service Pack Road Map there it is, in all its glory: 2H 2007. And that date is preliminary, too. I’d rather they get it right than get it out quick, though. This will make Autopatcher all the more valuable a tool.
Yeah, that’s exactly why I think Autopatcher is so essential. There may be well over a hundred patches to Windows between SP2 and SP3 and getting them all through Windows Update every time you install your OS is a HUGE pain in the you-know-what. One thing I really don’t understand is why Autopatcher can install EVERY update before needing to reboot your computer, while MS’s own patching system requires multiple reboots to complete the process. If you ask me, there should already be a SP3 since there have been so many patches post-SP2. Oh well. I guess that’s life when you’re dealing with a monopoly
Your Autopatcher link doesn’t work?
I fixed it. It should be fine now
Sorry, Hal, it’s that human error thing. I would have fixed it but David beat me to it.
good